The 2018 Craft Room Challenge has come to end and it’s time to showoff the results of 5 weeks of cleaning, organizing, and purging! All I can say is that I really needed this challenge to give me the push I needed to transform my hot mess of a crafting area into a new Tropical Craft Room oasis (watch the video tour at the end)!
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Craft Room Before
If you remember, this is what I started with in week 1…
Before Craft Room Issues:
- Craft items are not grouped together and organized – solved with plastic storage and storage bins.
- Not enough functional storage area (my main issue) – solved by building a peg board, adding paint shelves, and storage cubes.
- Hard to find items in stacked unlabeled containers – solved by labeling my containers.
- Work area is too small – solved by building a large storage desk.
- Storage for large stencils + Silhouette mats – solved by hanging on walls or the side of my bookcases.
- No task lighting -solved by ordering a clip on lamp and changed out bulbs to daylight blubs.
- Decorate – solved by shopping my house, thrift stores, and discount stores.
As you just saw, my craft area was a HUGE craptastic mess! My craft stash had spilled over into my dining area (not shown), my small craft table was buried under too many craft supplies, and I didn’t have designated places to store my items.
The Road to the Tropical Craft Room Oasis
Week 1 & 2 – A chaotic mess.
I cleared off my small craft table, but I had no place to put all the items I cleared off. I was basically moving stuff from one area to another. To fix this issue, I knew I needed to build a larger craft table with storage. So, I used an Ikea table top (similar one, but slightly larger) that was sitting in our garage and two cube storage units as the ‘legs’ for my new larger craft table. Next, I began the tedious task of sorting my craft supplies. I placed larger items into the cube storage bins and smaller items in plastic shoe containers.
Week 3 – Building
I began building my craft supply peg board, did more craft supply purging, hung paint shelves, patched/painted wall holes, and started planning the decorative aspects of my tropical craft room. Again, since my main issue was craft storage, I took advantage of the vertical space in my room. I built a framed peg board to display craft items I use often and added paint shelves to an odd angled wall for my overflowing paint collection.
Week 4 – Decorating
I thought about creating a farmhouse look or a bright colorful craft room, but quickly realized that I really enjoy the look of dark woods and tropical beach vibes (think Hawaiian islands). I guess you can take the girl out of Hawaii, but you can’t take Hawaii out of the girl 🙂 This worked out perfectly because my new tropical craft room happens to be open to the rest of the house, which has tropical elements scattered throughout. So, I shopped my own home, thrift stores, home discount stores, and Amazon for the finishing touches.
My inspiration jumping point was this tropical patterned chair cushion ⇑ that I found at Ross Dress for Less. I used the colors in the chair cushion to pick out the curtains, create a fun “weapons of mass creation” printable, and for the overall vibe of the remaining decorations. You can find similar items to create this look below ⇓⇓
I hope you enjoyed the tour of my new tropical craft room! I love my new space and how everything is organized and has its own home. It sure makes crafting so much easier when I can find things!
UPDATE 4/2018
I had a stash of fabric in several bins that needed to be organized. What I hated the most about having my fabric in bins was having to dig through it to find what I needed at the very bottom. Thus, I decided to try to vertical fabric storage. You can check out my post to see how I did it –>> Vertical Fabric Storage Using Foam Board.
Wow! so very cool ideas shared in the video. It was great to see an organized and well appointed space. Lovely textures and colors incorporated.
https://www.colossalumbrella.com/
Your craft room is wonderful! I love the details that you added and how well you have organized everything.
I’m not even going to lie…I’m a bit jealous! Lucky you!
WOW! I need to do this to my craft (crap) room–it looks great!
Thanks for linking up to the Friday Frenzy–we appreciate you!
I really love your craftroom and the craftroom challenge is such a great idea.
LOVE the reveal, I love craft room photos, and yours is so beautiful! Organization is like cat nip for me! You’ve got a beautiful eye for design!
This was such a good idea, your ideas and crafting skills took you far! Your crafting room looks great.
love the theme and crafts! these are great decor crafts.
I love your color scheme and the Tropical bits and pieces you found!!! My bedroom has a beachy theme, too. Those thin shelves for all your paint are brilliant and those peg boards, too.
Thanks Habiba. It’s so nice to have a clean space.
You did a great jib in organizing your own craftroom! I wish to have my own 🙂
its very motivating, isn’t?
Happy crafting!
Thank you. It’s great to have space of my own.
What an awesome job you did. I saw the shells and I was hooked. It reminds me of our time in Hawaii. I wish I had more time to do more crafty and DIY stuff. Organizational goals for me.
Thank you. Glad you got the tropical vibe….it reminds me of home.
I love all the unique organizing tools. It looks so clean and tidy too. Great ideas
Wow your craft room is serious GOALS! It is so organised and chic, I love it! I hope you continue to be creative in your newly transformed space
I don’t have a craft room so that is a goal or even to have a wall would be nice. So my stuff is in boxes, bags and corners. Your new and improved space looks great. Everything is so tidy and inviting.
First of all, your blog name is sooooo stinking cuttteeee! & I love that tropical print. I’ve been thinking of how I can implement a floral tropical wallpaper.
I love the crafting space! I bet it is easier to create with a tidy area.
You did an outstanding job here Erlene! I love how everything turned out.
Wow, I absolutely love your craft room. I definitely need the shelves/pinboard for my DIY projects. I swear I lose pens and scissors all the time. So gorgeous!
I was able to get my craft and sewing room organized and cleaned. Makes it easier to create and see what I have
Yay! I totally agree that being able to SEE what you have helps a lot.
Wow, what a gorgeous change. I could definitely use this sort of organizing prowess!
This room looks amazing and is so well organised! Really, creative heaven in here! My room is a mess and if i had my own office, it would be the same
Thanks, it’s much better than it used to be. Let’s see if I can keep it that way 🙂
I don’ t have a craft room, but mine would look like the before for sure! I’m diggin’ that lamp with the shells.
I didn’t really have a craft room either. I was against the wall in a room, but I’ve decided to take over…lol.
I am loving the use of the pin boards! It looks amazing!
Your room looks amazing. I bet you can’t wait to create in there. I love the tropical theme.
Yes, I just made my first wreath today in this new clean space 🙂
I love love LOVE your peg boards and paint storage shelves! It’s so beautifully organized! You did such an awesome job on this challenge!
Thanks Megan. I was really scared to make the peg boards, but it wasn’t hard at all! Would love to make more!
Wow, this space turned out wonderful!! Love all the colors!!
Thanks. I kind of kept it neutral, but will probably add more as I ‘live’ in the space.
What a wonderful makeover, Erlene! The shelves for paint and your table idea are great! I love the tropical look to the space. Loved the video, too. I’m sure I would have had a screaming woman looking at my craft room before I gave it a makeover, too.
Thanks Beverly. I love the paint shelves too! I’ve been wanting to do this for a super long time and so glad that’s done.
Erlene, what a beautiful and organized space! Love the idea for hanging stencils. I never knew how to store mine! The video was great! Love the tropical cushions!
Hanging the stencils takes up a lot less space and I can see them all. Love it.
Erlene, you have such a wonderful crafting space with all sorts of goodies. Love those Ikea shelves and how clever to cut one off and make it fit! Your DIY Table is very cool too. Such a smart idea. I’d love to have storage like that at the end of the table. I know you’ll be having some fun in there and how awesome to have a photo space too!!! Love your video tour!
Thanks Shirley. Isn’t it nice to finally have a functioning CLEAN space?! Definitely will be a lot less stressful trying to create on a clean surface.