Where This Woman Creates, Part 1

Have you seen this magazine?

I love, love, love this publication.  It is probably THE driving force that really made me take the wispy bits of dreams floating in my head and make it into something real.

My 2010 New Year Resolution (remember those?) was to get my craft stuff organized.  In the process I found four spools of floral wire, two bottles of sewing machine oil, and more Scotch tape that I care to admit.

There seem to be two camps when it comes to craft space.  There are the pretty, carefully coordinated rooms and the shabby-yet-organized spaces with their found organizing objects.  Since I am forever trying to do things on a budget, I lean toward the shabbily organized, using what I have or what I can find for free.  Ultimately, it's about having a place for everything and everything in its place.

I took over a semi-finished room in our basement.  I'm not really sure what the original owners were thinking when they planned this space.  The rest of the finished portion of the basement has carpeting and sheetrock on the walls and ceiling.  This odd little room is paneled and has a drop ceiling.  It is carved out of area between the utilities, the storage room, the portion of the basement under the stairs and the bump-out of the breakfast nook.

To make matters worse, there are THREE doors in this room.  I'm guessing that after they framed the main portion of the basement, they called this space a lost cause.

Mr. Tallgrass had one stipulation.  We keep our wine in this room.  It had to stay.

We've found that the uncovered concrete floor keeps wine at a perfect temperature here.  My original plan was to turn the room into a wine cellar, thus the olive green walls.  But I can work around the wine storage.  Eventually, I'll repaint the walls.

I collected bonus points from a credit card and cashed them in at Lowes for the biggest shelf they carried.  I pulled a vintage drop-leaf table that's been in my family for years out of the back room and used it as my work table.

A place for everything and everything in its place.  Um...yeah.

After several months of using the space this way, I found it just wasn't working as well as I wanted.  The old table was too small.  The room has no windows, so lighting is a constant issue.  I wanted an area I could dedicate to preparing packages for shipping.  I found myself tossing stacking stuff under under under the stairs to get it out of the way.  I dreaded rearranging since that meant that the wine rack AND the huge shelves would have to be unloaded. 

(Yes, this is what I was dreading.  What a mess!)

All the stars came into alignment last week when I stopped at ReStore on a whim.  Behold, I found a 38"x48" table with a 12" butterfly leaf for only $40.

And this barn-style utility light.  For only THREE DOLLARS.  Now I'm giddy.  And motivated.

I tried painting it red, but it reminded me of the old West Bend electric wok I had in college. Remember those?

I like this muted blue much better. 

My old drop-leaf table can now be used for preparing shipments. I turned my Ballard-inspired bulletin board vertically to fit on the wall.  And my space-saving ribbon keeper is ready for action.  I found the stackable organizers last winter at ReStore for only $3 each.

More details of the room's re-organization to come!  If you are looking for more great ideas and inspiration for your craft space, check out Crafty Storage.