The Great Big Craft Room Reveal

 

   Well, hello there. Long time no talk!  I seemed to have taken an unannounced leave of absence from the blogging world!  The busyness of school starting back up kind of took over this year.  I decided that since last year I took a year off from being room mom, I would make up for it this year by jumping in full force, and saying yes to just about everything.  So far, I've become a brownie leader, PTA board member, and room mom.  It's keeping me busy, but I'm loving all of it!  But, between my that, my part-time job, and of course the HUGE distraction of Pinterest, I am neglecting my little blog! 

Today I thought I'd try and make up for it by sharing my most recent project with you,  my new craft room!  I decided while home with the kids over the summer that I hated having all my craft supplies upstairs in the old guest bedroom.  I was always running up and down, and bringing things downstairs I was working on, so I wouldn't feel like I was hiding from the kids! 

I had debated on using what is supposed to be our "formal living room" for my space for a while. We had been using it as an office, but since we use our laptops all the time and our old monster desktop was sooooo painfully slow anyway, no one ever seemed to use this room.  My concern was that it's the first room you see when you enter through the front door.  I don't know about you, but I'm not exactly tidy when I am in the middle of a project!  But, I thought if I could create a space that was aesthetically pleasing and had lots of storage, I might just be able to make it work. 

For a while, I had been eyeing this awesome craft table from Pottery Barn.

But of course, being Pottery Barn, they want, oh like $1200 for it. Yeah, not happening.  I had seen other versions of it, of course on Pinterest.  There are so many beautiful ones out there.

Here it is in white. {Sigh}

And here are some lovely knock-offs created by some talented folks out there!

Anna White

Scrapbook.com

Craftaholics Anonymous

I decided with all this lovely inspiration, I had to get to work!  So I remembered I had seen some cubbies at Target that looked similar to the ones used to support the table top.  I didn't take a pic, but they look like this:

I thought about using plywood for the top, but when I went to Home Depot to buy it, I found this awesome MDF stuff that was already white to begin with, and had a nice smooth finished surface. At $36 for a huge sheet, I thought it was well worth the price.  I had the nice man in lumber cut it for me.  I decided to go with a 3 foot by 5 foot table, which is actually a bit larger than the Pottery Barn one. 

I didn't want or need two sets of cubbies. I actually wanted the table to come out from the wall. I had envisioned it with shelves on either side.  Luckily, Target had white shelves that matched the cubby and MDF perfectly, and at a great price.  After assembling the cubby, my wonderful hubby helped me balance and attach a 2x4 to the wall in the studs, and fasten the table surface down to it, and to the top of the cubby. 

Here it is in the works:

  The wall color is Cheyenne Rock by Behr.  I painted the backs of the shelving one shade darker than the walls (Mountain Ridge), as an accent. It looks brown in the photo, but it really depends on the light.  It definitely has a little plum undertone to it.  I call it "silly putty color".  I found this great trellis patterned rug at a local discount store for $35 bucks!

The sides of the MDF are not finished, but they sell this iron-on material to finish them off. I had my doubts about this stuff, figuring it would peel right off. I was sure wrong. It's super easy to attach, and it's on there for good! Of course, I forgot to take a picture of the package but it looks like this, except in white.

And here it is as I'm ironing it on.

It's super easy to do!

And, here it is all put together.



I'm loving all that counter space to spread out my projects!  My old craft room had two tables that I had to sit down at to work.  I found that I was always standing up, laying out things on my ironing board.  This new system enables to me to stand, which is how I've found that I usually work.  The "&" symbol and giant scissors are from Target.

I made the sign out with a canvas and some vinyl letters I cut with the Cricut. My husband makes total fun of me for it.  If you remember, the sunburst was one I made here that I previously had hanging in my master bedroom.

The ribbon, giftwrap, and tissue paper are all hung using tension rods {a super cheap trick}.

This is my sewing station. The table is from Michael's.  The chair was a Goodwill find from a long time ago.  I recovered it in some scrap fabric I had that seemed to go well with the paint color.  My only gripe is that the table leaf was only able to be attached to the right side. I really wish I could reconfigure it the other way, since that really would work better. The leaf really isn't meant to support the weight of a sewing machine.  But that's a project for a later date.

The total cost of the craft table was $75, but I was able to pull the entire room together for under $200.

Let me know what you think!  What have you been up to since the kiddos went back to school?

I'm linkin' up to these great parties: