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We just moved into a house where I have a dedicated craft space in the basement. I want to make it awesome but don't even know where to start. Before this, everything was stored in plastic drawers that had to roll away when done. Help!
Well, I think first you need to decide what kind of stamper/crafter you are? Do you like to work on a large surface and spread out? Work at stations and move around to different areas to complete certain tasks?
As far as storage goes- are you a "place for everything and everything in its place" type of person? Or do you like to have your supplies out in the open so you can see everything?
That will at least get you started. Then you'll know whether you need one BIG surface to work on or several smaller areas. Plus what kind of storage will suit you best.
i have a very small craft room, but its finally mine all mine! LOL
the very first thing i did was paint, and make curtains. i went very girlie since i have always been out numbered by my guys.
then i set up my table and chair in the middle of the room ( where i get the best lighting) and then kinda just sat there with a good cup of coffee thinking what would work best where, as far as ease of reach and visibiity, and to get the most use of space.
eventually i want to rip out the carpeting and do an inexpensive tile or vinyl flooring. would be alot easier to clean up.
congrats on your new space and i am sure you will soon have it up and running
I would make do with whatever was on hand and add to it bit by bit as I realized what fit my style of work/creativity. I know I have to have things visible (labelling doesn't help me) for me to use them, but not everybody's like that. You might discover you like a higher or lower work surface, or that you don't care how cluttered things are, as long as they are close by...if you do things bit by bit, you can keep an eye out for sales etc. too.
Have fun in your new space!
Gale, that is awesome! Your before pictures kind of remind me of my space right now. Your after pictures are great though! I love those cubes. Its hit or miss as to whether or not my Michaels has them on any given week so I'm a little hesitant to start a collection of them in case I can't finish. I do love the look of them though.
I just made my new craft room. I love it so much. You will be so happy in your new space. Big Congratulations. The first thing I did was decide on the table. That is the most important. DH is a crafter too so this was a big one for us.
What kind of table do you want to work on? Do you want more than one table and if you do want more what will the other tables be used for?
Then I decluttered. That is a big one too because you will have a lot of redundancy and decluttering your crafting items will help you move into your room easier and give you more inspiration.
Next decide on your shelves and what they will be used for.
It somewhat depends on how much money you can spend. If you have the money, you can immediately buy all the storage you need and a work surface - and you'll be all set. You could even paint/carpet and put up window treatments. But, I went the gradual, hand-me-down route with a atandard door for a work surface and donated bookshelves (that I still have and need). Look at my gallery and go to the earliest photo to see how it's progressed in a few years. Buying the cubes from Michael's with one 40%-off coupon per week saved me a lot of money but took a bit longer. I'm pretty much done unless I get a larger room, but I love my studio:
Gale, that is awesome! Your before pictures kind of remind me of my space right now. Your after pictures are great though! I love those cubes. Its hit or miss as to whether or not my Michaels has them on any given week so I'm a little hesitant to start a collection of them in case I can't finish. I do love the look of them though.
If you like the cubes, you might try the "itso" cubes from Target. They always have them in stock, they are less expensive than the jetmax cubes at Michael's, and they are most definitely just as sturdy and nice. The part that I like best (and that might help you too as you decide what works best for you) is that you can rearrange them at any time. Stack them differently, add to them, use different bins in the same cubes, whatever! I recently picked up some more of the blue and white plastic "half bins" (the ones that take up half of one shelf in a cube) that you can see in my gallery - they were only $3.99 each on sale! And they come in a number of different colors for the bins (pink, green, red, white, blue, clearish/opaque) and three colors in the cubes (wood like mine, white, black). My wall of cubes has been expanded and rearranged a couple of times since the pictures in my gallery (scroll to the bottom - it's only one page), but they've been great at "growing" with my collection of stash!
All my stamps are unmounted, so the tall bins work best for me and all my CD cases. If you keep your stamps wood mounted, the flat trays/bins will hold one layer of wood mounted stamps and still stack three deep on the shelves. Or you can do the canvas bins (like on Patter's blog and on the very bottom row of my cubes) and stack up your clamshells/trays. The cubes also come with doors and other configurations - these were the ones that were most versatile to me.
What ever you choose, have fun! I LOVE my craft room, but I'm still a little jealous that you get to start from scratch. Good luck and make sure you post pictures for us as you go along...
(And no, I don't work for Target - just was soooo happy to find the system that worked so well for me that I have to share!)
I "made do" with cast-offs for a long time. And I hated it; thus I spent very little time in my room. So I decided to invest in nice matching storage. I spent money on this instead of supplies for a while and couldn't be happier. I LOVE my studio now. It's so peaceful and relaxing to spend time there. I can just sit at my desk and look around and it makes me feel happy and content.
