Craftgrrl

Okay, here's what I'm doing...
One wall is just going to be corkboard, so I can put patterns, dirctions, etc. against that wall I'm going to make a desk from 2 fil cabinets and a flat old door ( it's cheap and there's storage for mags, plans, etc.) Then the Container Store has so you can organize a closet or whatever, I'm going to do the wall across with those metal shelves and wire baskets, so everything can be organized and have it's own bin. Then stick a wooden card table in the middle and you're good to go! Hope this helps.

you could modify it a bit. What about if you see what they use and go to like Home Depot and just get the metal or wooden Shelves and instead of wire baskets use plastic clothing boxes. Closeout stores like Big Lots have these shoes boxes for 49 cents and sweater boxes for like 79-99 cents. make sure they're clear, the you can also label the with printed label.

No prob..that's like my fav store...I just bought tons of those boxes

Make sure that you have hardwood or lino flooring! You so do not want to be picking needles/glitter/tiny beads out of the carpet. Plastic flooring is cheap, and means easy sweep up clean up. Nothing sucks more than stepping on pins, or the floor being covered in thread, feathers, glitter, and fake snow. Some vacuums have issues with tiny tiny things.

If you do a lot of sewing, make a cutting table. Just find a regular table that is at least 60" wide, and prop it up on bricks or paint cans so you don't have to bend down to cut. Your back will thank you. Think about covering it in cork, and then paper, so you can stick tacks right into the fabric and to the table. A la Not Martha project.

Have lotsa shelves or cupboards to put all your stuff in. Make sure they aren't too deep, so you're not always rummaging through stuff. Boards nailed to the walls with the lids of glass jars nailed into them are good. You can screw the jar, and it hangs there nicely, all of them lined up.

Hmm! I see your point about the carpet. Maybe you could get one of those hard plastic computer mats, the ones with the prickleys on the underneath. I'm sure they either sell it by the square foot at the hardware store, or you can find a big one at like, Office Depot or Staples. It might be pricey, but perhaps worth it?

For the jar project, take a cheap wooden ikea shelf, and take some mason or other jars. Take the lids off the jars and nail them to the underneath of the shelf. You can then screw the jar into the lid, and it'll hang underneath the shelf, so you can see what's in it. This is good because it leaves space on top of the shelf for other stuff. Here is my crappy diagram! :) Hope that helps.

Ooo, another idea for organizing ribbons, is getting a small dowel rod, two curtain rod hangers, the ones that stick away from the wall. String your spools of ribbon on the rod, and pop it into the hangers, and voila! Insta organization. Pegboards can be used to hold thread... or you may just want to invest and buy a thread organizer from a sewing shop. A filing cabinet is really useful for patterns and how-to sheets, as well as a space to stash your stencils, designs, and pictures of your finished project. I'm turning a room in my dad's office into my "craft" room, and since he's in the plumbing industry, there's a big table that stretches across one wall on a slant. It's great for drawing out design ideas because it's gentler on the hand, and I can see bold designs from far across the room because the paper is at an angle.

A drying line is a good idea as well, for you to string projects that need to dry, or fabric that needs to hang because it's cut on the bias. I'll try to think of more ideas...

Get some flat surfaces. I have two: one for keeping stuff that is in progress (and thus is always cluttered) and one that I use for what I am working on right now (and thus is clear except when i am working on something). I got a couple of wooden work benches from Home Depot and the like, and I use those.

Get some of those rolling carts on wheels with storage drawers, for storing your crafty stuff. You can move them around the room to where you need them to be.

Have good lighting in the room, and have a really good, comfortable chair. You're going to spend a lot of time in this room (we hope)!

If you'll be using toxic substances or things with fumes, make sure you have proper ventilation and you protect your work surfaces and your floor.

Make places to hang your creations once you are done - they give you inspiration! Depending on what you make, this could be cork boards, metal plates for magnets, ceiling hooks for mobiles and wind chines, etc.

Good luck!

lots of counter or table top space to spread out...a piece of playwood for $15 or less can act as a HUGE table top or pieces of pre-fab counter top can be had for $30-50 for 5-10 linear feet, which is not indestructable, but can certainly stand hot glue, mod podge, paint, etc.

I haven't done this yet, but I have a bedroom I want to turn into a craft room too. Right now it's just full of packrat stuff. I am having a yard sale this spring and then I will create my craft room.

