When we moved into our new home, the first room to get a face lift was my craft room.  It’s the room in which I want to spend most of my time and considering the amount of materials and tools I have stored in there – it’s the one which requires the most organization.

I started by clearing out the room, ripping up the old carpet and removing everything from the walls.  I brainstormed what I wanted my completed craft space to look like and drew a rough sketch to map out my needs.  Once I had an idea of what I wanted to end up with, I could make a list of the things I needed to do or get in order to make it a reality.

The things that were important to me:

– flooring that is easy to sweep up,

– power outlets and lighting where I needed them,

– enough storage for all my tools & supplies, and

Removing the old carpet revealed a concrete floor and because I was trying to be as thrifty as possible with this renovation, I decided to finish it with paint.  $35 for a can of concrete paint and a few hours later I had a beautiful chocolate brown, easy to clean, floor.  I matched this with a coat of fern green for the walls and already it made me happy to walk into my new craft room.

I assessed the electrical situation but found it to be severly lacking.  From experience I knew I did not want to trip over extension cords and fight with task lights in my new space so I hired an electrician to install a few outlets and lights for me.  What a difference $100 can make!

With my electrical needs met, I moved on to storage.  Ikea… here I come.  Since my new craft space was a bit larger than my last (and my supplies seemed to have increased considerably as well…) I needed to add to my Antonius storage & shelving system.  Easy peasy – I love Ikea.  While I was there I also picked up some great boxes and bins to keep my things nice and orderly.  That store is full of wonderful organization inspiration.

With the drawers put together & shelves up, the last thing on my list of needs was satisfied with a big ‘ol pine harvest table which I centered in the room.  This bad boy is sturdy and large enough for a couple of crafters at a time.  And the best part about it is that all the scratches and dings it will suffer from years of crafting abuse will only add to the table’s character and charm.

Now the only thing left to do is to decide what my first project will be!