So I say start the way you plan to finish. Keep your plastic rolling drawers until you can afford to get exactly what you want. I use a combination of Jetmax cubes, kitchen cabinets and counter tops, Making Memories embellishment centers and Ikea storage and desk. All the deets are on my blog. http://tinkeringwithink.blogspot.com...ve-studio.html
The other thing is to make it "yours". If you love a particular color, use it! If you want frilly, do it! If you want shabby chic or cluttered or clean and simple, have it! You'll be much more likely to want to spend time in your room if you make it all the things you love.
Congrats on having a new space to call your own. My best advice is to think adjustable. I just finished a room redo and over the years the room had gone through a series of changes because my need for storage changed.
Make a diagram of your room dimensions and then play with furniture placement considering walking space, clearance behind your chair, ease of reaching items. The windows in my room basically directed how my layout would be but in a basement this is probably not an issue.
Keep in mind that anything that is permanently attached will be that way forever that's why I love adjustable. Once you decide on the basic layout you can then think furniture.
Be careful about buying something because you just love the way it looks. A lot of items look great, but they just are not functional during a craft session.
I posted pics in my gallery (stamproom redo) and if you wade through the pictures you'll find picutres of storage ideas and explanations of what is in each area, it might help with thinking about what you would like/not like.
This may sound silly, but set up your room with the storage you have now and see how it works. Then add pieces as you go. This is a brand new space and a new home.
When I took over my current room, I rearranged multiple times because what I thought would work in theory, didn't work as well in practice.
I've been in my new space about 6 months now and still have attached nothing to the walls except for 2 Bygel rails. I keep tweaking and rearranging for now until all of my storage works for me.
Also, my original layout looked great, but the lighting just didn't work as well as I thought it would, so I had to rethink and rearrange the room.
Little by little it is all coming together but it takes time.
Good luck to you. Take pictures for us, browse the galleries of rooms here for ideas and put together what works best for you and your space.
I agree with alot of people. Start with the basics. I started with a table and just a big white cabinet someone gave to me. I add little tables or things as I go. I just inherited an old baking cabinet that was my great grandmother's, so now my room is headed in a more vintage-y direction. That's what I love- it can be an ever evolving process. I find that I rearrance stuff quite often. I just love organizing. I keep joking that I need to start a craft room organization business ;)
I just got a bunch of jetmax cubes from Michaels. Most were bought when they were 50% off and I had coupons for the rest. I put pics on my blog this morning.
Someone else said to think about how you work...do you like to stand and move around, or sit in a chair??
Do you like everything hidden, or visible?
How much room do you have? This will determine the storage you need...go UP if you have less floor space.
Shop thrifty...Craigslist, Ikea and Menards (or Home Depot) were my main sources of supplies. I think my room is pretty great, and I seriously spent less than $500 on the cabinetry, shelving, lighting and work surface. My entire set of cabinets and counter was $150 between CL and Menards! Cheaper than a table elsewhere!
Find rooms YOU love...save them, print them, whatever, and work out a basic plan that will be perfect for you.
If you start off with *in-the-meantime* stuff, you will have a harder time re-doing things later. Start with what you can afford to do right...and live with what you had until you can afford to replace it with what you love.
Hope this helps!! I just posted new pics on my blog, most of my ideas came from SCS, so maybe you can find something to help you!
__________________ Cher No longer stamping...on to bigger things.
I had a HUGE find today on CL - a bookshelf-type DVD holder. It holds all of my stamp sets, with room left for more! It is coming along - slowly. I'll try to get photos soon.
When I decided to finally make an upgrade to my space I got some graph paper and measured everything and scaled it to the graph paper. I then reasearch storeage and looked at as many space saving tips that I could because my space is small. I decided on using a kitchen counter that I picked up from menards mounted it to the wall and added some legs to it. I also got most of my shelving from menards too. But the best stuff was from ikea. I just drew it all in on the graph paper with all the measurements and handed it to the hubby with all the matrails and it took him and I a weekend flooring to ceiling to put it in. Doing all that prep work and planing took me about 3 months. It all went in like "butter" in the end. I have planned a few other home upgrades this way and they worked out great.
We just moved into a house where I have a dedicated craft space in the basement. I want to make it awesome but don't even know where to start. Before this, everything was stored in plastic drawers that had to roll away when done. Help!
hi Weims!
I just redid my studio.. in the basement...
here's a post I posted on a different thread... In Part I I walk you through how I got started and figuring out what worked for me for my little space. Maybe my little journey and the way I figured things out might help you get thinkign on what will work for you.
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We had a sewer back up in our house last year (May 0 and my studio was one of the rooms that had to be emptied out and refloored, etc. I did a "mini overhaul" - new paint, new curtains, new decor, new wood floors, a new InkStak, and a big clean up and dejunking of the space.
My space is approximately 17 feet long by about 8 or 9 or so feet wide and is also the walk through hallway area that you have to pass through at the bottom of my stairs to get to the rest of the basement (laundry,family room, guest room, etc.) so I was unable to do some fun things I wanted to do with the space like an island workstation, etc. BUT... it works for me
I posted a multi part tour on my blog, but here are the posts from the Reveal process.
Where do you start??
