Craft "Room"

As many of you know, I love to craft.  Sewing, scrap booking, quilting, painting - just about anything I'll try.  This past Christmas I made many of the presents that were given to our family members - and they ranged from "Movie Night" baskets to glass etched gifts (wine glasses, pie plates, even a trifle dish).  Which leads me to my problem - where do I have a place to craft in our home?


In the past I have been blessed with a dedicated place to call my own for all my crafting supplies.

This picture was taken at the last "sticks and bricks" house we owned in north Florida before we hit the road to become full time RVer's three years ago.  This space was a bonus space above our garage that my darling hubby transformed for me so I would have a dedicated area for all my crafting supplies.

This was the other side of the room.   Plus, in a section that I don't have pictures of was an area that had shelves that was nothing but storage.         I loved it!

Fast forward to today.

We now live in a "smallish" (is there such a word) house at just under 1200 square feet.  I am NOT complaining - it is the perfect size for us now.  There are just some things that I wish I could change - for example, a space for me.

Dan has most of the garage -as shown by previous pictures of the mess our garage is in.  Plus, he has a storage building in our back yard where he keeps the pool and the few yard supplies we need, but most of that space is for all his fishing stuff.  He has a bench that goes the entire length of the storage building that he uses to tie flies on and to do whatever he does when he spends time out there.  I really don't mind - I'm glad he has a space to call his own - even two spaces is okay with me.  He does so much with the woodworking around the house I don't mind the garage space.  However, wouldn't it seem fair that I have a space for me?  I mean, even when I had that wonderful space pictured above, he had the garage - with a workbench and separate desk.

So, what do I have?  Well, I finally found a space for me in the house.  In the only space that I could think of - the guest room closet.  Yep, in the walk-in closet in the guest room.  It's the only space we have that just might work. 

The problem, as I see it now, is trying to get all my STUFF in this small space in a organized way that is usable and pretty.  After milling the problem over and over in my head I just decided to tackle the problem head on last week.

THE CLOSET

First, let me say that I am super embarrassed to let you see this mess.  I am usually very organized ( okay I admit it - I'm OCD)  and to admit that I had this mess - well I'm just mortified.  But, I told you I would be honest.  And this was what the space looked like AFTER I cleaned the top of the desk off (I did that before I remembered I needed to take pictures IF I was going to blog about this mess).  The gray cabinet in the back is FULL - not only of crafting supplies but also office supplies.  (In case you are wondering, the big white box with the picture of a toilet on it - well, it's full of framed pictures of all sizes.  It's the biggest box we could find when we were doing the remodel of the house that would hold all the different sized pictures.  However, I hope to find a new home for these.)

Now, the first step to get all this under control was to empty the space and see exactly what I have to work with.

After the closet was emptied, except for the desk, I took the measurements j to see exactly what I had.   The dimensions of my "craft room" are a "cozy"

4 1/2 feet by 6 feet.

The Space

 

Step one accomplished! 

I decided that I just didn't have room for that big gray cabinet (plus it was just plain UGLY), so it had to go!

Once everything was out, I went though everything and sorted and PURGED.  Then I put things in storage containers and I knew I had to LABEL, LABEL, LABEL.  After I had things organized in containers, bins, and baskets it was time to put everything back.

While I would love to say that this space will be completly dedicated to my crafting I'm afraid that will not be possible - it is still our guest room closet.  Which means that I will still need to leave space for hanging clothes if it is needed by guests when they come.  However; for the most part, this space is MINE ALL MINE!!!!

Now that I have finished stage two I will be moving on to stage three - which is the most fun.

Decorating!!!!

I have great plans for this stage - it's the part that will make the "room" come alive and become a creative space that I will want to spend time in instead of a white box with all my "stuff" in it.

Stayed tuned - Stage three will be in a future post!

In the meantime I would love to hear from you - what do you think?  Am I on the right track - or do you think I'm completely nuts to be trying to do this?

I'm showing off my project on another blog called Truly Lovely - go on over and check them out and let them know I sent you!