DIY Craft Room.. On a Budget

Think back before pinterest, and blogs of where you used to get ideas for decorating?

Magazines... {blasphemy.. i know they are so 4 years ago}

However, one day as I was going through a magazine, I came across a work station that I fell in love with, that I knew I needed to recreate for myself.

It had an oversized bulletin board that acted as an idea board {yes remember.. prior to pinterest}, with bright colors, and a usable space.  

I had an old table from college {yes the same one that Aly and I probably had many of late night nachos on from Taco Bell} and I decided to give it a facelift by sanding it down and painting it.

Secondly I went to the hardware store and bought a piece of particle board that was big enough to make a HUGE bulletin board.  I then used gorilla glue to attach pieces of cork, covered the cork with fabric, and framed it with trim.  With the help of Justin's dad, we were able to hang this bad boy on the wall.  {and when I say help of Justin's dad.. I really mean Jeff went to work with his electric nail gun and I just watched my vision come to life!}

I also took this chair from my grandma's house when we did the great large overhaul from moving her from a house to a condo a few years ago.  I kind of felt badly taking one chair from a set of 4 but she said I could.. so I did.  I recovered the base to correspond with the fabric on my bulletin board just using a staple gun.

So the basis of this craft table and bulletin board completely came together probably almost 2 years ago.  .. so why am I just now blogging about it?

Well you see, the craft table was very similar to some peoples at home treadmills/elliptical... a catch all for EVERYTHING.. clothes that needed to be hung to dry, extra fabric that I have bought too much of for a project, a bazillion spools of thread {which I later find out is not nearly a bazillion - more just a mess of unwound thread!}.. this weekend I decided that I was going to clean off my craft table, bust out some projects that I left unfinished and become productive.

First item of business.. Clean up this mess!

{Do you want to play eye spy from this picture?? Erin Condren stickers, 3 things of scotch tape, a golf club, about 10 baby outfits that were never given as gifts.. yes trust me it gives me anxiety looking at it too.. hence why I never tackled this damn room.. and avoided doing laundry because the washer and dryer are diagonal from this table}

I had purchased two curtain rods from Ikea a few years back, thinking they could potentially be useful for ribbon.  While in the store I envisioned them going horizontally, like a normal curtain rod, however when I got them home, I realized there was no where to put them horizontally, so I decided to find a stud in the wall and hang it vertically.  It works wonders.  I put straight pins at the end of all of my ribbons, so when I need one, I just pull the end of one ribbon.. the rest spin on the rod, but don't unravel.  This weekend though, I finally got around to putting up the second rod.  {and much to my chagrin, I realized that there were no more studs in the wall.. had to think outside the box, use anchors, and then screw in the fixtures from there.. I was feeling quite empowered by the time I had finished this project!} And yes, I'm fully aware, I have a small obsession with ribbon.

Next up.. organizing my fabric.  Apparently its not normal for someone who really doesn't use their sewing machine as much as they would like to have this much extra fabric.  My mom and sister informed me this weekend that I should try buying less fabric for projects... My response, have you ever stood in line at Joann's on a Saturday waiting for fabric to be cut?  Yea, thats what I thought, the last thing you want to do is turn around and go right back in to get more fabric!

I had always envisioned a cubical organizer downstairs.  Maybe replacing this shelving unit that I wrote into the contract when buying my condo.  But then that just seemed silly.  Why replace something that holds my cleaning supplies, detergent, and paper towels {yes I buy those in bulk, just like ribbon!}

My mom and I bought this 25 cube thing from Target when I first moved in nearly 6 years ago.  I had just never put this one together {we bought two, the other one holds my flip flop collection.. is collection the right term?}  I assembled this bad boy as well, and then started folding up and organizing my fabrics.  My aunt gave me this ENJOY sign as part of my housewarming gift and I finally have a perfect spot for it.  I might just need a spray paint and we will be good to go.

My other project I completed this weekend was this thread holder.  I will have a DIY up on tomorrow on how I went about making this.  

So now that I have this space cleaned up and ready to go.. who wants to find projects to make? Sewing? Crafting? Anyone?

Happy Tuesday friends, and thank you so much for the warm welcome back yesterday, I'm so happy to be back into a routine!!