My Workspace

May 11th 2014

I have spent a lot of time imagining my ideal workspace.  I've looked on Pinterest and in magazines and really thought about what would work best for me.  For the last ten years or so all my craft stuff has been housed in a large, very solid armoire.  It worked great but recently I began to feel like I'd outgrown it and my family room was cluttered with my things. It's difficult to put things away if there's nowhere for them to go!  I described what I imagined to my husband, kitchen cabinets, floor to ceiling with the upper cabinets resting on the lower cabinets like a china cabinet.  Glass doors so I can see my fabric stash and be inspired by all the delicious color and pattern.  Deep drawer units, not cupboards at the bottom so I can use every inch of space.  A long counter so that I can stand up to scrapbook (I can't scrapbook sitting down, weird I know!).  I knew I wanted a small drawer unit I'd seen at Ikea with six shallow drawers which I knew would be perfect for stamps and ink pads and finally a Raskog cart which I've been eyeing for the longest time.  

This is what my husband built me last weekend.  There is still a bit of finishing to do but it is awesome!  

It is built using kitchen cabinets from Ikea.  The counter top is an oak butcher block counter, also from Ikea which matches the floor.  I am beyond excited about it and have had so much fun organizing all my supplies!  It looks just how I imagined but is even better in real life!

We spent an evening building the shelves in the center of the room which are also from Ikea and are a new product replacing the Expedit series which was so hugely popular with crafters.  The cubbies easily hold 12 inch square scrapbooks and are deep enough to hold good sized plastic storage boxes.  I gathered up all the baskets I could find around the house and was surprised how many there were!  You can also see here the little cabinet with the shallow drawers which is indeed perfect for stamps and ink pads and other stuff besides.  I built the turquoise Raskog cart by myself which was very satisfying and not really very difficult!  It is housing my spray inks, drawing inks, glue and paint brushes.  I can pull it out when I need it.  It really is very cute!  My daughter made me the wooden box with the penguins on it when she was in 4th grade, it's got different pictures on each of the sides and it's very precious.

I had such a good time sorting my fabric and arranging it by color.  It makes me happy to see it like this.  

My husband is working on a design for a long table using a second butcher block counter.  It will be counter height and go over that little cabinet with the drawers and the cart.  It will have legs made from pipes of some kind so it will have an industrial feel.  I can't wait to see what he comes up with!  I'll post pictures when it's done.  Normally I would post a "What's on my worktable" post during the week, but as you can see my whole workspace has been a work in progress this week.  

I'm just off to make something.......