Sharing my craft room

One of my favorite time wasters  things to do is to look at all the things on Pinterest. One of my favorite things to look for/at are craft rooms and all the fun, creative, unique storage and organizing options and designs.

Long before there even WAS a Pinterest, I was doing the same thing in all the scrappy magazines.  I even created a layout about it.  Anyone remember this ad?

  

I already had a mental list of a number of things that were mandatory as you can see from my list.  It's interesting how so many of those things actually stayed consistent over time.  

Here's the whole layout.

I even heard about a contest for a room makeover and decided to try to enter it. And being the crafty soul that I am, I figured that an album would be much better as an entry than a simple essay.  And I'm sure it would have been.  If I'd've finished it and sent it in.

I'm not much of a country fan but I gotta say there may just be something to Garth Brooks' assertion that "sometimes God's greatest gift is unanswered prayers".  If I'd've finished that album it would have been sent in to the contest and I wouldn't have it as one of my favorite mini albums today.  It documents all the things I wanted and then, how I accomplished them.  Much better than having some celeb designer with no real clue about crafting doing it.  Here's a link to the album - My Favorite Room.

 

For one time in my very impatient life, I managed to do prep work.  I still have the folder with my lists, pictures and hand drawn plans.  If you'd like a good giggle, click on the link and you can check 'em out.  Despite this proof that prep work pays off, I still don't do well getting it done.  And the proof that it pays off is that the vast majority of my room is still just like it was originally planned out.  There have been a few adjustments or changes but not a huge amount considering this was done in December 2007.

Here are a few of my favorite spots in my room with commentary.

This is a look into the room, circa 2007, from the French doors.  I was so delighted to be able to include a comfy chair for Mel to sit in.  Little did I know it actually ended up having Harley in it much more than any homo sapien's behind.  You can just see the ribbon turn table that I made and additional ribbon on the pegboard.  The desk is now straight, facing forward.  It was just easier to get around once I moved it.

This looks into the corner.  The top doors are magnet and are pretty well completely covered by now with all kinds of things that make me happy.  And my poor desk has never, no exaggeration, been this clean since.  One of the coolest updates has happened to the desk.  Mel added a drop leaf to the end. This has been a HUGE help when I've got a lot of stuff I want to play with and need more room. Best of all, I can put it down when I don't want it taking up the extra space. The link shows it in white but it's actually a similar color to the desk.  Super win!

Here's an updated view with the drop leaf extended.  You can also see the super cool round, spinning organizer I got from Harbor Freight.  I highly recommend it.  A little bit of a pain to put together but well worth the time and effort once you're done.  You can also see the framed photo of Harley in his chair looking down on me and Davis.

You can also see a few of the small changes that have happened.  I added dowel ribbon storage to the side of the unit near the chair and a super cute new polka dot rug.

My die cut center is soooooooo awesome!  Having a space to keep all my dies in one place with my machine, heaven!  After changing how I do things this past year I decided to change it slightly.  Here's the original, right across from my desk

And now once it was moved to the right side wall.  Much easier and quicker for me.  Plus an added bonus is it's literally right next to my scrap storage, which you can just see peeking out from underneath the printer.  This past year I also finally combined all of my dies together.  I used to keep my Spellbinders separate from all the other companies. But I finally figured out that if I'm searching for something specific, like a flower, that it's a whole lot easier to look in ONE spot than two.  The top shelf has all my shape dies in Crop N Style PSB binders.  Those things are rarer than hen's teeth!  So if you've got some you want to part with let me know!!!  The bottom shelf has my alphabet dies and embossing folders.  You can see that I left my ink pads on the wall but moved my stamps with the unit that moved.  This was for several reasons, the biggest one was that I tend to use my stamp pads more than my stamps so keeping them closer to hand will make grabbing them that much faster and easier.

This little spot has actually changed the most.  I've added a shelf and more baskets, as you can see to the left in the photo above.  One of my favorite things is the wine bottle pen holders.  So much storage taking up so little space and leaving so much space to put plenty under them.  My big perpetual calendar has been retired.  Or more aptly, hidden. Hopefully one day I'll be able to find a spot for it again.

If you'd like to see more pictures from my office, follow this link.  I've got folders breaking down specific things as far as my room and organization go.  

Do you have an album or layout with images from your craft room?  Or favorite pins for rooms or clever storage and organization solutions?  Please share then with me.  I'm always looking for new ways to waste time, rather new inspiration.  :)