Craft Organization With Style
Craft Organization with Style
Ways to Corral Your Craft Supplies and Still Be Inspired By Them
TWO WAYS TO APPROACH CRAFT SUPPLY ORGANIZATION
Craft Room Organization is a bit of a hot button topic for me. Why? Because I think there are two schools of thought on the subject, even if you’ve never really thought deeply about craft supply organization before–which is totally understandable because who wants to ponder storage? But these two very different ideas behind craft supply organizations are glaringly obvious when you type “craft room organization” into the Pinterest search bar. You’ll see two types of pictures.
CRAFT ORGANIZATION FOCUSING ON ORGANIZATION
Some craft organization ideas are all about organization. They are ideas for you to categorize and put away all your craft supplies, in much the same way you would organize your home office or your kitchen like the binders from scrapbook.com’s website.
CRAFT ORGANIZATION FOCUSING ON CRAFTING
Other craft organization ideas are all about crafts, like this room from myblogika.com. The supplies are put into open bins and boxes so that you’re immediately inspired to mess up the room and get crafting.
MAKING THE RIGHT CRAFT ORGANIZATION CHOICE FOR YOU
I’m not necessarily for or against either schools of thought–I just think that most of us default to one way or the other without stepping back and asking ourselves what we need to do with our supplies so that we’re both ready to be inspired but not overwhelmed by our storage choices.
If organization comes easily to you or if your work requires a high degree of organization then you’ll gravitate toward office-style organizational systems. Think binders, file folders, neatly labelled boxes and drawers with compartments. This is also the way most kitchens are organized unless you have open shelving. Spoons in one spot, knives in another with most supplies hidden from everyday view.
If you feel like a naturally creative person (actually everyone is deeply creative but we sometimes supress it), then you will naturally gravitate toward organizational systems that feature more open storage. You’ll group things by color, and you’ll probably embrace a less strict categories.
THE HYBRID CRAFT ORGANIZATION PLAN
The reason this can be a hot topic for me is because we rarely gravitate to a hybrid system of craft supply storage, but we should.
Like you, I drool over dedicated crafting spaces. I’d love to convert a bedroom into a craft cave where I can shut the door and disappear into my crafts but my bedrooms all contain kids and my husband isn’t okay with me taking over the family room. My guess is that I’m not alone in this.
What we need is a way to mix having an inspiring craft space with one that’s both organized and can be hidden away when not in use. It also has to be super functional. When I say functional, I mean you MUST have a good solid desk or counter workspace. You can use your kitchen table, but chances are that you won’t craft if you have to clean everything up in mid-project to serve dinner.
To recap: We need a hard and preferrably decent sized work surface, a way to hide our crafty mess when we’re not working on it, and places to store organized supplies. We also don’t want it to feel sterile or so organized that we feel like we’re at the office because then we’re never going to feel inspired to create anything. And, you know me, I’m a BIG believer that you should be crafting regularly for your sanity and the survival of your family so you’d better feel somewhat inspired!
It’s a tall order, but totally do-able.
There’s a couple of ways to do this.
THE DESK AND SHELVING METHOD
Desks make great work spaces and they fit in almost anywhere. If you have a home office, then your hybrid work and craft space is just waiting for you! Move supplies and files that you don’t have to get to regularly to storage boxes, or better yet, scan seldom used documents and go paperless to open up space for your craft supplies.
Organize one side drawer with the supplies you need for paying your bills or doing work, and the other with the craft tools that you use regularly. The same goes for the any other drawers you have. Ideally, one side is for work and one side is for fun. If you have a computer on the desk, use an organizer so that you can slide the keyboard under the monitor when not in use so you have plenty of workspace.
I like to use the same work and play balance with the shelving near the desk. You’ll need shelving if you want to have enough craft supplies on hand to get projects done without having to go back and forth to storage rooms or closets.
Create a cohesive look by using fabric bins that won’t scratch your shelves to corral craft supplies. You can also choose a variety of decorative items to add to your shelves that have hidden storage. I use tins with lids, vintage suitcases, and photo boxes because they add decoration and function.
This is also a great place to display some of your finished crafts because nothing is more inspiring than beautiful reminders of how creative you can be when you spend time at it. The idea is to use the shelves for storage AND for inspiration. You don’t want a wall of fabric boxes staring at you when you need to be inspired. Mix it up.
THE HIDDEN WORKSPACE
I once had a friend tell me that she was surprised that I had a cat. That’s because I hide it well (I’m a compulsive vacuumer). You can also hide your crafting in plain site and no one will know until you open the doors.
I’m talking about repurposing armoires, roll-top desks, and entertainment centers by turning them into crafting centers.
These workhorses look great- even in the middle of your family room, and they have super functional built in storage such as drawers and cabinets. The aren’t turn-key craft spaces, however.
You’ll need to add a worksurface for them to work well as crafting centers. I’ve done this two ways.
Check out my Christmas Storage Solution
For a sewing cabinet, or a vinyl craft station I’ve added a shelf on drawer slides that I can set my sewing machine or cutting machine on when in use. When I’m done crafting, I just set my machine back inside, slide the shelf back in and close the doors.
For a bigger multipurpose surface, I’ve cut a sheet of nice plywood the exact size to fit inside the cabinet, added flip out legs and a ledge to rest the inside edge of the worktable against. Basically it’s a pull-out table with drop down legs.
Don’t forget to decorate the inside of your amazing cabinet. It can be all buttoned up and serious when the doors are closed and a party when you open it wide. It’s still a craft space that needs to inspire.
I organized and decorated a sewing cabinet hidden in an armoire during two of my LIVE Chat and Craft sessions. You can check out the full videos below, but I highly recommend that you watch them while you’re organizing and redecorating your crafting space. These Live videos are designed to keep you company while you work on YOUR project. Yeah, it’s fun to see what I get done, but it’s way more fun to get stuff done for yourself while a chatty crafty friend cheers you on. (That’s me, in case you didn’t get my hint–I’m your chatty crafty friend.)
LINK TO THE CLIPART PACK I USED TO DECORATE MY SEWING CABINET:
The Reset Girl’s Getaway Collection
See What I bought to Organize my Sewing Supplies (and also other crafting stuff because I have no real control when it comes to craft supplies)
Check out my VERY FIRST Live video ever! I start organizing and decorating my sewing Cabinet
Here’s where I decorated all my cute photo boxes and finished putting it altogether
