Craft Room Transformation

“OMG, I look like a hoarder!” 

            Amber’s first words when she saw the BEFORE picture. LOL 

You know how it is. You keep throwing more in there and shutting the door because well, it's already a complete disaster.  YEP, you let it go too long and lost all your cool shit somewhere in those endless boxes and piles of crap.  

“Are you completely overwhelmed?”
Amber said as she opened the door to show me what we had ahead of us. 
HELL NO, this is my JAM. Let’s get busy!
Two diet cokes and 4.5 hours later, the room is rearranged and she is 100% organized.

Amber’s art room had become her own free heated storage unit, sucking up and swallowing not just craft supplies but toys, paperwork, and clothes!  Everything was everywhere. She had an abundance of fabulous crafts but couldn't find what she needed when she needed it and if she did, where TF was she going to work? Story of your life, right?! LOL 

Step 1 Trust the Boss: Our first priority was making Amber's room functional; after that was accomplished we worked on making it look nice. “Really? I have always attempted cleaning or organizing by focusing mostly on the decorating piece.” said Amber. “I want it to look nice so I usually place the furniture and hang pictures first.” Amber was a little nervous it wouldn't look as good if the focus was on organizing. I promised her she would love it. I promised it would look beautiful AND it would be WAY EASIER to keep clean. Trust the boss. LOL 

Step 2 Stand Around and Stare: Plan. Stand there and stare at all the shelves and potential rearranging possibilities. YES!! How could we rearrange to make more room? How could we use what she already had to create clean, organized work and storage spaces for different projects? What EXACTLY did Amber need for her space?

Step 3 Get Busy and Start Sneezing:  Here we go! Amber decides she needs areas for painting, gift wrapping, creating auction baskets, paper art, and kids crafts. Lots of rearranging so dust is gonna fly; get a tissue and cram Vaseline up your  nose right now (this Vaseline tip is invaluable for those allergic to dust).  It traps the dust on your nostrils. I'm Serious, try it next time.

Painting Area:  Amber likes to sit on the floor and lean her canvas in the corner against the wall, so the paint would need to be reachable AND on her left side (she is left handed). Canvases were originally stored in different places around the room; having them all together would be better and being able to flip through them would be AWESOME. We talked about which way she liked to face in the room while she painted and how much light was needed. A system for keeping specific paints together was a must because her projects were often on-going. We found a portable drawer and placed it on the end of the shelf, making those paints super easy to grab and set on the floor while she worked. 

We tipped a shelf over on its side, which did two things: 1. Gave her a place to store her canvas collection all in one place; each shelf served as a book end to lean the art against, making flipping though them easy.  2. Provided a low, reachable surface to store her paint and brushes. WHOO HOOO!! 

Fabric Painting Area: A shelf with glass containers to organize her paint pens by type, a place to display her current project AND a cupboard below to store her shoes and hats. 

Paper & Stickers Area: A kitchen cart worked perfect to store craft paper and we used the 2 drawers for hole punches and paper cutters. The counter top was perfect to place another paper organizer and basket for stickers. 

Auction Items and Gift Area: This Gigantic garage shelf was packed full with random crap. Now it has gifts on one shelf, auction items on another, vases and flowers on another. It may not look organized but it is :) Next to this shelf is a dresser full of ALL the gift wrapping supplies.

Final thoughts and organizing tips:  

• Raise your valance to the ceiling if you can. We raised Amber's pink valance all the way up to the ceiling. This makes the window look larger and lets in more natural light. FRIGGIN BRILLIANT; scroll up and look at the before and after pictures! 
• Set up a folding work table in the center of the room. It's SO NICE to have a space to stand at and work when you need to.
• Lots of garbage cans! We placed a large garbage under the work table (rolling pink storage box) and 2 more smaller garbage baskets close to project areas.
• Catch All Basket is a MUST. Place a large, empty basket on your work table to use as a Put these things away later, instead of in the wrong place!!!! 
• Don't forget your Little Helpers. We used an easily accessible bottom drawer for coloring books, stickers and markers. 
• Use YOUR art projects to decorate! :) Inspire yourself and your friends by hanging your own beautiful art work! 
• Now keep that shit clean. LOL