Family Room Remodel: The Unveil

Well, are you ready?? Drum roll, please.....

BEFORE: 

AFTER:

Pretty cool, huh??! Wanna see all the nitty gritty details?? Ok, twist my arm.

As you can see, we utilized a huge, basically unused wall and turned it into storage and craft space. We don't have a garage (I know, a crafter and a DIYer without a garage?! Blasphemy!), so the storage space created with the 2 huge wardrobes was essential.

We now have space for our holiday decorations, which were previously taking up prime real estate in what is left of the garage--a 6'x20' unfinished space that houses our hot water heater, washer & dryer, and a wee bit of open space to store tools, etc.

This wardrobe is also home to a bunch of my large sewing bits--batting for quilted baby blankets, unfinished projects, minky, fleece, and other random large fabric chunks that are too unwieldy to fold and stack. You'll also find a box of random craftable ingredients--embroidery hoops, cork sheets, markers, a shoe box of random adhesives, cookie cutters (yes, I consider these a craft, not cooking, supply).

Here we have two shoe boxes of paint samples (85% in shades of blue!), and look: TWO EMPTY BOXES!! That's when you know you're really getting organized--when you have FREE space! And finally, a large tote each that serve as memory boxes. These could definitely use some organization within. Especially Raf's. He was big on collecting as a kid--stamps, coins, sports cards. Cool, but it's all in random envelopes and books and boxes. I'd really like to find a way to sort the collections and display or store them in an organized way that might encourage perusal. Someday.

Moving on, we have have some open storage with cabinets and shelves. This is home to all my quilting fabric, at least the chunks that are a half yard or larger. Obviously it didn't take me long to fill it, but at least I fit all of it! Raf definitely gave me the, "Well, it's full, no more shopping" speech. Ha!

The open shelves hold the magazines that I like to keep on hand, or haven't had the time to purge yet, as well as some sweet vintage sewing books. 

Ready to get into the drawers?? I know you are. You're just like Lana. I get it, they're irresistible.  

First, let me say: OMG, insisting on these Alex drawer units from Ikea was the best decision ever!! (Raf was not such a fan of the idea originally.) It's so awesome to have this shallow space to store all my many, many, many crafting supplies, tools and notions. No digging through deep cabinets and drawers. Everything is right there. Easy to spot, easy to grab. I don't even have to move my chair! Amazing!

So, what's inside you ask? Well, let's see...

Sewing notions.

Fabric scraps.

Fat quarters and more scraps.

Fat ribbon that I use to tie up my quilted baby blankets. Square sewing ruler. Random sewing supplies.

Alphabet stamps and tools that I use to make the monogrammed CD holders I sell through Etsy, as well as my holiday banners (have I neglected to share those here??)

CD holder blanks.

I'm even utilizing the little bits of space behind my Alex drawer units for oversized tools like my sewing rulers and some leftover foam from when Auntie Val recovered the glider for Lana's room.

Whew! Getting tired yet? Well go grab some coffee, cause we're only halfway through! On to the middle set of drawers. It's paper crafting time!!

The top drawer holds my Stampin UP! grid paper, and a whole bunch of little pieces of cardstock. Can you believe how organized I am?!?! It's shocking. For me at least.

Look at me putting all these little boxes that I've been keeping (for absolutely no reason) to good use! I'm able to separate all these little pieces by shape, or by whether they have something stamped on them or not--which seriously improves the likelihood of me actually using them someday!

In drawer 2 we find a similar scene, but this one is full of patterned paper scraps, rather than solids.

This looks like a crap drawer, but it's not. Promise. This is an unfinished projects drawer. And a fix-it drawer.

Ah, and now we come to Lana's FAVORITE drawer....the one she is absolutely not allowed to touch under any circumstances!! The ribbon drawer. I'm thinking of installing some tension rods to help hold everything in place. Or not. Cause then I can't just pull out a spool easily. We'll see. In the baggies on the left I have ribbon scraps, sorted by commonly used lengths (I need ribbon to be greater than 12" long to go around a landscape oriented card, for instance). On the right, I have hemp and linen string. Which I use for everything. And also happens to be Lana's favorite thing to pull apart. Hence the ziploc bag.

Here we have a big bag of bags! (I use a lot of baggies when prepping for Card Club.) My heat embosser. A stampamajig (aka: best tool ever). Cello bags for gifting. My old hardware kit (for setting eyelets, punching uniform holes, etc).

And finally, Lana's drawer! I use this to distract her from digging things out of every other drawer. It works ok. At least it helps me avoid a total meltdown on most occasions!

Ok, last set of drawers!

 

My paper cutters. And the crop-a-dile that I bought with my 50% off coupon to Richards, but haven't bothered learning to use yet.

Adhesive. Pens. Wipes. Oh my!

Embellishments.

And my most favorite drawer of all: PUNCHES! Oh, how I love punches. It's an obsession, really. And I love having them in a nice shallow drawer. If only there was more space in this drawer...

Ink.

More random embellishments.  Thickers. Rub-ons. All kinds of goodness.

Whew! Wasn't that AMAZING?!! I know, you're jealous. I get it. I would be too. Except it's MY new workspace...WOO HOO! Ok, just a little more now. Oh hell, who am I kidding. We still have another wardrobe!

