Tuesday, February 26, 2008

Spanky Craft Room

We have a big room at the back of our house that has always been called the Games Room. The plan was to have a pool table and a bar and other such stuff. We've had the pool table in it for years, but gradually everyone lost interest, and due to lack of space it tended to become the room to store junk in. I also set up my sewing machine in there. And so the transformation into a Craft Room slowly began. For years I only occupied a wee corner of that room, then Meshell caught the craft bug too and between us and our stashes, we took the room over completely.

But what a disgusting mess it became, not enough storage space and grotty old wooden boards sitting atop the redundant pool table for work space just hasn't cut it. It got to the point that I hated being in there. And I don't even have a photo for you - it was too obscene - mess like you wouldn't believe!

Thus began the makeover. As usual with my procrastinating nature it has taken a lot longer than it should. Firstly I designed a work station to sit in the middle of the room, with stacks of storage underneath and an overhang at one end to sit at. While that was being made we sold the pool table - and to appease my slightly miffed husband who lost not only his pool table but also the room it was in, I gave him the $300 we sold it for - smart huh :-)

And then, the clean up - oh my lord what a clean up it was! Meshell cleared out her tons of stuff she accumulated during 4 years of textile arts study and we both went through every single box and cupboard, culling our stuff. You would have been amazed at the amount of stuff that was tossed! The end result of it all was that when everything was put away again it was all in logical piles of related things, not just stuffed into random cupboards. It's amazing what you can find that has been tucked away for 20 years - what do you reckon about THIS pattern for a natty little knitted item - eek!


This is my corner of the room, a couple of the walls have feature brick which I'm rather fond of, so that's my area. The Indian Orange Peel Quilt and the smaller picture quilt of the ocean are my 'works in progress', and they have had that title for quite some time now! Note that the ironing board is in my territory - and it has a snazzy new cover. It had to have a nice new cover to go with the nice clean and tidy room.


And, ta-da! Here is the new work station, all white and shiny clean and lovely. I'm really happy with how it turned out and it has so much storage! It's 1.8 metres long and 1.2 metres wide and stands about 90 centimetres high, nice and tall so as not to break our backs when leaning over pinning quilts and the like. It sits in the middle of the room and we have assorted benches and cupboards around the walls, gathered over the years. The easel is Meshells, as is the giant knitting sitting on top of the tall cupboard! It was one of her university pieces. On the right of the photo is an old dining table that Meshell and I share to use our sewing machines on - we have one side each.


At the far end is an overhang area for us to sit at, and down the centre is a void, which I planned as a great place to store cumbersome things like cushion inserts and quilt wadding. It has worked out really really well, and we've also added a rubbish bin there too, to avoid the temptation to just sling threads and offcuts of fabric on the floor. :-)


Our final mission was to find two stools to sit on, preferably with adjustable height. Are these not the bestest most fabulous stools in all the world? We were so excited when we found them - they are just perfect and really comfortable.


Right, now that's all done, and we have a clean, tidy and very spanky craft room, there is no excuse for lack of creative output eh!

14 comments:

Fran said...

You won't want to muss it up, such shiney bottoms to your new chairs too, see right up your frock!
hugz,

DoubleL said...

You cant possibly work in such a tidy room - you need chaos and threads and papers and stuff all over the place - Will you be able to be creative in such a pristine environment. Its a lovely room though.

Sasha said...

Oh my goodness I am So envious! But in a nice friendly sort of enthusiastic way! hehe Love the workstation, funky stools and the whole area! It's FABULOUS! Looking forward to seeing all the marvellous creations that pour forth now! p.s. the quilt on the back wall is absolutey amazing!

Dy said...

LOL, trust you Fran! Lucky for us that we don't wear frocks eh ;-)

Loz, I doubt it will remain that pristine for long to be perfectly honest, I'm just basking in it for now!

Sasha, I will be glad to finally finish the Indian Orange Peel Quilt, I've stopped and started making that so many times over the years - there are lots of itty bitty bits to sew together! But I like it so shall plug on

felicakes said...

OMG i love your new craft room.

Can I ask you something. Where did you get that sewing table? I am looking for something like that.

Fel said...

I read about the clear-up mission on Meshell's blog...and I think I might have seen pictures of the room before...but this is amazing! Beautiful and light and roomy and - I don't know, totally amazing. Of course it won't stay pristine, since you're supposed to work in there, but still, what a lovely space to do crafting in. I wish we had the space for that here. :) (The chairs are fantastic!)

Anonymous said...

Gives me hope that one of these days I might get around to sorting my sewing room out.
Not that it will turn out as good as your craft room has,but it would be nice to know what's in all those bags and boxes of"stuff"and maybe put all that"stuff" to good use.

Anonymous said...

well done! I hope you are more inspired by all that space and light. Well done.

Pennie said...

LOL no wonder you've been so quiet what fun it must have been sorting through all your stuff together. I can honestly say with hand across heart that I've never owned any pattern as ridiculous as that Jackie McDonald one LOL thank goodness! and it's got shoulder pads as well!! eek indeed!

Lindi said...

Oh WOW! That is SOME work area! I'll have to show DH and tell him that's what I want for Mother's Day...in my dreams! LOL
And please tell us, where did you get the work table?

Dy said...

I went to a store in WA called Lifestyle Furniture and handed them a drawing of what I had designed and asked them to make it for me!
I used their stock sizes of melamine drawers and cupboards which are positioned around in a U-shape (which is what provides the void down the middle), then got them to make me a solid top to sit over it all and to have an overhang for us to sit at.
I'm REALLY happy with it! I paid extra for little things like metal runners for the drawers and rounded corners on the top - it cost $1150 which I thought was pretty reasonable for something 1.2m x 1.8m x.88m tall

Tanya Brown said...

This is a slice of heaven. Lots of intriguing things to see and use, clean surfaces begging for a project, light flowing in that giant window. I really admire what you've done.

The sweater ... you know, what makes it so spectacular are the giant flowers. It's that touch which puts it over the top. Speaking as someone who collects such idiosyncrasies, that pattern is definitely a keeper.

Kate North said...

what a great room :) I think you guys should knit up that jumper and display it, just for fun, though.

Quilty Cat said...

Love the workstation and that jumper is definitely a blast from the past (where it should stay!)
To quote Dr Phil
"What WERE you thinking?"
And haven't we all asked ourselves that at some stage? :)
Carmel