Hydrangeas and Harmony: Craft Room

So I hinted that a craft room reveal was going to happen when I posted my paper storage and die storage.

It's here! The time has come! The grand reveal may finally be... revealed!
(Lol can you tell I'm excited about this one??) This really ended up being one of our bigger home reno projects in this house and one that turned out really well. I'll give you all the pics and details, and you can see it for yourself. :)

Here's what we started with 10 years ago:

Here was the current "before" with my craft stuff set up as good as it could be:

You can see in this last picture where the closet is. The armoire is sitting against the closet wall between the two doors. You can also see my very "sturdy" Ikea sheet walls in these pics. (Soprano said that the "before" pic looks like a seek n' find. 😝)

That current "before" in late summer/fall 2019 was also the reason for my mini-meltdown that started this whole project. I had started a new job, working part-time from home, and felt like I was living in this depressing, cluttered troll cave. I'm a visual person so all of the "visual" in this space was driving me crazy, and the low lighting was depressing. Just after the meltdown episode, titled The One Where She May Have Gone a Little Crazy, I found this kitchen cabinet set at our local Habitat for Humanity Restore. It was God at work. ;)

Bass got on board pretty quickly, probably based on "the episode", and jumped in with demo. Our basement is unfinished except for the schoolroom, a working brick fireplace, and a brick divider wall about halfway through the basement that had a huge closet on the backside. We decided to give me a bit more space that we'd remove the closet in my craft space area to expand, leaving a smaller closet outside of my craft space. These pictures might help explain:

Linoleum tiles glued onto a board that was nailed to a frame of sorts for the closet floor.

There was paneling galore and a shelf and closet rod that ran the full length of the closet.

After demo was done, we measured and measured again and measured again to come up with a plan to use as many of the thrifted cabinets as possible.

Once we nailed down the plan, we framed in the u-shaped corner where the closet used to be.

No more brick wall on this side.

Along with framing out the old closet area, we framed in and built a wall to replace the long Ikea curtain "wall." My view went from this in mid-construction to solid wall. (I spent several months poring over Pinterest looking for ideas for my space-to-be. lol)

After the walls were up, we painted. I wanted a light, bright cool gray but I think I went one shade too light. I wanted more of a contrast with the trim but when it's sunny outside you can tell more. #alwaysagamblewiththepaint

Once we painted (dry-loc on the cement block, then interior latex with mildew repressant) we put in my new floor! We went back and forth on what type of floor we wanted to install because of potential water issues. I was kind of leaning towards just painting the concrete, but we found enough of this at the Restore at such a great price that we were willing to install it after we waterproofed very well.

So pretty!

Next up was cabinet install. If you look closely at the graph paper plan, you can see that the plan didn't work once we got in here. A lot of the uppers were 42" tall, which was okay on paper but would have made for an awkward 5" backsplash on my long span of countertop. I should have done an elevation rendering too. #lessonlearned Enter plan b...and plan c... and plan d. We ended up with this configuration.

The next steps happened in a very random order so the pics might look like bad movie continuity errors. lol

I found a mini file cabinet at the ReStore (only $10!!). We replaced the handles and placed it in my 'office' area of the room.

Sad file cabinet

Dapper file cabinet

Bass with the help of a friend made and installed the countertops.

Bass with the help of another friend made the open cabinets to hold my paper.

We reused the old closet door and added paneling (from Lowe's) and pallet wood (upcycled) to make a barn-style door.

New doorknob and hinges too

Bass with the help of the cabinet friend cut down a piece of paneling (from the ReStore) to create shiplap for the remaining visible cinder block walls. It's my backsplash as well as an accent wall by the window.

I think I'll create separate posts for the decorating projects and specific organization because this is getting super crazy long. Down the road, I'll share quick posts on my ukulele hanger, my sewing projects (sewing machine cover, sewing chair pillow and seat cover, my Cricut and Scan N Cut machine covers, curtain, ironing board, ruffle curtains, rag wreath, and hexie hoop), my pallet wood sign, and my Funko Pop shelf.

For now, let's get to the long-awaited (and much-celebrated) "afters." 😍

The view when you open the door. (That's the corner that has the pipe running along the wall.)

Once in the door, if you face left (towards the pipe wall and window), you get this view. Office "working" space and sitting height counter is on the front wall. Straight ahead is for cutting machines and all things papercrafting.

A closer look at papercraft corner.

From the corner, papercrafting continues with all of my paper and pocket scrapbooking page protectors living in the "paper palace" (so named by Soprano).

Next to the paper palace, we stacked 42" upper cabinets on top of each other to create a supply "pantry" of sorts. It holds all of stamps, finished cards, 6x6 paper, and other stamping and papercraft supplies.

From there it transitions into my sewing area. This was the former closet area that we expanded into. We created a cutting/ironing counter top by extending the countertop piece past the base cabinet. Above we used old barn wood to create two open shelves.

Next to the cutting counter is my ergonomic (but absurdly short) Ikea desk turned sewing table.

The upper cabinet above was from the ReStore set and didn't have doors. I left it open and covered the back with shelf paper.

And that's it. Such an amazing difference! New, upgraded lighting, extra outlets, a door, walls, more countertop, closed storage, a home for my Funkos... best room in the house!

A quick look back from "before" to "after":