One thing I was considering for flat surfaces, since my room is really small, is making tables that have hinges on one edge so they can be tipped up vertically when not in use. They would be mounted on the wall. I'm not sure exactly how I'm going to accomplish this, but something like those ironing boards that are stored in a flat cabinet on the wall, and tipped out when you want to use them. I was going to rent the musical "An American in Paris" for inspiration, because there is this scene near the beginning with Gene Kelly dancing in his tiny flat, which has lots of hidden storage and fold-away stuff in it. ^_^

Lots of storage space. In my case, it has to be cat proof. I have a lot of big plastic storage bins, so I was thinking of building shelves that accommodate the large bins on the bottom row, on the floor. Smaller bins and boxes would be on the shelves above. The shelves I've built in the past have been just 2x4s and plywood, and they have served me well, so I'll probably do that again. It's cheaper than buying something, and I can customize to fit my space.

I love the Wall of Cork idea! I might want a flannel wall too, for quilting, though my patchwork efforts so far have been really free-form and haven't required a design wall. The cork cutting table is a great idea, too.

I, too, have carpet that I would dread ripping up. I might resort to spreading a sheet on the floor when I'm working, to catch pins and bitty dropped things.

if you had access to a chalkboard, you could make one wall corkboard for sticking things up and one wall chalk/dry erase board for drawing ideas.

on not martha, they made a cutting table type thing. it was basically a table with cork board on top, wrapped in kraft paper. someone go find thism dear craftgrrl a link! I have to go do a research paper, and i'm off.

I think I got a pretty large piece of MDF (medium density fiberboard, iirc) at home depot tres cheap ($4, maybe? Maybe a bit more). Makes a great table top (they use it for EVERYTHING on Trading Spaces, Changing Rooms and The Christopher Lowell Show). I threw on some balusters (sp?) and now I have fancy table legs. The legs were $4 each. *grin*

Chalkboard - they make chalkboard paint, in both brush on and spray, in both green and black. They also make black magnet paint. You could get a smaller piece of MDF (or hell, a big ol' piece!) and put a few layers of the magnet paint on, then, say, 2 layers of the chalkboard paint on. Now you have a workable note taking surface that will also hold your magnets! Add a piece of cork next to it on the wall and you're stylin'.

I'm going to cover the top of my table with the chalkboard paint, so I can write directly on one side of the table. The spray paint is approximately $3 for a normal sized can.

Helpful to have a place where you can set up your ironing board and just leave it there all the time. Very handy I've noticed.

Don't forget thrift stores and yard sales for stuff - storage, chairs, desks. Get creative - an old entertainment center can easily become a craft center, especially if you screw some boards in where the teevee used to be to make shelves. I've see entertainment centers go around here for $20-40 - that's a lot of storage. And you can paint it and decorate it so it looks snazzy.

You can get a cheap coffee table for $5-10, rip off the legs and add some boards from Home Depot (like the aforementioned balusters (that can't be the right spelling - I think they're the things that either go vertically in the rail of a staircase, or the things that go vertically in a fence) would work just fine. Put casters on the bottom and you have a moveable "sofa table" that would be great to use, especially if you'd like to do some crafting in the living room while watching teevee with the family or something - you can wheel it in and over your lap while you sit in a chair, then wheel it back in your room when you're done for the night.

Damn, I think I'll have to go do that myself - I'm sick of my laptray that doesn't fit in my chair. Heh.

Well, there are some suggestions. *grin* Just let your imagination go when you visit the home improvement store and the thrift store - don't necessarily use something for it's "intended" use - there's plenty of other uses for just about EVERYTHING!

Have fun!

~Kissy, transforming her former computer/costume office into her computer/costume/crafting office (it's a huge room, heh).

The adorable Christopher Lowell says it's interchangable with plywood. So if something calls for plywood you can use MDF. I think it's cheaper. And it's really smooth. And it takes paint really well. And it's easy to cut into any shape you can possibly imagine. It's just all around great stuff. ;)

Good luck! I'm still trying to clean my room so I can get it organized into sections (I didn't clean it all winter. Ick. It's a cluttered MESS! *LOL*).

:)

~Kissy

for some ideas, visit
http://www.concentric.net/~fo2945/parchcrafting/rubberroom.html
http://www.concentric.net/~fo2945/parchcrafting/storage.html