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please share some ideas with me. I am going to have to make a "craft area" in my living and need to make the most of a small space. Also where as I won't everything acessable, I don't won't it all sittling out as this is my livingroom. HELP!
Wow! i just realized this means I will have to clean up after myself. UGH!
I would suggest a craft - scrap booking or computer cabinet one with doors so that you could just close them when you are done or company is coming! It may be a bit expensive but worth it to be able to craft if it has to be in the living room........... if you have a handy hubby or carpenter friend maybe designing and having it built may be cheaper...........
and i make such a mess sometimes when i'm taking out my stuff, but i always put everything back, or else, my living room would be scary!!
but i dont mind, cause i have everything neat and where it belongs.
my kids no where everything is, and put everything back too
I have a similar situation and we have a an old dresser that is out in our living room kind of as an end table ( a very large one). It has two large drawers and two cabinets on either end. It's perfect for me, I just put everything in there and viola a clean living room again.
The sterlite containers on wheels from Target are great. They have a "single-wide" that has 3 or 4 shallow drawers and one deep drawer and a "double-wide" with 2 shallow drawers and 2 deeper ones (both about table height). The shallow drawers are great for stamps, ink spots, and paper. I use the stacking sterlite (that come in packs of two or three--about 6 x 8 x 2 inches deep--found near the walmart storage section) containers in the deeper drawers to keep markers, scraps, cuttlebug, and tools. Add one 12x12 sterlite container (3 drawers deep) for paper on top of the singlewide, put your paper cutter & cuttlebug on top of the doublewide, and tada-all your stuff in about 1 foot by 4 feet of space. They have made my life a lot easier and neater for about $75. Make sure you get the nice white sterlite brand, the cheaper black brand (I think from lowes?) will topple over and try to smoosh you to death! Death by stamping is not good!!
I like the idea of the armoire thingie. I built an area using the elfa shelving from Container Store. The nice thing about it is that it all hangs from one track across the top. I had it originally in a spare closet and when we moved it hangs on a wall in our bedroom. Pretty versatile I think. They have wooden panels that I use as a desk and then rows of shelves above. You could go crazy with that stuff (they have drawers too) but I went simple and it's worked for me.
I have a craft area too, not a closed off room. And I have been using decorative boxes throughout the living/dining room area to store things in. My sister had given me these very cool luggage looking boxes, they stack on top of each other, not huge - biggest is probably 18" x 13" or so, and I have used those and other stacking boxes to store envelopes, bags, accessories in. I am still organizing but I plan on putting alike things in each box and just finding a home around the house for them. I think I'll have to have a master list somewhere so I remember what is where (when things are out of site I kind of forget what I have!). I also have those Sterlite drawer thigns and they work great. My daughter also bought me for Christmas this wooden storage thing that has wicker/wooden drawers in it (Target and ShopKo always have them) and chalks, and other things are found in those drawers. I have tried to just find things around the house that I can store things in - most of those were already full of junk that I just never used. I have too many junk drawers - and I never use that junk that is in there!
The sterlite containers on wheels from Target are great. They have a "single-wide" that has 3 or 4 shallow drawers and one deep drawer and a "double-wide" with 2 shallow drawers and 2 deeper ones (both about table height). The shallow drawers are great for stamps, ink spots, and paper. I use the stacking sterlite (that come in packs of two or three--about 6 x 8 x 2 inches deep--found near the walmart storage section) containers in the deeper drawers to keep markers, scraps, cuttlebug, and tools. Add one 12x12 sterlite container (3 drawers deep) for paper on top of the singlewide, put your paper cutter & cuttlebug on top of the doublewide, and tada-all your stuff in about 1 foot by 4 feet of space. They have made my life a lot easier and neater for about $75. Make sure you get the nice white sterlite brand, the cheaper black brand (I think from lowes?) will topple over and try to smoosh you to death! Death by stamping is not good!!
LOL! No death by stamping would not be good. LOL! TFS!
