My Craft Room – After

Oh my gosh, y’all.  I am so excited to share my after pics with you.  To see the before pictures of my craft room/office click HERE.  Otherwise, here is my room after doing a bunch of organizing and decorating!

I tried pretty hard to use what I had to decorate and furnish the room and really limited the purchases I made.  Here are a couple of links to some of the things I did buy though and am pretty happy with. (The Amazon links are affiliate links but all the others are not!)

While I had a desk that housed my computer and could hold my sewing machine in a compartment, too, I wanted to have a designated space just for my sewing machine.  After looking around a lot for something in my budget I decided that this was the one for me. SEI Laminate Wheeled Sewing Table, White
 My husband put it together for me and it took him about 45 minutes to do that, without a lot of complaining either.  🙂

Ok, so see the funky patterned chair in the corner?  NO ONE I showed it to liked it.  Not my husband when we were in the store, not my sister who saw a pic of it on my phone, etc.  But you know what?  That was ok.  It is going in my room and it only matters if I like it!!  And I don’t just like it, I love it.  It was a STEAL at World Market for $129.  The colors and the pattern are so fun and bold and they really pop in the rest of the subdued decor of the room.  I got the pouf at Amazon and it was also a good deal at around $60.  Cotton Craft – Hand Knitted Cable Style Dori Pouf – Green – Floor Ottoman – 100% Cotton Braid Cord – Handmade & Hand stitched – Truly one of a kind seating – 20 Dia x 14 High

Oh man, this hutch used to belong to my parents and it wasn’t my favorite.  When you’re young and newly married though and people give you furniture because you have none, you gladly accept it and make-do!  A couple of years ago I painted it white as it was formerly a yellowy-shellaqued pine piece.  Now it feels a bit less like the JC Penney country-piece that it was and I like it.  I painted the backs of the shelves a light blue to contrast with the starkness of the white.  I do not like the purple lamp at all but am planning on painting it and making my own shade for it.  I placed things on the shelves that are special to me.  The goal of this room was to make it my Happy Place and incorporating things that are personal to me was such a big part of that.

I’m still not 100% happy with the lighting in the room yet but this one light does make me smile.  A few years ago my husband got me one of these paper star lanterns and I just didn’t have a good place to put it.  Now it hangs overhead above my reading chair in this room and I love it!!  At night it looks so lovely all lit up!

This is the wall just above my desk.  It was key to give myself something fun, creative, and inspirational to look at and each of these things incorporate all of those ideals.

This is one of my favorite possessions.  My great-grandfather drew this by hand and the intricacy of the work is simply mind-boggling.  He wasn’t an artist by trade, he worked in county government in England in the early 1900’s but he obviously had a talent.  I adore this piece and it is the only thing I requested when my grandmother was asking what she could bequeath to me.  It brings me so much happiness whenever I look at it.

The window seat was something fun I wanted to include.  I have a great view out that window that looks out towards a very heavily treed park just down the street.  When it snows (however rarely that is) the view out there is breaktakingly beautiful so now I have my own special place to sit and enjoy it.  The base cabinets are two very inexpensive pieces I bought several years ago from a site called Country Door.  These are not heirloom pieces by any stretch of the imagination but as often as I like to switch things up, they were a good buy.  And actually they have held up remarkably well.  They house a lot of things, too.  The cushion was a great find at Overstock.com.  It’s made to go outdoors so it will resist fading while being in the sunlight of that window.  As an added bonus, the cushion zips in the back so I can remove it and wash it when my dog hangs out with me in there, as she is already keen on doing.  LOL  I got the ruffled valance at Overstock, too, just in case you were curious.

She loves this spot and I just can’t begrudge her the pleasure of sitting there.  <3

As another fun and whimsical touch, I hung this old stained glass window in there.  When my youngest son was a baby we had it in his nursery so whenever I look at it the emotions I feel are such a mix of happiness and nostalgia.  It’s another one of my favorite things.  Why shouldn’t we surround ourselves with things that make us happy?!

Now, here is something that I was inspired to do by so many bloggers on Pinterest.  I pinned picture after picture of some truly beautifully done pegboards.  Some that had been painted fun colors, some that had been framed with really cool and ornate frames and all with some really great organizing ideas.  To see the ones that inspired me, just go to my Craft Room board on Pinterest.

My room isn’t quite done and I suspect it will always be a work in progress.  Right now, just have a room to myself is still new and a bit of a novelty so I’m taking some time and getting to know the space and changing things if they need to be changed.  Without a doubt the things stored on the pegboard will change as I get a feel for the way I work in there.

I hope that you read this and are inspired to claim a little bit of your home just for yourself.  This space isn’t big, maybe 9×11, and I have seen people do amazing things with a corner in their bedroom or kitchen.  So take stock of your home and give yourself the gift of space to be free to do something special, whether it’s reading books, journaling, knitting, sewing, whatever tickles your fancy.  Just do something special for you!!