But first, the other cabinet. This one is home to the cardstock for my cards. Unfortunately, the cabinet isn't deep enough to hold magazine files laid flat, so I need to shop for a vertical paper file that will help keep things organized in here. You'll also find our old yearbooks on the top shelf. You know, so you can enjoy a good laugh next time you visit.

On to the next wardrobe!

On the top we have Christmas wrapping supplies and boxes. Then a tote and basket full of cards and photos in serious need of sorting and purging and gathering. And a bag full of packing materials (bubble wrap, etc) that I reuse when shipping CD holders.

On the top shelf here we have soap making supplies. Now that they're accessible and highly visible, I'm definitely getting the itch to make a couple batches!

The next shelf is home to all my scrapbook paper, finished cards, envelopes, etc. I really debated about whether to buy a filing cabinet to organize my 12x12 paper, but in the end decided that this works. I can still dig through the individual pages in those vertical files, then I have a handful of 12x12 velcro envelopes stored in the back. I have one for Halloween/Thanksgiving, one for Christmas, one for Valentines, one for baby paper, and one that holds a bunch of pieces I've already prepped. Point being, it's cool for them to be in the back and less accessible because I only need most of them once a year. 

Oh, and this orange file box is home to all my big chunks of solid cardstock scraps. I have a folder for each overarching color (one for BLUE, for instance, not one for each of SU's 6 different shades of blue). It's been the most AMAZING system for keeping scraps organized and actually encouraging their use.

At the bottom of this wardrobe, I have 3 large drawers that pull out. LOVE these. The top drawer is still a work in progress. It's currently home to my Big Shot die cutting machine and a box of holiday stamps. I've considered pulling these stamps out of the box, but I have it on good authority that I'll be receiving a Silhouette machine for my birthday (yes, the one that already passed!), so I'm currently saving some space for those lovely supplies! :)

In the next drawer, I have ALL my stamps! Can you believe it?? I can fit all my stamps in ONE drawer! Amazing.

In the bottom drawer you'll find our wrapping supplies. Gift bags, tissue paper, ribbon.

And under that last drawer I store shipping boxes (I use a lot to ship CD holders, so it's important to have a variety of sizes on hand).

Ok, home stretch, friends!! Here's a quick look at the countertop space.

I have a couple magnetic strips on the left for photos, inspiration, anything fun.

A few shallow ledge shelves for prints, pictures, my brother's paintings, inspiration.

Hanging baskets and jars. This one holds my most commonly used sewing tools. Out of reach of little hands.

Paper crafting tools on the other side. Hole punches. Pencil sharpener. Sanding block. Tape runners. Scissors. Bone folder.

Cards-in-progress.

I prepped a ton of papers while at my mom's probably a year ago. Basically I just took a ton of scrapbook paper scraps and cut them down to my most commonly used card sizes. Makes for a quickly constructable cards!

And lastly, I recently added my behemoth printer to the table top. I hate it. It just ate up half my paper crafting work space. So, I'm brainstorming. I think I'm going to move the soap supplies to the free space in the other wardrobe which will open up a shelf in this wardrobe which can become home to all our electronics. I'd like our router, modem, backup drive, printer, external hard drives, etc, etc, to find their home in this wardrobe, rather than on the floor in our guest room! But that's a project for another day.

So...what do you think?!! I'm obviously SUPER FREAKING EXCITED about it! I made some cards last week and it was so amazing to be able to just put my head down and create without having to spend half my time digging for things. So cool. Being organized makes it so much easier to be productive.

Thanks for sticking it out for the loooongest tour ever! Happy Sunday!

Flashback Friday

31 years ago, my mother managed to look like this after giving birth, Farah Fawcett hair and all. I aspire to be like my mother in about a million and one ways, but this is perhaps the most impressive! Love you, Mom!

Wordless Wednesday (ish)

Family Room Makeover: In Progress

"But the room is done!!", you protest. Yeah yeah, but I still need to get some pictures in the daylight, so for now, you get an in-progress teaser. 

This was, by far, the fastest big project Raf and I have completed on this house. We made our first trip to Ikea about a month ago, for brainstorming purposes. By the following weekend we were back to make our final design decisions and make our purchases. In the middle of the next week, the pieces were delivered, and that same weekend we completely overhauled the family room! Go us! 

This past weekend, we applied most of the finishing touches to the craft and storage areas. That's not to say that all the finishing touches are complete in the room--we still have moulding to paint and hang, tape to remove, and a TV and entertainment center to purchase...but let me tell you, it looks NOTHING like it did two weeks ago!!

Here are some shots of our process...

We tested no less than 9 paint colors. Yes, NINE. We're crazy, and indecisive, and disagreeable like that. 

Getting ready for paint. 

Hmm, I think I like the blue, Mom. No, the other blue. No, no, the OTHER blue!!

Raf had to remove this old AC unit and patch the hole inside and out. Finished it in record time. And just about broke his back carrying this beast out of the house! 

 And we're on to late night painting! I swear it changed color about 12 times in the drying process.

 By Saturday morning the paint was dry and Pete was over to help us assemble furniture!

 And, of course, Lana did her part too. Such a good team player.

Get excited: I hope to have a full unveil ready for you later this week! WOO HOO!