And it was DIY photo art. Which is perfectly fitting for a craft room!
Showing posts with label craft room. Show all posts
Showing posts with label craft room. Show all posts
Thursday, September 27, 2012
Craft Supply Photo Art
I've finally got some artwork up on the walls in my home office/craft room!
And it was DIY photo art. Which is perfectly fitting for a craft room!
And it was DIY photo art. Which is perfectly fitting for a craft room!
Friday, August 24, 2012
Craft Room Project: Under-Shelf Ribbon Spool Holder
Or alternate title: Hooray, I have something to share that doesn't have to do with our bathroom renovation! :)
We're in a bit of a holding pattern this week with the bathroom, because Lowes was out of stock of the best brand of thinset, so we're waiting until it's restocked, because ordering it online and having it shipped from somewhere else would have been crazy expensive. Makes me glad we have two other full bathrooms, so we can take as long as we need with this renovation. Also makes me glad that I actually got to work on something else, another little way to organize my craft room/home office space!
We're in a bit of a holding pattern this week with the bathroom, because Lowes was out of stock of the best brand of thinset, so we're waiting until it's restocked, because ordering it online and having it shipped from somewhere else would have been crazy expensive. Makes me glad we have two other full bathrooms, so we can take as long as we need with this renovation. Also makes me glad that I actually got to work on something else, another little way to organize my craft room/home office space!
Friday, August 3, 2012
Home Office/Craft Room Organizing
Our bathroom renovation has been kind of all-consuming these past couple of weeks, but I did get one evening off from bathroom stuff, while we waited for the asbestos test results on our vinyl flooring to come back.
So I took full advantage of the break to work on something with a little quicker payoff, my first steps at getting my home office/craft space organized!
This is what it had been looking like since we moved in, cluttered, with opened boxes of craft supplies on the floor that I've been rummaging through, making things messier and messier.
Sewing machine hogging my cutting mat space, and yes, I was even using a table lamp to precariously hold my x-acto knife. All I'd really done with this space so far was to paint the walls and trim, set up my desks, and just kind of live out of moving boxes.
(Sorry for the darkness of the above two photos, they were taken during a brief mid-day power outage we had--gotta take advantage of down time from work any way I can with as busy as I've been lately!)
So I took full advantage of the break to work on something with a little quicker payoff, my first steps at getting my home office/craft space organized!
This is what it had been looking like since we moved in, cluttered, with opened boxes of craft supplies on the floor that I've been rummaging through, making things messier and messier.
Sewing machine hogging my cutting mat space, and yes, I was even using a table lamp to precariously hold my x-acto knife. All I'd really done with this space so far was to paint the walls and trim, set up my desks, and just kind of live out of moving boxes.
Monday, July 2, 2012
Framed Chalkboard Basket Labels
Happy Monday! Did everyone survive the heat this weekend? We tried to stay inside as much as possible, but I couldn't resist a couple of quick trips out to our backyard to spray paint Friday night.
As I'd mentioned last week, I'm finally starting on organizing my craft space in my office. And while I'm still waiting on the new shelves to be delivered later this week, I was able to do something about all of the baskets that I ordered from Target (found here, not available in stores).
I knew to keep things really organized and easy to find, I needed some kind of label system for my storage baskets. I considered just doing labels I could print out on my printer, but those wouldn't stick very well to the canvas and woven baskets I'd purchased. And I also wanted something for my labels that would be easy to change. As I buy more crafting supplies over time, I wanted to have the flexibility to change up what's stored in each basket.
So my solution was chalkboards!
Little tiny framed chalkboards, made from dollar store frames.
As I'd mentioned last week, I'm finally starting on organizing my craft space in my office. And while I'm still waiting on the new shelves to be delivered later this week, I was able to do something about all of the baskets that I ordered from Target (found here, not available in stores).
