Do you often put off starting a craft project because the thought of setting everything up on the kitchen table seems like too much trouble? Then if you don’t finish the project in one day, everything sits out on the table for days on end making a mess in the center of the house. Or maybe you have to make the time at the end of the day to put everything away so the family can eat dinner at the table that night. Honestly, it’s just too much trouble. Do you put off all those craft projects and they never seem to get done? Do you have bags of supplies just waiting to be put to use? Does any of this sound even remotely familiar?
I am blessed to have an extra room in the house that is designated as my craft room. But in all honesty, not a whole lot of crafting has been occurring there. Actually…there has been absolutely no crafting going on in there!
The reality is that the room has become a hot mess storage room. I waste endless hours looking for items I need, digging through boxes and moving stacks of items from one pile over to another pile. Nothing is organized or easy to find. Everything is piled up in boxes and stacked up in the center of the room. Is this something you can relate to?
I can no longer just close the door and pretend it doesn’t exist. I’ve decided that it’s finally time to address this hot mess and transform it into a useful work space where I can let my creativity loose. A space where all the supplies I need are at my fingertips, within easy reach and easy to find, not hidden in unmarked boxes or buried under piles of decor items. A space where I can leave a project out overnight without it creating a mess in the main living areas of the house.
Not only does the space need to be tidy and organized but I want to create a beautiful environment that draws me in and encourages creativity. And if that’s not enough, it also needs to be done on a budget. That’s a pretty tall order but not impossible!
If my father taught me anything he taught me how to be frugal! I love the challenge of taking something most people would toss into the trash and transforming it into something that is both useful and beautiful. The last thing I want to do is fill my house with tacky, ugly furniture pieces. One thing I’ve learned over the years, with a little elbow grease it’s easy to transform ordinary items into beautiful, custom pieces for just pennies on the dollar. And no-one will ever need to know how little you spent.
Keep reading to see how I transformed my hot mess of a room into an organized, useful craft room where I can now spend countless hours crafting and creating. I will be sharing tips and ideas for some clever inexpensive storage ideas that you can easily recreate in your home. Let’s get the not so fun stuff out of the way right off the bat so we can move on to the fun part!
1. Measure the space.
Get out a tape measure and write down the measurements of the space. I’m a visual person so I like to draw out the space on a sheet of graph paper. Be sure to note any windows, doors or fixed obstacles that may impact where you can place furniture. This step is critical! When you find something for your space you want to be sure it will fit. The only way to know for sure is if you have those measurements on hand. I use the “Notes” app on my phone and that way I have the information with me where ever I go. I never leave home without it.
2. Determine your budget.
Before buying anything shop your house first to see if you have any furniture that you can repurpose. Do you have an old desk, a table or a dresser in another room that you could use in the space? Do you have any old furniture tucked away in the garage that could be refinished and repurposed?
If you are on a tight budget, check local garage sales, thrift stores, and consignment stores. Don’t let the finish on a piece stop you from purchasing a bargain. If you love the shape of a piece, if it’s the right size for your space, and the price is right; grab it! It’s easy to change the color of almost anything with chalk paint or a couple coats of spray paint. Check out these links for step by step instructions on How To Transform Old, Dated Wood Furniture with Chalk Paint or DIY How to Chalk Paint Wood Furniture. It’s easier than you think to transform an old dated piece of furniture and turn it into a unique piece that you will love for years to come.
Marketplace, Ebay or Craigslist are fabulous online resources for finding affordable treasures. I’ve not only found some wonderful items for my home using these online resources, but I’ve sold quite a few items over the years as well. Have some old pieces of furniture to sell? Use the proceeds from items you sell to purchase something you can use to furnish your space.
3. Determine Flow and Functionality of the Space
If you have the space, utilize the perimeter of the room for storage and set up your work surface in the center of the room. This affords you easy access to supplies and keeps them within easy reach. When everything is only a few steps away, getting what you need and putting it away is simple and easy. That’s a successful formula to keeping your craft area neat and tidy.
4. Inventory Your Stuff
If you have the space to do it, remove everything from the room and group like items together. Just know that it’s going to get a lot messier before it gets better. Group all your paper items together, sewing materials together, decor items together. If you don’t have the space, do the best you can and group like items together in the room.
TIP: This is a great time to purge and get rid of supplies you know you will never use again. Consider donating excess craft supplies to a school or nursing home.
The goal is to get a general idea of what kinds of items you have, and how much of it that you have so you can decide the best way to store everything. If you have a lot of floral picks storing them away in boxes might not be the best storage solution.
Seasonal decor items are probably best stored on harder to reach shelves where they are easy to see and grab when you need them but out of the way for the rest of the year when you aren’t using them. Fabric can be stored in drawers or in a cabinet. The type of crafting you enjoy doing will determine the supplies you have and what types of storage solutions you will need.