Oh I forgot to mention I have made myself a master index of all the stamp sets i have in an artists sketch pad. This helps me when trying to make I card I can flip through that and get an idea for what stamps I want to take out instead of taking every stmap set out and having towering stacks of stamps. On the other side of my artist sketch book I have an index of what my stamp colors are - again eliminating towers of ink ( I don't have a fancy ink rack - mine are stored in a Priority Mail box)
I have a corner of the basement/kids playroom with a cute corner desk from IKEA there is a ledge/shelf above it, so I kep as much on my desk & the ledge as I can without taking up room to work, then the rest is on a few shelves in the icky side of the basement...(closed off, with the oil burner/washer,dryer & cat pan)and I leave the stuff there that I don't need to have at my fingerprints like all my stamp sets.....give me a reason to get up every so often. I also took a few pieces of cheap 12x12 and stamped all the sentiments I have on there, so if I need a Happy Birthday, and I want a cutesy one or an elegant one, I know what I have. For the most part it works and the kids have learned to respect my stuff to the point where I can leave a whole project out mid point and I know it will be there when I come back to it. It isn't the dream stamp room most have (and I covet...OMG some of the pictures kill me!!!!!) but it is mine.
This is how I used to have to stamp before we moved back to Texas, so I know exactly what you mean.
I had a very small 6x7 area or so, and 2 sides opposite each other were along walls, one side was the upper level patio door (nice for natural lighting!) and the other side was open to the living area. So, those 2 sides could not have anything on them. Talk about needing to get creative.
I had a small old-style pantry cabinet about 1 foot deep, 3 feet wide and 4 feet tall with doors that close and have a latch. I used that for my most used stamps and ink pads, ribbons and embellishments, and it was situated on one of the walls. I utilized the top of the cabinet as well as the wall above it by getting some nice looking shelving and putting things on those shelves that were not cluttery looking, as well as some of those plastic drawer things for smaller items to keep them organized. Bigger tools would have to sit on top of that cabinet, like cuttlebug.
I had a small desk/chair opposite the cabinet, on the other wall. This wall was a short wall that overlooked the stairs, so I had no way to have shelving there. If you have 2 full walls, you can utilize those for shelving or wall hanging cabinets. Anyway, my desk had a long drawer above the sitting area that I put things like scissors, rulers, piercing tools, other small constantly used tools. The side of the desk had a computer compartment that I put stackable drawers that had my 1/2 sheets and smaller cut cardstock in, as well as larger flat things on an upper shelf, like Stampin chalks, hodgepodge, watercolor pad of CS.
On top of the desk, I kept it organized, but had a very small working space. I had a pencil cup for the little things like bone folder, waterbrushes, and a few markers and other things like that. I left my 12" cutter and mini cutter on top of the desk corner, and the stampin scrub up there. I had one of those wooden crate CD stacker things on the desk at the back along the wall that I put things I used often like blocks, cleaner, glue, etc.
For all my other bulky things to store, like CS, alterables, reinkers, just other things that I either didn't use as often or just wouldn't fit in my small area, I had a huge pressboard white cabinet in my utility room and that thing was packed. So, I had to go to that to get things before starting any projects and then put a few things away when i was done.
I did have one plug close to the desk, so that was a huge plus for my heat tool.
I hope some of that might help you get some ideas for your small space!
JulieHRR posted this link last month in the "Ultimate craft storage" thread. It's not inexpensive, but offers loads of storage space in a relatively small footprint. When it's closed, everything is hidden. http://www.theoriginalscrapbox.com/
I just saw this thread and what good ideas everyone has! I, myself, have a craft room. I took over the living room! However, one idea that I used before I unmounted all of my Stampin' Up! stamps (gasp!) is I stamped each stamp set on a piece of notebook paper and put them in a binder alphabetically. Then, when I needed some inspiration, or couldn't find the set I needed, I could just flip through my binder and find what I'm looking for. I also did this w/ my loose stamps like from Michael's and JoAnn's. I have them in those Sterilite drawers that someone above was talking about, and going through them is sometimes difficult. (I have quite a few!) So now that I have this binder, I can look through and use ones that I forgot I had!
As for my unmounted stamps, I have them all in binders in alphabetical order on acetate (transparency) sheets inside page protectors. I just have too many stamps and I was losing space keeping them as traditional wood mounted stamps. I know that it's sacriledgious (sp?) to do this, but I'll never become a demonstrator, so what do I care? And you know what? It's so much easier to place your stamps when using a clear block as opposed to using the wood. I don't even need a stampamajig! And besides that, I have them all confined to 1 shelf!!!
I'm still working out my craft space in our present home, which we moved into two and a half years ago. In our previous house, my crafting area was one end of a sunroom -- the other end was our dining area. Since everything was on view, I wanted storage that would look decent and could be kept relatively neat, but I also wanted to be able to see what I had. My solution, which worked out beautifully, was these barrister bookcases. The glass doors can remain open when you're working, so that you have easy access to supplies, but when they're closed it gives at least an illusion of tidiness. I had three of these units across a wall behind my desk, and they almost looked like built-ins. The assembly was relatively simple, as I recall, although it was my college-age son who put them together as a birthday gift for me. Good luck with figuring out your puzzle!