I knew to keep things really organized and easy to find, I needed some kind of label system for my storage baskets. I considered just doing labels I could print out on my printer, but those wouldn't stick very well to the canvas and woven baskets I'd purchased. And I also wanted something for my labels that would be easy to change. As I buy more crafting supplies over time, I wanted to have the flexibility to change up what's stored in each basket.
So my solution was chalkboards!
Little tiny framed chalkboards, made from dollar store frames.
Friday, June 29, 2012
Room Planning: Home Office/Craft Space/Closet Bedroom
A while back I shared our plans for our guest bedroom, in fact, I had that room all figured out before we even got the keys to our house! And I'm finally going to be starting on that room soon, since we might be having guests sometime later this summer.
But today I want to talk about another room that I had all planned before we moved in, my home office/craft room/closet bedroom.
Yes, that is a whole lot of function to cram into one bedroom! But I'm making it work because a) I love having extra space for all of my clothes and shoes, and b) because at our last place it was a pain having to share my office space with our guest space--it was always a scramble to clean up my messes when my BIL decided to stay the night without warning. So it's nice now to have my office and crafting space in the same room as my clothes, so I can have one big messy room that is all mine. :)
And it's quite the mess right now, with fabric scraps on the floor from sewing patio chair cushions, and open boxes of crafting supplies all over, that I keep digging through, because I don't have very good storage at the moment. But that's about to change, because I'm getting organized and ready to start working on finally getting this room really set up.
First, let me show you my floor plan. This took a bit of work, to make sure I could fit everything in the room that I needed too. What I've done is basically split the room into two areas, the desk side of the room, for my home office space and crafting space, and a closet side of the room, for all of my way-too-many shoes and clothes.
But today I want to talk about another room that I had all planned before we moved in, my home office/craft room/closet bedroom.
Yes, that is a whole lot of function to cram into one bedroom! But I'm making it work because a) I love having extra space for all of my clothes and shoes, and b) because at our last place it was a pain having to share my office space with our guest space--it was always a scramble to clean up my messes when my BIL decided to stay the night without warning. So it's nice now to have my office and crafting space in the same room as my clothes, so I can have one big messy room that is all mine. :)
And it's quite the mess right now, with fabric scraps on the floor from sewing patio chair cushions, and open boxes of crafting supplies all over, that I keep digging through, because I don't have very good storage at the moment. But that's about to change, because I'm getting organized and ready to start working on finally getting this room really set up.
First, let me show you my floor plan. This took a bit of work, to make sure I could fit everything in the room that I needed too. What I've done is basically split the room into two areas, the desk side of the room, for my home office space and crafting space, and a closet side of the room, for all of my way-too-many shoes and clothes.
Monday, May 9, 2011
Home Office: The Progress
Well, now that you've seen my ghetto-rigged guest bed headboard, and I've appropriately downgraded your expectations of my decorating skills, let's have a look at the progress I've made the past two weeks in the home office/guest room.
If you remember, this was the before, right after we moved in:
And here is what the room is looking like today, from almost the same angle:
Ahhh, it's so bright and cheery now! I love how much natural light this room gets in the mornings, even though it's in our basement, and the lights I bought really keep it cozy after the sun is no longer streaming in through the windows.
But before I get all giddy about my progress, lets take a closer look at some of the details.
First, the bed, which you got to see a bit of in my last headboard-making post. The sage green sheets are ones we got for our wedding, the dust ruffle is from the set that matches our master bedroom comforter (to cover the fact that the box spring is currently on the floor) and the green comforter is my husband's from college. That we were still using on our bed until last summer when my aunt and uncle thankfully upgraded us to a nicer, not 10 years old comforter set.
I mentioned them before, but for now I'm just using two small bookshelves to act as bedside tables, and I put a lamp (that used to be on my desk when I worked in an office) on a file cabinet that matches the bookcases, so the lamp wouldn't be too high in comparison to the rest of the items on that wall. Everything seen here is stuff I already had around the house, and I just broke open one of our many, many boxes of books to fill in the bookshelves a bit.
