Over a year and a half ago, I decided to turn my guest room that was hardly ever used into a crafting/hobby room. We had started a project to add a roof on our porch and the original contractor left before it was finished. So, we were stuck with an unfinished roof on the deck. Luckily, I knew a handyman who needed some bunk beds for his boys, and we offered a trade. A win win. I was really excited. A new roof and to have my very own room again!
Crafting room when it was a guest room.
I have shared a bedroom with my husband for the past 15 years. Don’t get me wrong. I love sleeping in the bed with him and sharing a room with him. It gives me great comfort and closeness. But there is something to having your own private space that you can express yourself independently from your significant other. A place where you have your own identity. My desire to have my crafting room has helped me understand the need of a man cave a bit more. With me taking over the guest room, my husband decided to take over what was our rec room. It is now the “Phil Cave”. Congrats Phil.
Finally, after moving the bunk beds, I ordered a crafting desk, moved in my old college computer desk and all of my instruments and crafting goods. The result was chaos. I had a small cube organizer that held up to 9 bins, a closet full of junk, and papers everywhere. I think my room actually was discouraging for creativity. I wanted to scrapbook as I love documenting and creating a placeholder for memories, but my workspace wasn’t inspiring nor was it nurturing to creativity. I ended up using my room for when I couldn’t watch TV in my other rooms because my son was either playing his PlayStation in the living room on our large TV, or my husband was in our bedroom watching something gory I wasn’t interested in seeing.
I had stacks and stacks of papers that I was holding onto that someday would be scrap booked. Particularly, my son’s school work. I hoarded. My little, cheap craft desk was overwhelmed by my insistent stashing of spelling tests and addition /subtraction worksheets.
Around July 2018, I finally decided what I would cosplay at Dragon Con, a very large nerd fest that heavily embraces cosplaying. I really got into it. I decided that I was going to learn how to sew. I bought a sewing machine and a bodyform. Used my cricut for cutting out perfect foam shapes, and with every little detail I became inspired to start crafting again. It was my ultimate escape from daily stress. It was so gratifying. Every second I got to myself for the next month and a half to come, I spent in my room crafting away. I felt a genuine renewed interest.
With my renewed interest, I knew that in order to maintain an interest, I needed to do something about my mess. I needed to get “organizized”, as Travis from Taxi Driver would say. I started to google my options. My original thought was to keep my futon, and maybe get the workbox 3.0 from the original scrapbox. My eyes nearly popped at the cost of the scrapbox, $1,995.00 pre-shipping as the base model. However expensive, it seemed like the answer. I thought to myself that there had to be something else comparable. I did the best googling that I could to no avail. The other options were other small crafting desks like the one I already had, regular storage closets, or some fancy armoire.
After striking out, I decided to read reviews on the workbox to justify the cost. Would I be getting my money’s worth? I found this great blog post that went over, as she put it, “The Good, the bad, and the WTF?!” about the workbox. She made the product sound great with honesty, and talked about the horror of how difficult it was to put together. It was 8 total hours of frustrating labor, but in the end she loved it. Not as in “LOVED” it, but “loved” it. I thought to myself, “OK, I guess I can go in the hole another 2.3k after everything is said and done”, but I had an extremely difficult time committing to the price tag.
I had it in the cart. I was about to press order. But I still hesitated. I summoned my husband to talk about it. Even he was sold on it. He isn’t one to spend money easily either. He knew the product really had value. He knew that it would help me. But in the end, I just couldn’t. I decided that it was time to rethink my room entirely. Did I really need to keep all the furniture in here? No. It was time for a complete makeover.
My new concept was the ultimate crafting space. This was not going to be a place for me to just watch TV in. This time it was going to be the space that gave me organization, inspiration, and space that I needed to work at full capability. So I started to come up with a general concept. I knew shelving would be ideal, and a couple of small bookshelves to display my treasured knickknacks and art. I would mount my guitars on the wall, and have some led lighting to make it easy to see what I am working on.
After a bit of shopping around I decided on these items:
- Scrapbook Paper Wall Organizer
- Wall caddy for Pens/Paperclips/etc
- Universal gray bens
- Organizer Cart
- Small floor chair
- 2 corner bookshelves
- An under cabinet led light
- 6 – 48 inch shelves
- 18 brackets
The total cost was under $850. Go me! That is still an expensive price tag, but much more affordable than the workbox.
Today, I assembled the last part, the second bookshelf. All was going well until I got to
shelf number 3. I was trying to get it in place, and had a lot of force on the shelf. It slipped and ran clear across my wrist until it crashed into my ankle. #WarStories.
The finished product of my new crafting room has come to completion. It is amazing. Dare I say, it is close to perfection. Minor tweaks here and there will come as time passes. I will definitely make some new curtains. But I am so in love with my workspace. Here it is:
Obviously, what I did will not work for everyone. I think the workbox 3.0 is great for someone who does not have a dedicated room. If you have a corner in a family room or share a hobby room, the workbox is probably your best bet. But if you have a whole space dedicated to your craft, this route might be the way to go. It was for me!
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