It's been a little while since I've posted here so I thought I'd bring you all up to date. I inherited a room in my house to use as a workroom that has been, to put it politely, through the ringer. My daughter was in the process of remodeling the room for my granddaughter when she abruptly moved out. I won't bore anyone with all the details here but merely mention that the redecorating was definitely no where near finished and left me with a huge mess. Needing the space badly I, putting the cart before the horse (as usual), moved in my crafting supplies, elbowed my way in and started to try and create a place to work in. In fairness I should also mention that after my daughter's move I did use the room for storage. I'm showing you the "in-progress" pics because the "before" pics are just too awful.
In the photo to the right you can see the unfortunate paint color that I was left with, the photo doesn't really show the vividness of the pink. I'll just say it's something a kin to mixing Pepto Bismol and a tremendously 'fabulous!' Easter bunny. On the bright side it
does seem to be very energizing ( I want to hurry up and finish what I'm working on before the headache starts, LOL)
The
pile-it system, that's STORAGE system *cough, cough* is built around the old existing closet and bookshelf, and another old wooden book shelf that was cut in half and placed on top of the old closet. It presently contains miscellaneous crafting supplies, old coats (there's no where else to put them and they're in line for re-purposing), shipping supplies and several things waiting to move up to the attic or out to the street.
Continuing around the room to the right, you see the 1st naked window. The blinds were removed during my daughters' painting and when I attempted to put them up again I discovered they hadn't been taken down so much as torn down and will have to be replaced( I'm thinking cute little lace curtains, or maybe sheers...).
Below the window is my biggest current headache, a dreadfully ugly green used office waiting room chair that's now awaiting a trip to the curb, Okay it was only $15 and at the time I had grand plans to slipcover it but the family dog mistook it for a chew toy, my kids moved it out on the front porch while I was working out of town and you don't even want to know about the stains.
( We all have one of those chairs....don't we?); and a discarded bean bag waiting for it's new home in the attic,.
Which brings us to my first workbench in the room. It's actually a bar height dining table that I got for free, and the plan was to make it into a place to do my water colors and miscellaneous crafts; right now it's a mess because I'm using it to organize all those supplies I've been accumulating slowly even tho' I really had no place to put them .
And of course I can't clutter up my jewelry bench with them now can I?
On that same wall, another window, with an old but mostly working A/C (they stepped on the front to it during the "re-model") and rolling storage for clay and mixed media supplies, there is also a folding door I plan to use to screen the rolls of fabric and interfacing from view.
I have plans to yank out the old carpet, it's seriously beyond repair; red paint stains, from my daughters' attempt to remodel the Kitchen (don't ask, although I may purge about that on my other blog at some point), pink paint stains, sheet rock mud, etc. (did I mention they left me a disaster, LOL) but right now it's not a priority.
I'm thinking maybe a nice buttery yellow for the walls, Perhaps I'll paint the ply wood floors a soft pale green (NOT sage). What do you think?
Which brings us around to my jewelry bench. It's made by putting a reclaimed book shelf across two plastic shop shelf units and then stacking the other half of the bookshelf that's on top of the closet on top of those. I'd show you a close up but it's just a disorganized mess right now. Turns out I can't seem to organize a room with out spreading the mess out all over the room first so I can see everything all at once. Does anyone else have that problem?
I'm blessed with another window in this wall, under which I've got my filing cabinet and a shelf unit for displays, packaging, and finished jewelry storage. Right next to that on the fourth wall of the room is my "wall-O-beads" made from reclaimed retail jewelry racks (FREE!!) and a really great drawer bin unit reclaimed from a retail embroidery floss display (also Free). They help to camoflage the massive wall patch on that wall hiding the repairs to the wall (you guessed it, the botched remodel). The last eight feet on that wall is where I plan to put my folding cutting table for laying out fabric, as soon I get the stuff that's already there up in the attic.
All in all the room definitely has promise, and I am slowly making progress on the road to a clean and organized work space (well, somewhat; with my A.D.D. I'll never be fully organized LOL) . Lack of money is definitely a hindrance to progress, but I love to re-purpose available materials and after years of accumulating stuff I find no shortage of things to re-use in new and different ways.
What Problems have you encountered on the road to creating your own special work space, and how have you overcome them? I'd love to hear your thoughts and comments. I'd also really love your feedback on my own "chaos in progress".
For now, I'm off to work on another jewelry project; keep creating;
Til next time;
Teresa
