FINALLY! My Happy Place…

So this was the disaster of a basement early this spring. Notice how things are strewn will-nilly. It was replaced with my new happy place:

This is my main work area. We designed the room with a window into the rec room so I can see what the boys are into/fighting over/watching on tv (which is right around the corner from the window, so I can poke my head out and see the screen). The colors in the room are (sigh…I’m such a wonderful dork) the colors from the May Club Scrap kit. I hand painted the orange stripe. I love the lowly 25 cent sponge brush. The drawers hold my main crafting utensils and some bulky embellishments.

This is to the left of the above photo. The drawers under the countertop hold stamps (yes, I know, I have waaaay too many stamps). The case on the wall is an old cassette tape holder; I found it at a yard sale for $10; they go for $50+ on eBay. It holds ink pads. The cute tin box on top (a gift from a friend) holds my orange CreamSavers stash.

This is my wall of storage. The little cabinets have the Cropper Hopper vertical paper storage, drawers have cutters, templates, other big flat stuff. That’s my new ScrapRack on the counter, full of embellishments. All ribbon and fibers are in the glass jars on the shelves. That’s a little statuette of a flutist on top of the tall cabinet. That tall cabinet has pages to be filed, projects, card making stuff, and boxes of photos. The cabinets are “assemble yourself” ones from Home Depot. If I had it to do all over again, I would have replaced the cabinets with stronger ones. The drawer fronts keep coming off and the bottoms of the drawers aren’t terribly strong. I need to repair them yet again. But they’re only a year old and we didn’t want the expense of replacing them. I’ll make ’em work. There’s track lighting on the ceiling, with little spotlights pointing where I want them. I may go and get another light or two. There are two can lights above the work area and I still kept my Ott light.

This is the corner also seen in the original basement picture. The Cropper Hopper rolling storage will eventually be replaced with an Elfa drawer set with a strong top for the sewing machine (which is only out because the box it was in is pretty much toast and not because I sew. I’ll be lucky if I can figure out how to thread it and wind a bobbin so I can sew on pages!). The windchimes are tuned chimes and they were a wedding gift. They have hung in many ceilings and even attempted outside on our backporch. That didn’t work…the winds here can be atrocious. Yes, that’s wood laminate flooring, and we’ve decided that that’s exactly what we’ll put in upstairs once the boys are done completely trashing the cheap-ass carpet the builders put in. I have no chair yet. I really want a drafter’s task chair, but they’re not cheap, so I’m going to go get a stool next time they’re on sale somewhere. Eventually I’ll have white faux wood blinds on the window, and I haven’t decided if I’m going to put up some sort of window treatment. There’s also baseboard heating under the window, ’cause if I’m cold I’m miserable.

When we decided to finish the basement, we didn’t originally plan to put in a craft room for me. But as we looked around and figured out what we wanted down there, we realized there was enough room for one. My room is 132 square feet (yes, I have the plans right here, my memory ain’t that good!), which is pretty big. And I realize that. And I realize I’m pretty damn lucky to have this room. Once we decided to put in a room for me (I haven’t had a space all to myself since high school, so I’m just giddy…that beautiful French door has a lock. LOL), I saved all the ideas I liked. I especially liked Karen Burniston’s room; it had the feel I was looking for. I would have loved to have had those cabinets…those are the exact ones in my kitchen! I also saved lots of ideas from Two Peas. And, as is my nature, I planned, planned, planned. We worked with the designer and got exactly the room I was imagining (can you imagine he thought of putting glass in that window? Uh, hullo? Two little boys in the basement!!!). I am so happy with the result. And it is now FINALLY clean, things are filed away, and I can go play. I have not done a single page since mid-April. I looked yesterday, my page total then was 55. My goal for the year is 200. I can still hit it if I get moving. So, if you will excuse me, I have two boys down for naps (yup, even A. Pulled the “doctor said to nap” card…and it was actually the truth!) and a brand-new clean room to play in. 🙂

Have a great day!