Sooner or later I would love to hang a picture above the bed, but I'm concerned that anything I have is going to look too small on the 20 foot wall that the head of the bed is on. So that would mean buying a few more wall hangings, which I don't really want to spend money on right now. I guess we'll just see if it happens or not, meaning, how long can I go before the bare walls drive me batty!
Next, the crowning glory, where I spend between 8 and 10 hours each day, my desk. Or desks, since it's actually three desks that I've put together to make one looooong creative space that runs well over half the length of the room!
When planning out my office space, I really wanted something that would be modular. Considering we're only living here for a year, and I have no idea what my next home office may look like, flexibility was key. So now with a corner desk and two smaller straight desks, in the future I could create a large 'L' shaped desk, or even break them up onto different walls, or even different rooms if I wanted.
But for now, I'm loving the feeling of endless space along my wall with windows:
At the right end of my desk I've finally got a place for my sewing machine to be set up, along with my beloved cutting mat. I'm using green boxes from IKEA that are meant to hold DVDs to hold my thread, scissors, bobbins and other sewing supplies.
In the center desk area there is a set of deep drawers to keep my work stuff in, and I've got a big open space for...whatever I want. The extra space is glorious, I tell ya! Considering I spent the 15 months crafting my heart out for our wedding working mainly on just our coffee table, all of this work space is like heaven to me.
And while we're on the subject of the center desk area, I'll show you an up close shot of my pretty new lights, and how I turn all three of them on with the flip of a switch--a switch on a power strip, that is.
Turning on my overhead recessed lights and all three of these desk lamps was getting to be too much trouble. Not to mention that I had to crawl on my desk chair to even reach the floor lamp in the corner behind my desk. So my easy-peasy solution was to plug them all into a power strip with an on/off switch. Now I have easy access plugs available for my glue gun or whatever powered crafting tool I might be using, and I don't have to awkwardly crawl on a chair to turn on my lights.
Since we're talking lighting, here are some gratuitous shots of my lovely new lights. I love the combo of bright lighting they give off, and the pretty patterns they splash on the walls in the evenings.
So now, my actual work area. Where I actually get paid to sit five days a week.
And not only do I have a window to look out when I need a break, but I am absolutely loving my corner desk. I've never owned a corner desk before, and had no idea what I was missing. But it's the perfect size for easy access to my 15 inch work laptop, 23 inch external monitor and my 17 inch personal laptop. I hardly have to move at all to go between answering work emails to checking my personal email!
Another feature of my new desk set up that I'm enjoying is that my printer is right next to me. I used to have to walk half way across the building at work to pick up my print jobs, so this is a nice change. And the shelving unit that it is sitting on now holds all of my crafting supplies, like paper, ribbon, glue, and a million other things. +1 for finally being organized!
From the far corner (where the old straight backed chair that was my temporary desk chair is now living), you can see the other window in my room. I've put an old bookcase under it, because the cats love to sit up there and look out the window. And next to it is a plastic stacker that holds a ton more crafting supplies.
So that's about it! For the moment anyway. This room has certainly come a long way in just a couple weeks, but I still have some plans for it, like figuring out some kind of window covering that won't get in the way of my desk area. And then there's the whole "what to put on these ginormous walls" situation, which I'm still unsure of. Plus I've still got a few more sage green decorations to add to the desks.
Thankfully, I've got time to play around with these ideas!
For now, I'll leave you with another photo of my new desk, with the lamps off, so you can better see how all the rattan and green accents tie together.
If you remember, this was the before, right after we moved in:
And here is what the room is looking like today, from almost the same angle:
Ahhh, it's so bright and cheery now! I love how much natural light this room gets in the mornings, even though it's in our basement, and the lights I bought really keep it cozy after the sun is no longer streaming in through the windows.
But before I get all giddy about my progress, lets take a closer look at some of the details.
