Craft Room Makeover

A craft room makeover can be a pretty exciting event for a crafter.  After all, we spend a lot of time in our special spaces and when they are pleasantly decorated and nicely organized our creative juices just seem to flow better.  My craft room makeover was not really planned.  I had a nice room in our basement that my hubby had fixed with lots of cabinets and counter space, plenty of shelving, etc.  At the beginning of the year we began the process of becoming foster parents.  Our kids are away at college and grad school for much of the year and we have a big empty house.  We were made aware of the huge need for additional foster families in our area and decided to help out.

We discussed it with our kids and they were graciously willing to give up their own rooms and move to the basement.  The only problem was that our basement was mostly unfinished.  The only rooms down there were a bathroom and my craft room, everything else was open.  We measured and planned and prayed and tried to figure the most economical and practical way to add 2 bedrooms down there.  I offered to give up my craft room and just move out into the open part of the basement.  It seemed to be the most logical solution since that room was already there and would cost $0 to build.  We tossed around so many ideas this spring about what to put where and how to add those bedrooms.

One day I was thinking about all this and how to maximize the space that we already had.  I realized that our formal living room was the largest and most unused space on the main floor of our house.  It was a beautiful room with pretty furniture and was rarely messy because we hardly used it.  That’s when the plan began coming together.  As we talked about how to rearrange our home it felt like we were “giving up” so much.  We have lived in this house 10 years and were pretty set in our ways.  In reality the only thing we gave up was that room that was rarely used.  We moved our family room into that space and now it is used every day.  Our dining room became my new studio and we gained a larger dining room by moving it into the old family room.

The craft room makeover is about 80% complete at this point.  I have a beautiful space to work in now.  It is right off of the kitchen so I can be productive in the studio while I am waiting on dinner to finish cooking.  It also opens into our family room, so I can still be part of family movie night while I am creating cards or scrapbook pages.  Before, I would hide away in my room in the basement while everyone else did their own thing.  I also have a beautiful view of the front lawn from my work space.  Of course I do have to keep it neat and tidy because you can see my studio as soon as you walk in the front door, but that just makes for a more productive and enjoyable work area anyway.

It seemed, at first, like we were making huge sacrifices to rearrange our home.  In the end, we have been blessed beyond our imaginings and every room in our home that was changed is better than it was before.  Here are pictures of my craft room makeover.

Share your craft room makeover ideas!

Is there a craft room makeover in your future?  If so, leave a comment and tell us what one thing you definitely want to include in your new space.  Maybe you already  have “the perfect space” to do your crafting.  If that’s the case, leave a comment sharing your ideas for organizing and/or decorating your creative space.