Building a Craft Area!

A much needed space....

This summer I had a lots of goals of projects that I wanted to get completed—some got done, some got pushed off, and some got ignored; however, I am super excited to talk about one item that I knocked out.

I do not consider myself a talented crafter, and I am really not very artistic, but I am pretty good at following directions—as a result I have done quite a few craft and DIY projects in the past.  This has resulted in a TON of stuff, purchased primarily for projects that had no official place in our home, some of it was in the workshop, other items were in the office, our bedroom, the kitchen...... you see my point.  This resulted in never being able to find what I needed and occasionally buying more stuff (what a horrible cycle).  So one of my big summer tasks was to create a craft area, find all of the stuff and relocate it there, and finally end this cycle.

I have a corner of the basement family room dedicated to my project stuff (I am not going to show any embarrassing "before" photos because it was a mess), and I spent a lot of time online, looking around to see what I could find that would fit the space (LOVE Pinterest).  In the end I decided on a few key pieces that would allow for organized madness in my projects and what else can you ask for.

The first thing I looked for was a shelving unit to hang on the wall to help with the storage needs.  For this project I ended up heading back to Ana White's book, "The Handbuilt Home."  I finally returned the library book when Luke bought me my own copy for my birthday (on a side note I went back in and added notes on all of the projects I made).                                                                                                                  In the book she had plans for a "Wall Craft Organizer" (pg. 130) that almost completely met my needs – with just a few alternations it was PERFECT.

The center piece of project area: Grandma's sewing table.

Here it is with the paint still drying—My alternations were pretty slight.  Here, plan called for 2 more dowels (but since I wanted to hang ribbon instead of wrapping paper, I needed less) and one less shelf.  This was exactly what I needed to get it all organized.

Ribbons, quilts, felts, and lots of paints.

I probably am storing a lot more stuff that I need to (especially to make the picture prettier), but I wanted to show how truly functional the shelf is now.  I found stuff from all over the house to fill it up.

The next thing I needed to control was fabric—I don't sew/quilt a lot, but I tend to buy the fabric when it is on sale, so I have a bit right now.  I knew that I needed something that was pretty shallow because of the space so that left all shelves.  I found these three images on Pinterest, and they were my inspiration.

I thought hard and decided that I would create a similar ladder using 1x3s and wooden dowels.  I stapled the 1x2s together and used the drill press to make sure that my measurements were the same on both sides.  I also created a framer of sorts with 1x3s so it would stay together a bit easier.  The dowels are purposely a bit too long to allow me to hang things on the end if needed.  They are also not glued because I want to be able to remove them later. 

  Here is the final result:

I am really happy with it – it has the low profile I wanted and holds a lot of fabric.  I used 0.5" dowels and am glad I didn't go any smaller as I don't think they could hold as much fabric.

Now that the fabric was organized (that took away a lot of mess), I only had a few other things that I wanted to do.  The next was to make an easily removable cover for my grandma's sewing machine desk.  The work surface was just not large enough to be practical when I cut fabric.  So this part of the project was pretty easy: I just cut a piece of plywood large enough to cover the desk to meet my needs and framed it out with 1x2s.  I used the nail gun and glue to put together the frame—I also shot myself for the first time with it in the finger—not my best moment...

The last thing I did for the craft storage was build a shelf that perfectly fit under the craft table (you can see it in the above picture).  I was actually kind of proud of this shelf.  I built it completely myself, creating the plans and custom specs – I knew the exact size it needed to be.  I also only used wood that I had around the house.  I am really happy with the project, and it just makes me want to make more things – it is so much easier when it is all organized...

 

Here is my final result...

I know it is not perfect, but I am pretty pleased!