First, the bed, which you got to see a bit of in my last headboard-making post. The sage green sheets are ones we got for our wedding, the dust ruffle is from the set that matches our master bedroom comforter (to cover the fact that the box spring is currently on the floor) and the green comforter is my husband's from college. That we were still using on our bed until last summer when my aunt and uncle thankfully upgraded us to a nicer, not 10 years old comforter set.
I mentioned them before, but for now I'm just using two small bookshelves to act as bedside tables, and I put a lamp (that used to be on my desk when I worked in an office) on a file cabinet that matches the bookcases, so the lamp wouldn't be too high in comparison to the rest of the items on that wall. Everything seen here is stuff I already had around the house, and I just broke open one of our many, many boxes of books to fill in the bookshelves a bit.
Sooner or later I would love to hang a picture above the bed, but I'm concerned that anything I have is going to look too small on the 20 foot wall that the head of the bed is on. So that would mean buying a few more wall hangings, which I don't really want to spend money on right now. I guess we'll just see if it happens or not, meaning, how long can I go before the bare walls drive me batty!
Next, the crowning glory, where I spend between 8 and 10 hours each day, my desk. Or desks, since it's actually three desks that I've put together to make one looooong creative space that runs well over half the length of the room!
When planning out my office space, I really wanted something that would be modular. Considering we're only living here for a year, and I have no idea what my next home office may look like, flexibility was key. So now with a corner desk and two smaller straight desks, in the future I could create a large 'L' shaped desk, or even break them up onto different walls, or even different rooms if I wanted.
But for now, I'm loving the feeling of endless space along my wall with windows:
At the right end of my desk I've finally got a place for my sewing machine to be set up, along with my beloved cutting mat. I'm using green boxes from IKEA that are meant to hold DVDs to hold my thread, scissors, bobbins and other sewing supplies.
In the center desk area there is a set of deep drawers to keep my work stuff in, and I've got a big open space for...whatever I want. The extra space is glorious, I tell ya! Considering I spent the 15 months crafting my heart out for our wedding working mainly on just our coffee table, all of this work space is like heaven to me.
And while we're on the subject of the center desk area, I'll show you an up close shot of my pretty new lights, and how I turn all three of them on with the flip of a switch--a switch on a power strip, that is.
Turning on my overhead recessed lights and all three of these desk lamps was getting to be too much trouble. Not to mention that I had to crawl on my desk chair to even reach the floor lamp in the corner behind my desk. So my easy-peasy solution was to plug them all into a power strip with an on/off switch. Now I have easy access plugs available for my glue gun or whatever powered crafting tool I might be using, and I don't have to awkwardly crawl on a chair to turn on my lights.
Since we're talking lighting, here are some gratuitous shots of my lovely new lights. I love the combo of bright lighting they give off, and the pretty patterns they splash on the walls in the evenings.
So now, my actual work area. Where I actually get paid to sit five days a week.
And not only do I have a window to look out when I need a break, but I am absolutely loving my corner desk. I've never owned a corner desk before, and had no idea what I was missing. But it's the perfect size for easy access to my 15 inch work laptop, 23 inch external monitor and my 17 inch personal laptop. I hardly have to move at all to go between answering work emails to checking my personal email!
Another feature of my new desk set up that I'm enjoying is that my printer is right next to me. I used to have to walk half way across the building at work to pick up my print jobs, so this is a nice change. And the shelving unit that it is sitting on now holds all of my crafting supplies, like paper, ribbon, glue, and a million other things. +1 for finally being organized!
From the far corner (where the old straight backed chair that was my temporary desk chair is now living), you can see the other window in my room. I've put an old bookcase under it, because the cats love to sit up there and look out the window. And next to it is a plastic stacker that holds a ton more crafting supplies.
So that's about it! For the moment anyway. This room has certainly come a long way in just a couple weeks, but I still have some plans for it, like figuring out some kind of window covering that won't get in the way of my desk area. And then there's the whole "what to put on these ginormous walls" situation, which I'm still unsure of. Plus I've still got a few more sage green decorations to add to the desks.
Thankfully, I've got time to play around with these ideas!
