Hello, Friends! After moving into our new permanent home 9 months ago (we previously rented for 3 years after moving to this area, until we could get our old home sold and find the perfect new house) and getting fully settled into our house and my new craft room, I finally got things cleaned up and organized enough to show you my craft room! I find I usually need to live in and use a room for a while, to determine how I use it most and what works best -- how about you? It's been 3 years since my last 2014 craft room tour in the rental house, so come on in and let's get started!
My room is an upstairs bedroom with south-facing windows. I LOVE all the natural light I get in here all day and gazing out at the tree tops, filled with birds and squirrels! Fortunately, our lot and the one next to us out these windows (currently vacant) are heavily wooded, so no other houses have a view in.
I was able to use most of my furniture from our last home and rental house, but my previous dark brown desk was 10 years old and had seen better days! Plus, I wanted to go lighter and brighter and most everything white, so I chose two IKEA Linnmon desk tops (59" x 29-1/2") resting on IKEA Alex 5-drawer units, and attached to an old white dresser which started out 17 years ago in our oldest daughter's nursery, was previously used by daughter #2, but it didn't fit into either of their new bedrooms . . . Score for me!
Above, you can see the top row of drawers of the white dresser showing against the back wall. I took the second row of drawers out of the dresser and attached the desk tops to the bottoms of the top drawer dividers (a better photo is shown below). I use the left desk for my crafty creating and the right side has my computer setup (and messy pile of papers!).
On the crafty left side (shown below) I have two of the taller IKEA Alex 9-drawer units, which house my most-used crafting supplies within easy reach. The doorway on the left is the sink/dressing area of a Jack & Jill bath, which is handy for messy crafty clean-ups! My sewing machine is also stashed in there. :)
Here's a look inside the "Towers of Embellishments". I have the tops of the drawers labeled, so I can find things easily. The labels really don't show much when the drawers are closed.
They hold: Felt, Sequins, Inchie Art Squares, decorative tapes (washi), extra adhesives, tools.
The embellishment tower below holds embossing powders, glitter, clear & pearl embellishments, colored embellishments, metal embellishments, pearl-ex & glitter glue, blending tools & replacement foam, watercolors and colored pencils:
Below is the view from the right side desk back towards the entrance of the room. Behind my crafty desk is another furniture piece from my girls nursery, an armoire.
On top of the armoire are IKEA magazine holders which house all of my cardstock, separated by color families and each color contained in Job Ticket Holders (a great storage option discovered by Jennifer McGuire). Here's a closer look (ahhh ... pretty rainbow order!):
The job ticket holders are a nice, thick grade plastic. I have different manufacturers mixed in together and labeled:
Inside the armoire I installed shelves, which house my most-used stamps and dies in InterDesign Double Fridge Bins (another fabulous Jennifer McGuire storage system). You can find more specific details on my blog post HERE for stamps, and HERE for dies.
Here's a closer look:
Above, I have cling-mounted Taylored Expressions stamps (left) organized in one Double Fridge Bin, sorted by categories. The right bin holds TE dies. I store the stamps and dies in Avery Elle Stamp & Die Storage Pockets, either Large or Small. The category dividers I use are these white laminated Storage Panels, cut in half.
Some of my older tabbed dividers are no longer available, but I've started using these Tabbed Dividers and cutting them in half. Above, Ellen Hutson's Essentials by Ellen clear stamps and wafer thin dies come already packaged in these fantastic thick Storage Envelopes, either Medium or Large. <-- You can purchase these individually, if you want to re-package your existing stamps and dies! I have stamps and dies mixed together in the "Ellen Bin", since so many of the stamps have coordinating dies.
Below is a mixture of stamps and dies, organized by manufacturer:
The lower drawers of the armoire hold 6x6 patterned paper pads and more adhesives, Xyron machines, etc.
On the wall opposite the windows (to the right of the doorway when walking in) are my (very) old white stackable modular Store In Style 15-inch cubes by Crop In Style, which I don't believe are being made any longer (Internet searches don't find any in stock). They are similar to the Jetmax storage cubes carried by several different stores. They have held up very well over the past 12 years and through five moves! I love that they can be configured to fit any space.
My photography lights are set up on the end -- (I'm still not completely satisfied with this system and am looking for something that takes up less space). This is where my die cutting station is set up.
