My Workspace - Finally!!!

Hi everyone! As some of you may be aware I decided recently, in my infinite wisdom, that my craft room needed updating.

The room I'm in now used to be DS's bedroom and when I moved into it he asked that I didn't take down his Spiderman curtains, they were his gift to me, lol. After 3 years I felt it was time the Spidey curtains went! He's okay with that, he's moved on ;)

So this is how my room looked on a bad day.... 

... a VERY bad day...

.... a 'just torch it, it'll be easier' day.... 

....and on a good day!! lol

Let me just say that I could NEVER have anticipated the work I was about to face. EVER. I figured a couple of days taking stuff out, maybe 4 days to paint the walls and assemble furniture/storage and then a day (or 2 at most) to put everything back in. (I know you're laughing at me!)

So I bought 4 x 80ltr storage boxes - that should be enough to put ALL of my stash in while I got to work on the room, right?? Ya.... not quite!!

The rest of the stash buried my 4 x 80ltr boxes :/ 

I didn't take progress photos because.. well because 1) I didn't think of it and 2) progress was so slow that by day 6 I was losing the will.... but this is my end result. The room is narrow so it was impossible to get floor to ceiling shots on either side where my storage/desk are. I have linked up all the IKEA products I've used only because I figured it might be helpful if you are looking for storage solutions. If IKEA wanted to pay me for endorsing their product I would take it! lol, but they're not. 

So, here we go........

From the door 

Yay, no Spidey curtains!! The desk/table.. hmmm... I struggled with this one, and still do. I wanted to repaint it white, but then I thought that maybe the room would be just too white with white wall/table/storage. I'm still undecided so, for now, it remains untouched. 

Speaking of white walls.... and once I speak of it I never want to THINK about it again. Another one of my ingenious ideas - let's paint 3 walls white, and have a feature wall of teal on which the white Expedit will go. Sounds fabulous, right? 5 LITRES of white paint later I questioned my sanity. I did mention it's a small room, right? In 2 days I spent 21hrs painting.. yes, actual painting time of 21hrs... coat after coat of white paint. And you know what my white walls did?? They showed up the fact that my white skirting and white door were discoloured!! Off to buy more paint... 

When I look at the room now, it was so worth it, but at the time I was ready to call it a day. 

My Workspace

I wanted it to be functional, with everything to hand, but not cluttered either. I think I achieved it. IKEA storage is just amazing. From the big Expedit unit to the little utensil containers, IKEA made this whole process so much easier. 

So, on the desk I have my printer, which makes me very happy. It used to be on the cabinet behind me and it was a pain to have to keep dragging cables out. I would love an wireless printer, but hey we can't have everything :) 

I also have 2 little storage towers. Not sure the pink goes with anything in the room but a girl has to have a  little bit of pink in her life, right? In those towers I have inks, tools (crop-a-dile, stapler, etc) and some random bits and bobs. 

For all my bottles of glue I got white Variera boxes. The plain white seem to be discontinued and in place of them they are stocking white ones with colours on the inside but they do have deeper ones in the Pluggis Series. 

These little Bygel containers are so great. They come in white, but also in a range of other colours too.  All you need is the Bygel rail to hold them. Great for twine, washi tape, pens, small tools, stickles, etc.. erm.. I think I have an irrational fear of some world shortage on Star Dust Stickles.

Above my desk - again, IKEA had the perfect solution for displaying some swaps & gifts - the Ribba photo ledge. On the ledge right now - from left to right - and altered paintbrush from Nicole, altered nested boxes from Delia, altered wooden S, in my favourite colour!!, from DeeDee and framed drawing from Cheryl of Sassy Cheryl. I have another altered brush and a couple of small canvases to go up there soon. 

The Storage

I'm sure everyone is familiar with IKEA Expedit. And isn't the IKEA website just great, gives all the dimensions of each piece of storage so you can measure everything up before you go. That way you KNOW it's going to fit when you bring it home..... except when you don't take things like skirting boards and built-in cabinet surrounds into consideration. Ooops!! Yeah.. cue much cussing from one husband while he ripped off skirting boards and architrave.. and that would be the freshly painted skirting and architrave!!..but.. see, it did fit after all, lol. 

And after I filled the BIG ONE, I needed more... Another trip to IKEA. Oh, and that jar on top? that's one of 6 I bought. There are 4 different sizes in the Korken range. I am using them for flowers, buttons & lace. The little one you can see beside the wicker basket.. that will be altered for a swap I'm doing. 

You can just about see my paper rack in the bottom left of the photo. 

.....and of course you always have to have hand lotion and nail oil on your craft table?? 

 There is still a bit of tweaking to do as far as where everything is placed within the units, but I will figure that out as I go along.  Here are some pictures of the way it is now... 

Distress Inks, distress ink markers, paints, canvases, journals, etc

Copic pens and refills, A4 card in the file folders. In the wicker baskets I have embossing folders, flowers and Nestabilities. 

Tags, chipoard & tickets

Spools of lace, twine & ribbon, boxes with charms & magnetic die cut storage. 

Alterables - chipboard albums, shadowboxes, wooden shapes...

DS tape, glue dots, foam tape. You have no idea how quickly I get through this stuff.

Distress re-inkers, WOW! clear embossing powders, WOW! Melt It and some glitters 

And now I have somewhere to hide the chocolate from my hubby. These will be travelling the miles across the ocean very soon.

So there it is. I am 95% done. I still have some small boxes left to sort through, and some boxes of supplies to finish packing up - which I am donating to the school. It's taken the best part of 3 weeks to get this far. It was definitely a lot more work than I had anticipated, but it's done and I love it. 

I know I am extremely fortunate to 1) have a room dedicated to my hobby 2) have the resources to be able to buy the things I needed and 3) have had so much help from my hubby with trips to IKEA and putting everything together for me. Hopefully, after a couple of days rest, and just enjoying looking at it, I can put my new room to good use and get back to doing what I love doing - making pretty things!! 

Sandie

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