For now, I'll leave you with another photo of my new desk, with the lamps off, so you can better see how all the rattan and green accents tie together.
I think I'll do a budget breakdown next, in case anyone is curious what all this new furniture and stuff cost me. I'm actually a little curious to find out myself!
So what do you think of my progress so far? And what are your must-have office supplies, because I feel like I'm missing something.
Thursday, January 27, 2011
Home Office/Craft Room Inspiration
Ah, my latest home decorating dream--to have my own home office/crafting room!
We don't have the room for it right now (unless I'm willing to give up my closet bedroom), but I can still wish for a space to organize my crafts, and somewhere to use my laptop other than on my coffee table. Currently all of my crafting supplies are living in cardboard boxes in our hall closet, and I have to dig through them whenever I want to make something, and again, I have no where but my coffee table to craft on. That's why a green cutting mat pretty much lived on our glass topped coffee table for the whole year before our wedding.
But dang, office desks are expensive! As in, too many hundreds of dollars at places like Pottery Barn for me to lust after for long.
We don't have the room for it right now (unless I'm willing to give up my closet bedroom), but I can still wish for a space to organize my crafts, and somewhere to use my laptop other than on my coffee table. Currently all of my crafting supplies are living in cardboard boxes in our hall closet, and I have to dig through them whenever I want to make something, and again, I have no where but my coffee table to craft on. That's why a green cutting mat pretty much lived on our glass topped coffee table for the whole year before our wedding.
But dang, office desks are expensive! As in, too many hundreds of dollars at places like Pottery Barn for me to lust after for long.
Even the lower end ones I liked from Target and Ikea were in the $300+ range. And that was just for small desks, I want room to actually work, and keep my sewing machine permanently set up.
But then this lovely lady sent me a different link to Ikea, and I realized that they also have build your own desk options, where you can buy desk tops and different leg/drawer/shelf configurations for much cheaper! So I was able to find something similar to the above desks, but a lot bigger, and for a much more reasonable price. And I know, I know, you're not supposed to like Ikea after a certain age/place in your life, but I don't care! I love their modern, clean lines and inexpensive prices, and having to assemble (or, who am I kidding, having my husband assemble) something is the least of my concerns.
So without further ado, here is an inspiration board for my perfect, reasonably priced home office/craft room in white, sage greens and browns:
So without further ado, here is an inspiration board for my perfect, reasonably priced home office/craft room in white, sage greens and browns:
{From left to right: Taupe/latte painted walls, $57.49 corner table, sage colored frame I already have, $128.50 6 1/2 foot desk with shelves, $9.95 rattan waste basket, $79.99 drawer unit, a splurge $399 desk chair, various desk organizers, a chair pillow I already own, a $39.99 desk lamp, green vase I own, $202.99 5' x 8' sage rug, $59.99 floor lamps, sage curtains (or maybe white, I can't decide), and an almost 5 foot tall $129 bookshelf/room divider, since I'd probably have to share my office/craft room with my closet bedroom}That's an entirely decorated room with a long desk that would be big enough for a sewing station, crafting station, and corner desk for my computer for $1106.90, plus the cost of paint, a couple desk organizers and curtains (which I could probably make for next to nothing)!
And I could have brought that cost down quite a bit if I had been able to find an alternate rattan chair on wheels, because the $399 one is a good portion of the total price. I did find this at Ikea for $99, but there's really no comparison. Besides, having a great chair is important!
And I could have brought that cost down quite a bit if I had been able to find an alternate rattan chair on wheels, because the $399 one is a good portion of the total price. I did find this at Ikea for $99, but there's really no comparison. Besides, having a great chair is important!
Alright, now we just need to move to a home with a bigger spare bedroom for me to use all of this inspiration in! And while we're at it, let's move to a 4 bedroom house, so my husband can have his own room too, instead of sharing the guest room like he is now! :)
Who else lusts after home decor, for rooms you don't even have yet?
Who else lusts after home decor, for rooms you don't even have yet?
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