I’m personally a very visual person and I like to be able to look around and see what I have on hand. It’s easy for me to forget about supplies I have on hand if they are tucked away in a cabinet or stashed in cardboard boxes. I like to be able to see what I have on hand at a glance. Knowing what you already have will save you loads of money since you won’t be purchasing items you already have but just can’t seem to find when you need it. Can anybody out there relate? Sigh…
5. Declutter & Purge, Purge, Purge
This is the perfect time to move any miscellaneous items or furniture out of the space that don’t belong. Things like boxes of your kids clothes, old toys, cleaning supplies or anything else that doesn’t belong in the space needs to go. Either find a space to relocate those items in another area of your home, donate it, or sell it. A functional craft room shouldn’t be a storage room for all those items that don’t have a designated space in your home.
The hallway outside my craft room was an absolute disaster for a couple weeks while I organized and determined what I was going to keep in the room, donate or relocate to another area of the house. The organization process is a messy process but it’s worth it once you get through it.
6. Purchase or Repurpose Furniture for a Work Surface
There are two purposes for furniture in a craft room. One is for storage and the other is to provide a work surface. Bonus if you can find pieces that serve both purposes. I’ve been on the hunt for an inexpensive craft table for a while and my husband happened to find an affordable one listed on Marketplace. It was the perfect solution for my space.
This table is a counter height table that is just the right size for the room, not too big and not too small. It’s large enough for me to spread out projects I’m working on but small enough that I can still easily walk around it and not feel cramped in the space. I love that it has cubbies on both ends where I can store the craft tools and supplies I use most often. Everything I need is within reach where I can easily get to it when I need it. No rummaging through drawers or boxes looking for a pair of scissors or a roll of tape.
You could easily refinish an old dining room table and purchase a small rolling cart that you can store under the table for the supplies you use most often. Ikea has an affordable cart called the Raskog that comes in various colors for only $30. There’s a reason why it’s one of their best selling items.
If you are working with a smaller space and don’t have room for a table consider using a desk along the wall. Look for one with drawers or shelves for extra storage. A roll top desk makes a great crafting work space. Not only does it have tons of cubbies and drawers for storing items, the top rolls down to hide away a mess when you are done crafting for the day. You can easily find these desks on Marketplace for a song. I’ve even seen them listed for free!
Don’t worry about the color. Pretty much anything can be painted to match your decor.
7. Storage Solutions
Finally we are at the fun part! Well if you are an organizing junkie like me this is the fun part…LOL. Even if you don’t feel like you have an organizing bone in your entire body, you can do this! Let’s break it down into manageable bites.
There are two basic storage options, open shelving or closed storage such as drawers, bins, boxes or baskets. Before you go out and purchase a bunch of bins or boxes think about ways you can make storing your supplies as attractive as possible. If you can come up with attractive storage options you can keep more of it out where it’s visible, which makes it so much easier to find what you need.
Remember when I asked you to sort like items together? Well now you have a better idea how much storage space and what kind of storage options you will need for those items; whether it can be displayed on open shelving or if it can be stored in a drawer, box or bin.
Now is the time to purchase containers to store your items if you have determined you need them. There are so many options to choose from. Instead of just heading straight for the plastic bins, which are a perfectly acceptable option, I’m challenging you to think outside the box and consider unusual, creative ways to store items.
Instead of storing twine in an unattractive plastic box wrap it around wooden clothes pins and place them in a glass jar. Not only can you see what you have on hand, it’s pretty too!
Use glass jars to store small items like buttons, beads and miscellaneous baubles. Not only is it easy to see exactly what you have on hand, it looks so much nicer than plastic bins.
TIP: Don’t toss out those empty glass marinara sauce jars, olive jars, or jelly jars. Wash them and then soak them in a sink full of hot water overnight. The label will peel off easily the next morning. Use Goof-Off to remove any glue residue left behind on the glass.
Do you have vases or pitchers to display? Store post it notes and other supplies in them when they are not being used. Baskets also make attractive storage containers.
Think about reconfiguring a closet by adding shelving to store supplies. Storing bins on shelves makes it so much easier to grab what you need. If you have a stack of bins on the floor and need to get to the one at the bottom, you will need to move all those boxes on top out of the way to get to what you need. You know whatever you need is always going to be in the box at the very bottom! Ugh!
Installing shelves isn’t all that difficult if you possess some basic woodworking skills or you have a good friend who is willing to help you. If you can measure, make straight cuts and feel reasonably comfortable using power tools and a drill you can easily install shelves and convert a standard closet into a more functional storage space. It’s a great rainy weekend project. Give those shelves a coat of paint and you have both an attractive and functional storage space.
Keep an eye out for shallow shelving units. Shallow shelves are perfect for storing smaller items like acrylic paints, spools of ribbon, twine, and other small craft items and supplies.
Shelves can be mounted directly onto the wall or placed on top of other storage units. If you place a shallow shelving unit on a piece of furniture be sure to secure it so that it doesn’t tip over. It’s also a good idea to keep a step stool nearby so you can easily get to items that are hard to reach.
