The Most Amazing Craft Room Makeover That Will Inspire You
Walkthrough the steps taken for this amazing craft room makeover. Filled with lots of organizational and storage ideas for your craft and sewing supplies.
What started out as a fun idea turned into a ginormous undertaking of mass proportions. No, I’m not being dramatic! I chose to help my mom makeover the most challenging space in her home…. the craft room.
As far back as I can remember my mom has always been a crafty lady.
She owned her own sewing business, enjoyed painting, ceramics, quilting, and even was a Stampin’ Up demonstrator for a while. The problem with enjoying a variety of crafts is you end up collecting paper, fabric, adhesives, yarn, patterns, and tools for every imaginable project under the sun.
My original plan was to help with the craft side of her room and leave the sewing side alone.
Once knee-deep into the project, it dawned on me I couldn’t tackle one side and not the other. The materials were so intertwined and the perfectionist side of me realized I had to conquer the entire room.
Pre-craft room makeover
But before we jump into the details, let’s take a closer look at the room before.
Can you relate to these pictures?
I’m not easily overwhelmed with organizing projects but this one took my breath away. I was conflicted with wanting to run away to feeling like Wonder Woman ready to conquer the world… or in this case a craft-sewing room.
After we both took a deep breath we began the process of creating the room of her dreams.
I’ll show you everything you need to know to get your craft-sewing room organized.
Set Goals
Taking a step back to evaluate what’s working or not is an important step when transforming your craft room.
Nothing was working well in my mom’s room.
My mom has amazing materials and tools but they were not accessible. She struggled to work efficiently in the space, locate items she needed, and her craft supplies were spilling over into another room.
Our goals: create a workable space, make materials accessible, bring cutting table and supplies in from the other room, more lighting, and create a fun and inspiring atmosphere.
I had my mom go through Pinterest and select inspiring craft rooms. This was going to be a big job and she needed to see what was possible.
Set the Stage
One key to staying on task is to gather any items you’re going to need for the job.
We gathered the following materials: sorting bins, garbage bags, zip lock bags, sticky notes, and a pen. For cleaning, we brought in the hand vacuum, wet rags, baby wipes, and a duster.
If you gather it now it will keep you from leaving the job and losing focus. To learn more about setting the stage go here.
Seek and Find
Set a little mood music, Podcast, or show, and get ready to dive in. Taking one category at a time is key to not feeling overwhelmed. Go through the room to find all the items in a particular group.
We selected clear stamps to kick off our “weeding” adventure. I call it weeding because this process will help you uncover what you love. To learn more about the weeding process go here.
With every item, you will determine whether you need to keep, move, sell, donate, or put it in the trash. Try to gather all the items of one category before moving on to the next. We started with clear stamps, block stamps, stamp pads, adhesives, markers, embellishments, etc.
Due to lack of space, we placed the “keep” piles of each category in the room next door with a temporary post-it note label. Any empty containers were set aside for later.
Continue this process until the entire room has been gone through. Every item should be picked up to determine its value. Do your best to only keep the things you love.
The “Messy Middle”
At this point, you may feel overwhelmed and ready to quit. This stage is called the “messy middle”. After all your hard work it may look worse than when you started. Piles and piles are everywhere and there’s no end in sight.
At this point, family members would shake their heads and smile at our “progress”.
Don’t panic.
It can only get better from this point on. Remember the Pinterest pictures you found… now’s a great time to pull them out and remind yourself of your goal.
Configure Your Space
Now that your room is cleared out you can see how big it is!
My mom’s space was not configured well when you consider workflow. All of her craft and sewing items were in a jumbled mess. Clear workstations needed to be defined and systems needed to be in place.
We grabbed a large piece of graph paper and measured out her current space and furniture. This allowed us to play around with the layout of the room and determine which pieces of furniture/organizers we wanted to keep and which ones to get rid of.
We chose to get rid of the bookcases and have cabinets made instead. This would increase her counter space and make items more accessible.
We added another pegboard and light to the plan to create another workstation.
Luckily, we have a cabinet maker in the family to help us with this project. Another great option is to go to your local Home Depot, Lowe’s, or IKEA store to buy premade cabinets. Below is a picture of the “Alex” cabinets we purchased at IKEA for under the craft table.
