My New Craft Room – Part 1 of 2

All of us crafters know one thing only too well – that this fascinating hobby of ours takes up space.  And the more crafting we do, the more materials and gadgets we acquire, so more and more space is taken up.  When I first started crafting I had everything in boxes which I would empty out on to the kitchen table, and I put it all away again at the end of the session – looking back, I really don’t know how I managed!

When my three kids grew up and left the nest I took the opportunity of turning our smallest bedroom into a craft room.  Big mistake!  Very quickly, as I bought more materials and more products, I outgrew the tiny room, and it reached the point where I had cardboard boxes of crafting stuff permanently on the kitchen table and all along the landing.  Finally, when upstairs began to resemble an obstacle course, I decided it was time for action!

I moved out of my cramped box room and converted the second largest bedroom into my new craft room.  I explained to my husband what the plan of action was.  Together, I told him, we would rip out an ancient built in wardrobe and break it up into small pieces so we could transport it to the local tip, do the same with the bed, pull up the carpet, underlay and ‘grippa’ rods, take those to the tip, and paint the ceiling. I divided up the jobs fairly, I thought  – I was in charge of making the tea, and he was in charge of doing everything else…

Things looked grim at the start!

When those jobs were out of the way and husband had stopped grumbling, it was time to make an appointment with an expert at Ikea, who, once I told him what I was trying to achieve, came up with a design for the room that I really liked.  Then I had to get the electrician in, to explain to him exactly where I needed new power points; you can never have enough power points!

I was really excited by the whole thing, and by the time the electrician had worked his magic and the re-plastering had been done, it was time for husband to go to work again, sanding down and painting the walls.  The bedroom had been my youngest daughter’s who, when a young teen, had chosen a ‘delightful’ colour for one wall of what could best be described as ‘Deep Plum’ and this took three coats of white paint to cover over, much to my husband’s bemusement!

Gradually things began to look a little better...

When at last all those jobs were finished, the plaster dust had been cleaned up and the smell of fresh paint had subsided a little, it was time to move on to the exciting part, which I’ll tell you about in my next post…