Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Have I been busy enough?

After pampering a cold away from my husband, he repaid my kindness by sharing. But still I have been determined to complete my craft room.  I was able to fund the transformation by selling my large salt water fish tank and squirreling away profits from my etsy shop. The budget was 350.00 and here is how I spent it
198.00 Two Craft cabinets from Michaels at 99.00 apiece on sell. A great buy full of storage
24.95    paint from Home Depot. I splurged on a paint and primer in one to cover up the old dark purple
55.00   color coordinated fabric from Michaels. Around 11 yards
20.00     Salvaged counter top
13.95     Quilt batting for window seat and left over for fabric scrap quilt
17.50     Thrift store buys: pillows, glass jars and wicker baskets
6.00     curtain rods
10.00 casters for storage units
3.00        staples for the staple gun: I can never find them when I need them
I probably spent around another 10.00 on odds and ends and just barely went over budget
I love this room. To keep everything clean and separate I have three work areas.  The table against the wall is for beading. I've taped down a soft plastic drawer liner that catches all my beads and keeps them from rolling away. Beside the table is a rolling shelf made from two salvaged storage units that were great dumpster finds. All my tackle boxes of beads slide write in.
The table in the middle is for my polymer clay, I have a wicker basket drawer in the front that I bought and repaired from hobby lobby for just eight dollars since the front leg was broken. A little glue and spray-paint on the wicker baskets to cover up the original florescent colors and it perfect for more storage and slides write under the table.
The back wall counter top is perfect for my sewing machine. It's tall enough to stand up and cut my patterns on and with my chair lifted I can comfortably sew without bending over my machine like before.
The window seat is a large storage box from the garage I painted and some scrap plywood I hinged on the top. I store my fabric inside.
And the best part if for the first time in my life I have more storage than supplies. Sounds like an excuse to go shopping to me. Well at least I will start to fill them up when I have more income from my etsy sight to spend on pretty things.
Also you may notice how much my cats love my new room as well. My kitten did help a lot and the calico named drew just added instructions between naps.
                                                                       Before
After



   And I even had enough scraps to make a quilt, hanging on the wall, and a teady bear.
The last thing I hope to do is build some additional shelving in the wall . In the second photo you can see some white metal mounting rods ,I have all the brackets hiden away somewere. Hopefully next month I can get enough  funds put back for some wood.

3 comments:

  1. Love your new work space. You did a great job for a little amount of money.
    Therese

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  2. What a great makeover! And on such a doable budget! LOVE it! :)

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  3. I love your new studio! I so envy people that can sew.

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