My New Craft Room – Part 2 of 2

Readers of my previous blog entry will know that at this stage I’d got to the exciting part of getting a new craft room; all the boring sanding, cleaning and painting had been done and it was time to focus on getting in what can best be described as lovely shiny new things! 

I’d decided on having laminate flooring installed because the chair in my old craft room had very quickly worn out the carpet.  Two men came to do the flooring and they were gone in an hour and a half… and all that time they sang so loudly their voices rang throughout the house.  It sounded like they were auditioning for the X Factor!  It’s a ‘no’ from me Simon!

The Ikea delivery arrived.  The men on the lorry worked quickly and within minutes they had unloaded and were gone… leaving me to come to terms with the fact that 90 cardboard boxes had taken over the whole house!  They were everywhere!  

We couldn't move for cardboard boxes...

Thankfully our local joiner, Julian, came back and started putting the whole thing together.  That gave us a completely new problem… instead of full cardboard boxes taking over the house, we now had discarded cardboard boxes taking over the entire back garden!  At one point it was not physically possible to walk by the side of our house due to a cardboard barricade!

Only one thing for it – it was back to the tip, with every spare square inch of space in the car crammed with cardboard – and STILL it took two trips! 

But in the end, I have to say, all the mess and inconvenience and the expense was well worth it.  

I love it!

I love my new craft room and I do realise how very lucky I am to be able to have one.  I now have lots of cupboard space, storage space, and space to just move around if I want to! 

Can you see the wall mounted magnetic knife storage strips. Fantastic for putting the dies on that you're currently working with so they don't get lost on your work surface - many thanks Carley Duff for the excellent idea.

Thanks again Mel!

Another great tip that I must pass on to you is how to store your reels of ribbon.  This idea was given to me by Mel Heaton one day in the Green Room – thanks Mel!  Julian the joiner was a bit confused at first but after I’d explained the idea in more detail he came up with this lovely arrangement, using, would you believe it, 2 sizes of PVC guttering for ribbon storage.  It’s brilliant!

The finished article

I also got the electrician to come back and install a major light in the centre of the room and daylight strip lighting under the cupboards.  I find you can’t have enough light to work by, especially when doing the fiddly jobs. 

Last but not least, is the final touch – and I realise this is sheer indulgence on my part – I had a small television wall mounted so I can watch the Tattered Lace shows while I craft! 

Here’s what I learned while making my new craft room; hopefully you may find this helpful if you decide to go down the same route:

1.        Work to a budget but be aware that in all probability, unless you have more self control than I have, you will go over budget to some extent. Unplanned for jobs always arise;

2.         Be prepared to have total upheaval in your home for a couple of weeks at least, maybe longer;

3.         Choose local tradesman you can trust and be a Bossy Boots – tell them exactly what you want and when you want it. It has been suggested that I am a tad controlling?;

4.         Don’t forget to install a TV so you won’t miss a single Tattered Lace show!