I’m pretty sure you all know I live in an old colonial style home. Our bedroom is on the first floor and we have 3 additional bedrooms upstairs. A few years back we did some rearranging with those rooms. Hannah moved into the bedroom on the back of the house, giving her more room and more privacy. The middle bedroom became a guest room. And Hannah’s old bedroom became my craft room.
I’ll pause for a moment while some of you get over your jealousy.
Are you better now?
Anyway, at the time Dale painted the room for me. It’s got some interesting angles so we went with red paint on the straight walls and taupe on the slanted and low walls. I moved some furniture from other rooms around and wound up with an old bureau and an old chair. I set up my sewing machine and brought my spinning fiber bench into the room. We bought a kitchen island at Ikea and I was set.
It was pretty good but I wasn’t really invested in the room and it got messy.
See? That’s junk piled on top of the center island thingy.
So this fall I made up my mind to clean up and organize and reclaim the space.
It was pretty good once I got the junk put away. That bureau is full of my fabric stash. And I love having my swift and ball winder set up all the time.
I had this chair in the corner and, while it looked fine, I never sat there. It’s not a very comfortable chair and it just didn’t give that cozy feeling I wanted. There was no place for yarn storage so all my yarn was still downstairs on the bookshelves in the room that’s truly Dale’s office.
So we made a plan and after several trips to Ikea I had a much better space to use. We moved the bureau of fabric into the attic and added two new bookcases for yarn storage and books. We also bought a new and very comfortable chair for that corner. Wanna see?
Here’s a view of the whole room from the doorway. You can see that the island piece is a great spot for wrapping gifts.
And here is my new oh-so-comfy chair from Ikea. We were all set to buy it at full price for $199 when we checked the discount department and found the exact same chair for $135 instead. The reason it was discounted? It was assembled. I think Ikea is the only store in the world that charges you less for having something assembled. The chair is perfect for spinning and I have sat there so many times already! It’s wonderful.
The bookcases are on either side of the window and they hold (almost) all my yarn and knitting books. There’s even an empty section on this one. Room for expansion! Yay!
And in this corner is my spinning bench/drawer which holds all my spinning fiber, along with a couple of Longaberger baskets full of handspun and cotton. It’s all neat and organized and great.
My space is so much more pleasant and I’m truly invested in the room now. It’s easy to keep it neat and tidy and I love spending time in there.
The only thing missing? Heat. Damn it.
*Love* it – will have to refer back to yours when I get a little farther along with mine. At least I’ve got a comfy chair and bookcases – the rest has a ways to go yet.
Oh, so lovely! Why would you EVER want to leave? (I’m talking for myself, of course – I am SUCH a nester…)
Wow!
What a lovely room! I was going to make my spare room a guest room but I already have one and that spare room has been functioning as nothing but a storage space for things I don’t want/need and furniture that has been passed on. I just recently decided it was going to be my craft room. I love the kitchen island idea – you’ve given me inspiration to get my conversion done asap. Thanks for sharing the photos! Happy Crafting!
What else can I say…..I LOVE IT!!!!
My heart skipped a beat when I got to the “after” pictures! Fantastic!
Where is the jealous button? Those bookcases are beautiful with all that yarny goodness. But the heat. . . lol?
Carole it looks great!! You could almost open a yarn store….just sayin’ 😉
xoxo
It looks great, Carole! I hope you find the right heating solution to allow you to enjoy that fancy fiber room even more.
You just gave me some great ideas for my computer room. Now if we only had an ikea nearby! Maybe some online shopping is in order.
It looks fantastic! What a great space.
You can get really cute room heaters that look like woodstoves from Home Depot. This was a great solution for my husband’s office that sits on top of slab at the opposite side of the house from the furnace.
Wow. Just… Wow. What a beautiful room. I think I would never leave. Well, maybe just occasionally, to get chocolate.
They are building a huge IKEA in Denver area. I think it is slated to be done next year sometime (I don’t really remember). I can’t WAIT until it opens.
WOW! Just…WOW! (okay, I know the part of the country you live in…you need heat, grrl!)
(((hugs)))
Beautiful!
I wish I had room in my home for all my stuff!
Maybe someday!
Swoonworthy. So jealous.
Sixty five of us think it is beautiful! And you have such a small stash!
I love your craft room – it’s such an inspiration! Would it be possible to post a link on your sidebar to it so that some of us can find it quickly when we need a little lift or inspiration?
Lucky you!! Your room is lovely! We have a room like that, but it’s our master bedroom. I’ve been trying to convert the basement (or at least part of it) to a craft room for a few years now, but it always ends up being a junk receptacle.
Your craft room looks fabulous and very craft-friendly.
I am totally in love with your new craft room! And I can highly recommend getting one of the space heaters that looks like an old time radiator – they are fabulous.
And I’m a bit “jealous” because I could never leave my yarn and fiber exposed like this.. my kitties would tear it to shreds in moments ! hah