I use my kitchen...lots of nights we eat at the island or even around the coffee table, but when I put everything away it doesn't look like it took over. I just use matching bookshelves with baskets to hide a lot of the stuff...my Cricut is in the Laundry room always ready, but everything else can be pulled out in a few minutes and easily accessed quickly. Since the pics I have taken over my last top shelf (decorative junk) for a collection of jars for ribbons, dew drops, primas, etc.
I really like having a large counter-height dining table to spread out at, and if someone comes to scrap with me, we have plenty of room. Even if I ever get my 'own room' I will still have a counter-height work table...I love that I can stand while working on stuff, it's so much easier to turn and grab what I need.
__________________ Cher No longer stamping...on to bigger things.
I use my kitchen...lots of nights we eat at the island or even around the coffee table, but when I put everything away it doesn't look like it took over. I just use matching bookshelves with baskets to hide a lot of the stuff...my Cricut is in the Laundry room always ready, but everything else can be pulled out in a few minutes and easily accessed quickly. Since the pics I have taken over my last top shelf (decorative junk) for a collection of jars for ribbons, dew drops, primas, etc.
I really like having a large counter-height dining table to spread out at, and if someone comes to scrap with me, we have plenty of room. Even if I ever get my 'own room' I will still have a counter-height work table...I love that I can stand while working on stuff, it's so much easier to turn and grab what I need.
I love it! My kitchen has much more space. THe bookshelves look fantastic. I was considering this as an option as well. I have a large area that I thought about putting an island in but i think I could put the dinette set there instead and use the entire section where the table should be, as my craft area. Thank you so much for the photos as they have really inspired me.
Most of my crafting is done on either my kitchen table or my living room table. One of the best things I invested in is the Pampered Chef Turn About. They sell it for keep kitchen utensils organized. I use it to keep all of my smaller tools, punches, and pens etc. organized. And (assuming I remember to put them back in the turn about rather than on the table where they hide under paper and stamps) I can easily find them. And it is easy to move off the table too.
JulieHRR posted this link last month in the "Ultimate craft storage" thread. It's not inexpensive, but offers loads of storage space in a relatively small footprint. When it's closed, everything is hidden. http://www.theoriginalscrapbox.com/
oh my goodness... I would love this scrapbox! Wow... now to get dh to build one for me.... in my dreams right!
__________________ Tammy~ Scatter seeds of kindness everywhere you go; Scatter bits of courtesy~ Watch them grow and grow. Amy R. Raabe
I started off stamping on my dining room table. I have a deep antique dresser in the dining room and stored everything in the three large drawers and in plastic containers under the dresser. Everything was kept out of sight, however it was hard sometimes to find everything in the drawers. I emptied my bookcases in my living room and moved them to my office (I work at home three days a week) and used the shelves for storage. Good luck! The more I buy, the more storage I need!
Janet
__________________ (My Avatar is my son in Iraq and his dog, Bodie -- note Bodie's haircut!)
I have all my stuff in a very some bedroom, cuz at the moment me and my fiance are living in a single wide, in the process of getting a farm with a farm house.
I have a 3 ring binder where i stamp all my stamps images on white card stock paper. I have my binder divided into different catogeries. I keep all my stamp sets together when i stamp the images. I give every stamp set a number. I started with 1 and went up, i write this number next to the stamp set image along with the name of the set and how many is in that set.
i have many different sizes of containers. All of my SU set go into containers that have sliding dawers. I put my SU set in order starting with the number i wrote down in my 3 ring binder. (For example: in my first container i have stamp sets 1 through 11, and on the outside of the container i labled it stamp sets 1 through 11) This makes it 100 times easier to find the stamp sets, all i have to do is filp through my 3 ring binder and look up the number of the set and go to that container.
Now for all my stamps that are not in set, that i have got from different places i use the .97 cent clear shoe containers at wall~mart. I broke the stamps down according to size, so i have 3 different sizes, small med., and large. when i stamp the images into my 3 ring binder i put the size that the stamp is. (for example i put box 1 small stamps. sometimes you end up having more then one container with small stamps) I have the containers labled. I also have containers for my wheels, and backgrounds. i put all my paper in the sliding dawers that u can buy at wal~mart.
Ladies who have a craft "area", not a studio...
