My Art/Craft/Sewing/Scrapbook Room

Well, are you ready?  I am excited that my old room has new floor and a fresh coat of paint.  While I was moving things around, I just went through everything!  I think that I took out two trash bags of "stuff".  And it was trash, I even let my students have first look at some of it.  This is gonna take a while, so if you are hungry or thirsty, just stop right now and go get it and come right back.

Ok, let's start with a couple of before pictures.  Dirty carpet that was walking itself across the floor, and I was afraid that I was gonna have a student (or myself!) trip and get hurt.  The walls were ok, but they were starting to look worn.  I had used flat paint when I put up the purple, this time I used a satin.

Now I have changed my mind.  I am thinking that it might be better to show you each wall before and after together, explaining as I go about the changes made.

Notice the purple curtains, garland of flowers up at the ceiling, and the diplomas and certificates on the left side of the window?  Take a look below...

Ok, yes, the purple is all gone!  See the new placement of the certificates and diplomas across the top of the room, and the flowers are all gone.  A much cleaner look.  There is a sheet of paper to the left of the window, and that is where the paint unit is going to go.  I have a carpenter that builds things to my specs at reasonable prices.  I will post it when it comes in and also add his web address.

This is the wall to the left of the window.  In the corner is a rolling cart with my Sizzix dies, rubber stamps, and other supplies.  The bookcase has tubs with paints the acrylics and other paints.  The next bookcase is full of all my reference materials, and the top shelf is altered art books.

Here is the first section of the transformation.  I moved over a small unit to house my KopyCake, and rolled the other unit into the closet.  Then, I added a few photo boxes to organize painting supplies - extra brushes, craft paint rollers, my Genesis paints, faux sponges,...  Towards the top you will that I am displaying all the fun little things that I have painted.  The very top is used to store tall brushes, crochet thread and a few more photo file boxes.  Now, let's look at the next bookcase...

Again, the very top and top shelf is for display items.  All the altered art books got moved to the closet.  Everything else is still basically the same.  Let's take a peak behind the door, though we already saw that in a prior post.

I love, Love, LOVE how I am storing my canvas flat behind the door.  They no longer get dents, they are up off the floor, and I can see at a glance how many I have or what I need.  Oh, look down at where the wall and floor meet, see the baseboard?  I faux finished that to match the door, the floor was too light to have cream baseboards.  I have the how to on this and the floor on a prior blog posting.

Let's take a look at the next wall, this one is across from the window as we are wrapping around the room.  By the way, this room is approximately 14' (the window and door walls) by 10' (the bookcase walls).

This is the wall where I would hang all my artwork for upcoming classes, and there is my radio/CD player on the floor under the table.  I was able to move the radio/CD player to a shelf in a bookcase, much more accessible.  There is a spot for my sewing machine to sit when I need to sew.  Yes, that is a roll of paper towels on the wall, they got moved over to the window wall by the tables where they are used.  Aprons are hanging on the hook on the wall, and now I just keep one apron hung on the door.  Let's see the after picture.

I put up a frame that I padded and covered with some retro sewing fabric that I got at Ruby Jane's Retro Fabric.  She ships and you can see all her fun stuff at http://www.rubyjane.com/   She has a fantastic little quilt shop and is very helpful when you need something special!!!   Tell her that Pam from Garland sent you.

Then, look to the right of that, see the two picture frames, those are paper dolls that I played with when I was little.  Connie Francis and Annette Funicello were always my favorite, and I just chose a few of the prettiest outfits to display and stored the others away safely.  The two baskets are just supplies that are available for my students to purchase extra supplies.  I stored my two tabletop ironing boards behind one desk, and my rotary cutter on the wall behind the other one.   

Remember the top part of this wall had assorted art hung that was to be taught in future classes, or that I was just showing my students that I had done?  Don't these shelves look much neater, and I used my mini nail gun to attach a thin board across the front so that the art work wouldn't slide off.   At least I can move them around and not continue to add more and more holes to the walls, that should make my husband happy.

Let's move on to the last wall, it is full and looks busy...but it works for me.

Let's start with the two bookcases on the left.  The top and top shelves are all full of more photo storage boxes.  The ones on the top are all craft stuff, yessssss... there is a LOT.  The next row of boxes are all in tan and black, those are for altered art, glues, tapes,...    There are also two hardware boxes with lots of little drawers, and those are full of pre-cut alphabets and are written about in a prior post.

Then next row is actually white magazine boxes from IKEA, 5 for $1.99 and they are full of organized by theme/subject sticker.  I saw this done somewhere, wish I could remember who to give the credit to.  (Before picture doesn't really show a lot, but the stickers were all in baggies and clipped on a rod and there were lots of things just laying around.)

Under that is all the brown and black boxes that are for scrapbooking and the Cricut machine.  The bottom shelves are for scrapbooking paper, sheets of chipboard/cardboard, and extra sleeves for my pages.

Take a breath and lets go to the middle section of shelves, it is from a large wall unit, one of the side towers.   On top there is a box of yarn, the next two shelves are my Sizzix dies, and the next is a spot for my machine.  I just treated myself to the new electric one, I was still using the old red dinosaur.  A lot of my art tapes are still on DVD so I have a player and then there is a small tv at the bottom.  (The KopyCake overhead used to be in this unit and you saw it got moved to the wall to the left of the window.)

Last bookcase!  Black and white photo boxes are full of needlepoint, cross stitch, silk ribbon embroidery, needle tatting, knitting needles and crochet hooks.   There is a sewing machine in a cream colored cover towards the middle.  Then, all that other stuff is neatly folded fabric!  My cone thread and serger are all in the closet on the back wall on a shelf and in spool racks. 

You can read about the rest of the room in my past blogs.  All in all, I am please with the way the room turned out!  One of the best moves I made was to get all like things together in the same area.  Now, all the painting is together, same goes for the sewing and the scrapbooking.  Saving steps and staying organized means saving time.

  I think I will still come back in later and put some words on the wall.  Maybe something that Sharron has told me for years, "Enjoy the Journey."  Another friend, Regina, always says "It isn't that crucial!"  Maybe just something like "Create".  I don't know yet, and thus, I haven't put anything up yet.

The tile looks like real ceramic tiles, was less than a dollar each and I was able to install it myself. Please let me know what you like about my room and if you decide to use any of my ideas.  I love hearing from my readers, and I do get quite a few emails.  Please try to put your comments here, I know other folks would also enjoy ready what you have to say.   Next week...dunno yet, but I do look forward to it!  -Pam