Come on in and tour my newly organized and prettied up craft room! This craft room is fun, colorful, and functional and all pulled together on a small budget. This post contains affiliate links when possible, which help to support this blog. Thanks!
Hey there! Welcome to my new organized, colorful craft room! I am loving my new space, and I’m excited to share it with you all today! We have been in our current home for about a year and a half, but it has taken me a while to get this room to the point where I’m pretty happy with it.
When we moved out of our last home, I was most sad to leave behind my craft room that I loved so much. But now that this new space is really set up, I think I like it even more than my old room. It has more storage and work space, so it’s certainly more functional.
This room definitely presented some challenges though. It is long and skinny sun room on the back of the house, with windows filling most of three of the walls. So it’s a bit of an awkward shape without a whole lot of useable wall space. You can see a tour of the space when we first moved in right here or just check out this gorgeous before photo:
Did I mention we had just moved in? And here’s what it looks like now:
Much better, right? I think so. On the left side of the room I have my desk, my printer, and my sewing table. Along the right wall I have two Ikea Expedit units, my marble filing cabinet, and wrapping paper. The cabinets and paper shelves on the back wall were there when we moved in. This was very much a work with what you have, shoe string budget kind of room, so I was happy to have them.
I wanted open shelving on top, so I took off the cabinet doors and filled the shelves with (most of) my yarn stash. I love being able to see what I have at a glance, and all of the colors and textures get me inspired to make something.
The cabinets are old kitchen cabinets that were salvaged from a kitchen remodel, and the countertop is just a piece of MDF that was cut to size. Eventually I’d like to get a real countertop, but for now I just painted the MDF that was already there to brighten it up a bit.
Above the countertop, I hung a piece of pegboard to give me some more storage and to keep the supplies I use the most close at hand. I always have scissors, ribbon, glue, and notecards ready to use at any time. Plus they are pretty!
Besides paper (duh), the paper shelves hold my Minc foils and supplies, Silhouette supplies (like my fave tattoo paper, of course!), craft foam, crepe paper, stencils, and other flat supplies.
To the right, I have my collection of wrapping paper, butcher paper, contact paper, and pretty much anything that comes on a roll. I store it all in a pretty basket I picked up for cheap at Home Goods. The filing cabinet came from my old craft room and holds important papers, receipts – you know, boring filing cabinet type stuff.
The expedit units on this wall are where I store most of my craft supplies. One unit has doors and baskets (we previously used it as a media center in our last home) and the other is filled with boxes organized according to the type of supply they hold.
As I mentioned before, I’ve been using this space for over a year now, but I didn’t get it really organized until recently. It took a few days to do it, but it was totally worth it. I started by completely emptying the room – every last feather, button, and glue stick came out. And then I purged. A lot. I donated boxes of things I knew I wasn’t ever going to use.
When I had narrowed it down to what I wanted to keep, I sorted everything out and made sure that every little thing had a home. I now have boxes for feathers, buttons, watercolors, leather, fabric dye, beads, jewelry findings, rhinestones, etc., etc. Things that are too big or that I have too many of have designated baskets or cabinets, but the main thing is that everything has a place to go.
Now, when I get new supplies, I know exactly where to put them instead of just leaving them in piles on the counter or floor (not that I would ever have done that in the past or anything). Because of this, I have managed to keep everything organized and fairly clean since I organized it in January, which is no small victory for me.
I have a little bit of wall above one unit, and I put that to work with a shelf to hold more boxes, an Ikea rail that holds hole punches, pliers, and my hot glue gun, and my new neon “make” sign, which I love.
The tops of the expedit shelves also offer more storage space and workspace, which is great. I am storing some books, markers, crochet hooks, brushes, and my washi tape collection there.
For my new washi tape storage, I got this tiered jewelry stand from Amazon, which I like a lot, and the rest is tucked into my new color block crochet baskets.
Across the room on the other wall, is my desk, printer, and sewing table. I picked the desk up super cheap at Ikea, and decided to go with the red top, which was super out of character for me, but I really liked the glossy finish.
I still like the glossy finish, but I think I’m ready to switch it out for a white top. I got my chair on craiglist and then painted it white and covered the seat with a pink and red Mexican falsa blanket. That chair is one of my favorite things!
I also love the rugs, which kind of make the room for me. I wasn’t crazy about the tile in the room, so I wanted a rug to cover most of the floor, but I also needed something inexpensive because of that whole shoestring budget thing and because I’m pretty much guaranteed to drop some paint or dye on this thing eventually. My solution was to get two inexpensive 5×7′ rugs from Urban Outfitters (which is a great source for inexpensive rugs – I got the one in my kids’ Disneyland room for 20 bucks!). They don’t have the exact rug I bought any more, but this one is pretty similar.
On top of my desk, I have all the things that I use everyday: my planner, my idea notebook, a scratch pad, pens, pencils, brushes, markers, and my microphone (which I mostly keep there because it looks so cool!).
Above the printer I have a couple of simple DIY art pieces and a hanging wall file to hold the paper I use and print with the most often.
Finally, looking back down the room, you can see one more bit of wall space that I have put to use. I love the way craft paint looks displayed – it’s just so colorful! – and I used the last bit of wall space left in this room to store my paints.
I have had the two floating shelves for a while and I picked up the little house-shaped cubby at Michaels recently. I added the fabric tassel garland, which I had hanging up in my old craft room, for a little something extra.
These shelves are pretty full already, so I may need to add another soon, but it is working for now.
Annnnnd… that’s pretty much it! Thanks so much for taking a peek around my newly cleaned up and organized space. I am loving it, and I hope it gives you some ideas for ways to work with what you have and make your creative spaces work better for you! It’s not a perfectly coordinated space, but it’s a place that makes me excited to work, and that’s the most important thing.
Happy Making!
Comments + Project Love
Jess | Make and Do Crew says
Alexis, this is beautiful! Can I come over and crochet with you!? I love how all the yarn is on display. Your UO rugs look great too. It looks like you must have a cool wood floor underneath. I’m jealous of that. Carpet is just so much harder to snazz-up. You’re really giving me hope that my crazy mess of an office/craft room will someday come together.
Alexis says
Thanks so much, Jess! The floor is actually a brown tile. But I would say don’t be afraid to put a rug down on top of carpet. I’ve done it before and loved it!
Pamela says
Wow what a difference open shelving makes. Love your choices so much!
Alexis says
Thank you so much! I love the open shelving too.
Kristi says
Oh my goodness! It’s SO perfect!!! Totally crushing on all of those brilliant storage ideas! LOVE it!
Alexis says
Thanks so much, Kristi!
Tess says
This is one of the most beautiful things I have EVER seen! You did an amazing job, and I’m super jealous of all the supplies you have! I long for a craft room like this one day 🙂
Alexis says
Oh man, what a compliment! Thank you so much! I really do love it, and yeah, I have a lot of supplies. It’s kind of a problem. Ha!
Rachel says
Oh my gosh. AMAZING. You seriously thought of EVERYthing! So functional and so, so pretty. I think my favorite part is the open shelving for the yarn — so pretty!
Amy | Delineate Your Dwelling says
Just love it, Alexis. Looks like a difficult room layout wise but you did a GREAT job making it your own and taking advantage of all that light!
Krista says
Fantastic job, Alexis!! It looks amazing – clean and organized yet still super fun and inspiring to work in!
Susan says
It looks wonderful. This is a project I hope to tackle soon. Can you please tell me where you got your paper storage shelving?
Alexis says
Hi, Susan! Thanks for stopping by. 🙂 I wish I could tell you more about the paper storage, but it was actually already in the home when we moved in (I know, how lucky am I?). Sorry I don’t have more information for you!
Kristin says
I love the way it all came together. The red desk and textured carpet is what makes it all. We are in the process of turning our empty dining room into a family office. It’s overwhelming and exciting all at the same time.
Alexis says
Thank you so much! Good luck with your project! It will be so worth it when it is done! 🙂
Aniko@PlaceOfMyTaste says
Look at all your yarn! Holy cow! The room looks super fun and organized! Great job, girl!
Rachel (Lines Across) says
Wow this is amazing!!!! I love every little detail! That giant paper shelf is pretty awesome!
Alexis says
Thanks so much, Rachel!
Andrea says
This is fantastic! My oldest son graduated and is gone. I would love to use your ideas in his old room. Great job!
Alexis says
Yes! Take advantage of that space! You will love it. 🙂
Syeda says
Wow, what a beautifully organized space! Love it all!
Katie @ Mountain Modern Life says
Holy Cow Alexis, this space is awesome! I may have just gone on a bit of a pinning spree, haha. I love all of the fun colors and how you organized everything but in such a creative way. Definitely looks like the perfect space to craft it up. Super inspiring 🙂
Alexis says
Thanks so much, Katie! You are a sweetheart. 🙂
Peg says
Very nice,love it all especially the pops of orange.
Szilvia Lenti says
wow? beautiful. i love it.greatings from Hungary ❗?
Alexis says
Thank you!!
Ivy says
Hi. I love your gold basket organizers, the ones you used for ribbon. Where did you get those or what might be a search term thx.
Alexis says
Hi Ivy! I used these pegboard baskets – http://amzn.to/1ovzYoh (that’s an affiliate link) and I just spray painted them gold. The Rustoleum metallic gold is my favorite. 🙂 Good luck!
C.Lem {www.creativeclementine.com} says
I literally drooled a little reading this. That red table is a heartbreaker! Gosh I miss having a craft space. *swoon!*
Alexis says
Thank you!! I really do love it too.
Alma-Marie says
You are so lucky to have the wooden paper shelves. How great that the person left them behind. They go floor to ceiling. Are they 12 x 12 I would love to have something like that. I have wire paper racks and Display Dynamics stand and trays, expensive. I love your red desk too since I would love a red desk. great room.
Gina Frechette says
LOVE THIS ROOM!!!! You are hired!! I have a now guest room I want to also be my crochet room. Don’t know where to start.