Keep in mind that open shelving makes it easy to see the supplies you have on hand, a definite bonus. But open shelving also makes the space much more visually busy. Too much of it can be overwhelming and make your space feel cluttered. Try to incorporate both open and closed shelving for a neater, tidy look that’s still practical.
I struggled for ways to store greenery and floral picks. Storing them in lidded plastic bins can easily crush or crease delicate petals. These decorative containers gave me a great idea on a better way to store greenery.
TIP: If you don’t have decorative containers on hand, mount inexpensive plastic waste bins that you can purchase at the Dollar Store to the wall for a useful way to store floral picks and greenery.
Hang decorative containers on the wall and use them to hold seasonal greenery and floral picks when not in use elsewhere in your home.
TIP: Think about your favorite boutique and how they display items. Get creative and think outside the box. Remember, storage doesn’t have to consist of just stacks of ugly plastic bins.
If you have the wall space use 3M removable adhesive hooks to hang seasonal wreaths. Using removable adhesive hooks makes it easy to reconfigure them when you create additional wreaths and need to move them around. Plus it keeps your walls from being turned into Swiss cheese.
No matter what storage options you decide to use in your space, KEEP IT SIMPLE and use items you already own in creative ways to make storing items as attractive as possible. Think about your favorite boutique and how they display items. Instead of tucking away items in boxes, exhibit your favorite things to reflect your personality and interests.
As a blogger I take loads of pictures and now I finally have a spot to display a couple of my favorite vintage cameras from my collection.
Learn how to make this Sisal Planter. This easy DIY transforms an unattractive plastic container into a lovely textural sisal planter.
Try to find storage solutions that make it easier to put items back where they belong than setting them down temporarily to be put away later. We all know how that ends…clutter, clutter everywhere! If you create a beautiful space that’s user friendly and easy to maintain, it will be a lot easier to keep it that way.
When it comes to storage solutions: Make the easy way, the right way.
Store less attractive plastic containers in a closet or behind cabinet doors.
Display decorative items on open shelving in the room.
Transform a tired, dated bookcase with a coat of paint to give it a facelift. Even if pieces of furniture don’t match they will work well together if painted in the same color.
I repurposed an extra leaf from an old table that I never use. It now serves as the perfect topper for these storage cubes.
Unmatched pieces will have a more cohesive look when painted the same color. Giving everything a coat of paint not only updates tired pieces but it’s a great inexpensive way to pull everything together. Never underestimate the impact a coat of paint can have. Paint can transform almost anything!
If you are fortunate enough to have a dresser to utilize, consider using a couple of the drawers as a handy gift wrapping station. Having everything you need at your fingertips will make it a snap to wrap up a pretty package in no time. No more hunting down scraps of wrapping paper, bits of ribbon, cards, scissors, or tape from all different locations in the house.
Use decorative boxes to store gift tags and cards within easy reach.
Try to keep the items you use most often close at hand so they are within easy reach.
It took me a little over a month to go from this unorganized hot mess of a room:
To this neat, tidy, organized space that allows my creative side to flourish:
I guess it’s time to get going on some craft projects!!! I doubt anyone will ever know that everything in the room was either repurposed or purchased second hand. It can be our little secret. Never under-estimate the power of paint. It’s such an easy and inexpensive way to transform even the most dated, worn pieces of furniture and give them new life. The investment of time and a little elbow grease will transform tired old pieces for a fraction of what it would cost to purchase new.
BEFORE 
AFTER
I sincerely hope I inspired you and provided some helpful tips to motivate you to get your crafting space organized. Don’t try to do everything in one day or even one weekend. It took me about a month to get my space cleaned up and organized. Remember, Rome wasn’t built in a day and neither will an organized craft room. Take your time so you avoid purchasing items on a whim, only to realize it doesn’t really meet your needs.
The final tally? I repurposed furniture, built shelves in the closet with scrap wood pieces leftover from other home improvement projects, purchased a few items from Marketplace (shelves, bookcases, craft table, metal barstools), and added a couple new items from IKEA (Raskog rolling cart, Moppet drawers, desk lamp). Toss in some chalk paint and wax to tie everything together and the entire room came in at well under $400.
You truly can create a beautiful, organized, useful space on a budget. Just take your time, and don’t try to do too much all at once. Cut yourself some slack and just keep plugging away at it a little at a time. Just know that it will get worse before it gets better. But if you consistently plug away at it, your consistency will pay off and you will end up with a beautiful space that is uniquely yours and works to suit your needs the best.
Taking your time will allow you to create an eclectic space that will truly reflect your own unique personality without breaking the bank. And the best part? It will be a personalized one of a kind space that will make you smile every time you walk in the door.
Did You Try Any Of These Organization Ideas?
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I love it!
This is the most beautiful organized craft space I have ever seen!
It’s a great space to get creative!