Spruce It Up
Take advantage of your room decluttered and cleared out. Now’s a great time to clean your space and spruce it up. To learn more about this step go here.
My dad was a huge help with this part of the room makeover. Here’s how we freshened up my mom’s craft/sewing room:
- Removed window valences
- Painted the wall with my mom’s favorite color and the ceiling a bright white
- Put furniture in new locations
- Painted a plastic drawer system black
- Lined the drawers and shelves in cabinets
- Installed the second pegboard with light
- Updated closet doors with white doors
- Installed closet shelving
- Installed under cabinet lighting
- Moved electrical plugins up to counter
- Purchased paper, punch, ink pad, and ribbon organizers
Fill It Up!
Now that your furniture is in place, cleaned, and ready to go it’s time to fill it up. Find a home for all the items you love and want to keep!
Since each category was huge we decided to break them up even further. For instance, adhesives became the following groups:
- Glue sticks
- Sticky dots
- Tape runners
- Liquid adhesives
When you can see the amount you have of each category it’s another great time to weed out what you need.
Determine the ideal place to store each category in your craft room and what size of container would work best. We chose to keep craft, sewing, knitting, etc. in separate locations.
Also, consider the frequency you will be using the item. Can it be stored on the pegboard or drawer to make them more accessible?
How can you store it vertically to make it easy to see what you have? We placed most of the AccuQuilt cutters vertically for easy accessibility.
To save money, reuse any container emptied out in the weeding process. Take note of any containers and sizes you may need to purchase to complete the project.
My mom and I were able to reuse a majority of her containers except for the ones in the closet. We chose to purchase new containers to maximize the space, make her fabric accessible, and easy to view.
You can find those containers here at Target.
Label
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Now that everything has a home, label all your containers, bins, and drawers. This will save you so much time later on when searching for a particular item or knowing where to return it when finished.
I used a simple hand-held brother label maker. I bought one several years ago, and you can go here to see the latest version. Label makers are reasonably priced and easy to use.
I also chose to create a label to show which categories were tucked away in a cabinet. This allows you to see at a quick glance what items were stored out of sight.
Transform Your Space With Style
Part of creating a room you love is to add style of your own to it. We found a rug on Overstock.com to help tie together her wall color and the red stool. It helped the room feel more cohesive.
Pegboards can be fun and functional! They are a great place to add some style. On the craft pegboard, I added a favorite craft quote to the ribbon dispenser using my Cricut Maker. The ribbons were arranged by color and other tools were displayed in labeled cans and on pegs making them easy to grab.
On the sewing pegboard, we were able to display the thread by color and by machine. This creates a fun display making it easy to see what you have at a quick glance.
Finally, on top of a cabinet was a great place to display her old business sign and a dress she created from the picture out of a magazine.
Using what you already have is a cost-effective way to decorate a room.
How can you add some style of your own to bring your room to life?
When you’ve spent so much time and energy on a space you’re going to want to maintain it. Here are some ideas to help:
- Take a picture of your finished room. Remembering how it looks now will help motivate you to keep it that way.
- Keep a garbage dispenser at each work station.
- When a project is finished clean up and put everything back to where it belongs before starting a new project.
- Weed again. After some time has passed, do a quick overview to see if there is something you ‘re not using and can let go.
- Think before you buy it. Do I need this item and have plans to use it right away? Am I only buying it because it’s on sale?
- Check before you buy it. Double-check you need a particular item for a project. Do you already own something that can work? To help with this step, I created a shopping list to remind you to check your current supplies before buying more.
The amazing craft room makeover reveal!
Now’s the time to take a step back and marvel at the accomplishment.
We reached our goals and created workable spaces, where materials are accessible, cutting table and supplies were brought in from the other room, more light was added and we turned it into a fun and inspiring atmosphere!
Instead of running away, we faced it head-on like Wonder Woman! Let’s compare how it looked before compared to how it looks now.
No longer is the room in disarray but a room full of potential. A place of enjoyment, creativity, and fun. It’s amazing how a functional space can reignite the desire and passion to create.
Are you ready to transform your craft room into a space you love?