The cubes above hold less-frequently used supplies such as chipboard, envelopes, note cards and notepads, scrapbooks and supplies, some ribbon, Copic supplies, and background stamps and stencils. Here you can find more details about my background stamp and stencil storage -- here's a peek at those:
They are also stored in the Double Fridge Bins, divided by categories. Stencil tools and stencil pastes are stored with the stencils.
Below is my finished card storage system. They are also stored in Double Fridge Bins and divided into categories, ready to use:
The bottom row of cubes holds larger, heavy/bulky, or lots of the same kinds of items in easy-to-pull-out IKEA bins: chipboard sets & alterables, notecards / tags / mesh, notepads & journals:
Now the view of my crafty/stamping desk. The cute owl planter holds paint brushes. On the left side of the desk is my can't-live-without paper trimmer. Front and center are my beloved Copic Sketch markers! In the background behind my computer desk are closets that run the full length of the room, filled with more crafting and office supplies. Between the closet doors are two stacked IKEA 4x4 shelf units (with doors) which hold printer paper and cardstock, printer labels, mailing supplies, printer, and Silhouette Cameo.
Most-used smaller tools are in the right tool desktop carousel, within easy reach:
It holds scissors, tweezers; hole punch, corner chompers, crop-a-dile, mini stapler, stamp spray cleaner, water and alcohol spray bottles, gel pens, water brushes.
For my Copic markers I prefer an open-shelf storage system. I don't like having to take the time to position each marker into an individual hole/space -- it makes cleanup much faster and easier (and more likely to happen, LOL!). Unfortunately, the right five "Color Cubbie" towers are no longer being manufactured. More about the left tower is detailed below. On top of the marker units I have displayed recent/favorite card projects using harp clips.
A close-up view below shows how I've divided my Sketch markers into color families -- two shelves for larger families (shown on the right below). The left tower unit is a newer storage solution I've found and which I'll be getting more of whenever I may need more storage for either markers or Various Ink Refills. It is the Marker Nook by Stamp-N-Storage. Most of Stamp-N-Storage's storage solutions come in a natural wood, which can be painted or stained. I painted mine white. It houses my alcohol-based hand sanitizer (for cool Copic effects and clean-up), Aristo Mechanical Pencil and Click Eraser, Copic Opaque White, Kirarina WiNK Pens, Zig Wink of Stella brush markers, and Zig Clean Color Real Brush Watercolor Markers.
How do you prefer to store your markers?
My Copic Various Ink Refills are housed on the IKEA drawer unit behind me, within easy reach, in a retail display unit (no longer available to the retail public thru Copic):
Below is a better view of how my desktops are attached to the dresser. Since the second row of drawers had to be taken out in order to attach the desktops, this left easy access to house my Copic Air Compressor for the Copic Airbrush System, heat embossing gun and Heat It Craft Tool.
To my immediate left is another IKEA Alex wide 6-drawer unit on casters:
It houses more of my most-used supplies, within easy reach: Acrylic stamp blocks, Misti Stamping Tool, embossing powders, mini ink cubes in mini ink storage tins, other paper trimmers and punch boards, scoring boards and self-healing craft mats.
On top of the Alex drawer unit are my most-used adhesives, in a tiered desk organizer unit (a Tuesday Morning find):
In here are my beloved X-Press It High Tack Foam Mounting Tapes (two widths), X-Press It Double-Sided High-Tack Tape rolls (two widths), Clear Gel Glue, Glue Marker and Glue Pen, and Tape Runner, all within easy reach.
Last, but not least, are my ink pads. They are housed in my favorite storage solution I've found to date, the Distress Combo 48-Holder from Stamp-N-Storage. These units come in a natural wood, which you can stain or paint. I painted mine white. They are elevated on some aqua storage shelves, sitting on the glass-topped white dresser on the back wall of my room. The units can also be hung on the wall. Down on the other end of the dresser is a lamp and radio/tune-player.
They easily hold most types of ink pads, up to about 3-1/8" wide: Full-size Distress Ink Pads, Memento full-size ink pads, Ranger dye ink pads, etc., along with their Refills and Markers!
Thanks for stepping into my craft room today! If you have any questions, please feel free to leave them below in the comments and I'll answer as quickly as I can!
