A Craft Room for Mama!

Shandi moved out.  I moped around for a few days, contemplated just shutting the door to her room and leaving it as-is.  But the The Coach suggested that we turn it into a craft/computer room.  That sounded like an idea full of awesomeness to me!

I sew often, and I craft almost as often as I sew.  All of my sewing and crafting "stuff" was in boxes crammed into the guest room.  I honestly had no idea what I had or how much I had until I started unpacking boxes.  Turns out I really don't need nearly 30 packages of elastic.  Yeah, no idea why the gross amount of elastic.  But now it's all sorted neatly and has its own spot on a shelf so I won't forget how much I have.

I have zero creative juices of my own.  I can craft just about anything, provided someone else has already thought of it and I can copy their idea.  Honestly.  I'm a recipe follower, not writer, and the same goes for crafts.  So while I'd like to say I came up with the design for my craft room, I owe Pinterest every single drop of the credit.  

The table is the coolest thing in the room.  It's HUGE.  I made this table out of four el cheapo bookcases from Walmart as the base (two on each end), and added two hollow core doors that I painted to match the bookcases as the top.  I added L-brackets to attach it all together, and presto!  A giant craft table that's 56 inches wide and 80 inches long.  It's large enough to have the computer on one side, and my sewing machine on the other side.  I added two more tall bookcases and various baskets to hold all the rest of my craft stuff, and there is also more storage underneath the table.  It's counter height, and since it's so big we were able to add more shelving underneath.  I also put my ribbon and craft paper on curtain rods secured to the wall.  I still have some more things to add to the walls, I ordered a thread wall rack and a few other storage items that aren't here yet.  

There was even enough room underneath to store a few stools for additional seating if needed.

This is my John Boos butcher block.  We had this in the kitchen as an island when we first moved in and before we renovated the kitchen.  I refused to part with it so it's been in the garage for nearly four years.  I think it fits nicely in the room and has plenty of additional storage.  Since I can cut on the top I situated all my paper craft stuff and the Cricket in that area.  

The yellow paint makes the room super bright, and I like it because it reminds me of sunshine.  I love sunshine, it soothes my spirit.  I know Joe was dying for a man-cave, and I'm super thankful he offered up the space to me without even batting an eye.  I tried to get new flooring out of the deal and came up short.  Joe said "You are going to ruin it anyhow with paint or glue or something, no new floor".  I rolled my eyes and grumbled for a second, and then almost burned a hole through the old carpet today with the hot glue gun.  Whew.  Thank goodness I didn't put up a stink about the floor, I'd be eating some serious humble pie today.  I'm good with the old flooring.