My craft room

My room is not large. It’s about 3.0m by 2.6m (or slightly smaller than 10ft by 8½ft). When we first moved here I was using it as a computer/reading room and — with a desk, filing cabinet, comfy chair, side table and some shelves — it was quite cosy and relaxing.

Then I started crafting… and collecting craft supplies… it’s a little more crowded now and the comfy chair has long gone. Okay, it’s a lot more crowded and it’s a miracle that I have managed to find a home for almost everything. I have been very efficient and organised but, seriously, I cannot fit anything more in here without sacrificing the remaining bare wall over my computer desk to shelving. And don’t think I haven’t considered it.

The biggest problem with my room is light. The house has Velux windows upstairs and they are not large. My craft desk is by the window so I get whatever daylight is available, but it’s also east-facing so, on particularly sunny days, I have to keep the blind partially drawn in the morning otherwise the room turns into an oven.

It also means that it’s really hard to get decent photos of the room during the day: it’s either pitch-black room and normal window or you can see the room but it looks like the end of the world has happened outside! In other words, forgive the rubbish photos. I ended up taking them with my phone because that did a better job of balancing the light.

I was going to tidy up before taking them, but then gave up partway through… firstly, I really couldn’t face doing any more (after a couple of cooler days the temperature is rising again here) and secondly, it wouldn’t be a genuine representation of my workspace. I do try to tidy up after I’ve finished a project but it only stays tidy until I start the next one or indulge in some retail therapy. So this is it in a vaguely organised state…

The door is normally open so the ribbon and cord and the bins are hidden away. Next to those is the large IKEA shelving unit that holds all my books, papers, dies, embossing folders, embellishments, sewing bits, paints and pigment powders.

I did think about annotating these photos; I started running through it in my head and, well, there is just SO MUCH STUFF!!! Even the shelf that looks like just cardstock has white cardstock, coloured cardstock, shiny and pearlised cardstock, vellum, acetate, handmade papers, kraft-tex, colour flute, foamiran, foil, sizoflor, tracing paper and some other odds and ends. And that’s just one shelf.

My craft desk isn’t very big, but it’s enough as long as I stick to one project at a time. My ink pads live on the wall above the desk and underneath is my yarn stash and scoring board and guillotine and light pad and a bunch of other stuff that doesn’t fit anywhere else.

Between the desk and the Really Useful drawers is the first of my two Raskog trolleys. That holds some of the stuff that is useful to have to hand: gloves, cloths, stirrers, brayers, a small selection of my adhesives and that sort of thing. It could do with a bit of a tidy, but it’s functional.

All my stamps live on top of the Really Useful rainbow drawers. The drawers contain tools, alcohol inks, embossing powders, glitter, some other paints and pastes and the rest of my adhesives and embellishments.

The smaller shelves in the corner are where I keep the regular stationery along with the cards I’ve made, stencils, canvases, and jars and other things that might come in handy for mixed media, and random stuff.

The other Raskog is the most organised. My neighbour made me a lid for it so I can keep my Copic collection on the top. It also comes in handy as an extra work surface for die-cutting on. The Copic refills live in the bottom along with various sprays. Then there are some boxes with jewellery supplies, Chibitronics, and bookbinding and framing tapes.

The other corner has my computer desk, which also has my scanner and Scan’n’Cut on it. There may also be some boxes of stuff that might come in useful underneath it.

So what I’m saying is, basically, “the room is full”. And I am definitely not short of supplies to play with 🙂

GESSO: Primed Creatives – Show us where you work.