Discuss help me plan my craft room, please on IKEAFANS.com. We're Personalizing the IKEA Experience. help me plan my craft room, please - Share your passion for your hobby or home business! Tips and tricks on how to fit out rooms to suit your specific purpose!.
I've been doing different crafts for many years. But I've always had my supplies stashed in closets and corners of rooms. After all these years I am finally getting my own space! It's not a huge space - 10' x 11', but it will be mine so I am excited.
I will be using the space mainly for scrapbooking. However, I want space for my sewing machine, minimal amount of sewing supplies, needlepoint supplies (stretcher bars & tons of threads) and a few books.
I'm looking for suggestions on how to best utilize this space.
I already have an Expedit bookcase which will hold my scrapbook albums. Other than this I am starting with a clean slate.
Table setup ... Hm... Well, cutting out wants a standing height table; but sewing and general crafting are sit-down height. If you're a person that cleans up after each project, you might be able to share the sewing machine table
w
/scrapbooking. However, if you have many projects going at once, you'll probably want 2 separate sit-down areas.
[ Many suitable small desks at IKEA: JONAS, LIATORP, MATTEUS ]
You could maybe use the
EXPEDIT desk
extension with your EXPEDIT bookcase for your scrapbooking, along with the rolling ALEX drawer stack of supplies...
Putting a table top on the 39"tall kitchen cabinets would probably give you very good sewing/fabric storage -and- stand-height cutting surface. (
BTW
, covering the table top with homosote (white acoustic ceiling stuff) or cork, gives you a slightly resilient surface you can pin into.)
Also consider LIGHTING... Ceiling mounting a track system with positionable spots means you can direct light from overhead onto each of your working areas. Verrryy helpful. In addition to located task lighting, of course.
You can use the IKEA planner to do some of this visualization - I have! Most of the furniture I've mentioned is in the planner (or at least you can mock it somewhat)
It's a chance to make something *you* really want.
Also, there are various
articles
on-line for maximizing craft or sewing rooms, if you are searching for inspiration.
W definition
W is a wall cabinet designation, as in W18, can be a stand-in for Wide, or when followed by a / stands for With.
Wow, how exciting! I can't really offer anything more than what Rubrik posted (great post!!), but I wanted to say that I'm totally envious and I'll be watching your project.
Start a Project Blog! You can share your Mission Statement, Project Materials, and of course, your pictures! As an added benefit, you'll get extra credit in the contest for keeping a project blog and posting in it!
RubrikGreen, I can’t help but smile when you say fortunate. No sooner than I begin planning “my” space,
dh
tells me that I should plan on allotting space for his 2 old turntables. I foresee my craft room having the same sign on the door that I had when I was a teenager a million years ago “KEEP OUT!”
In all of trips to the store I never saw the Alex drawers. It is definitely a nice piece. I will have to see if I can it. The width could be an issue, too wide for paper and too large for embellishments. But I do agree that drawers are needed. I am going to the store on Friday and this time I will venture out of the kitchen department to thoroughly inspect the office department to see if there is anything I could use for paper storage.
Never having a designated space for my crafts and my two cats have made it necessary for me to always clean up and put things away when I was finished. This is one of the biggest advantages of now having my own space. It often takes me a few days to put the finishing touches on a scrapbook page, so I will need to have enough space to do this and still be able to work on another project.
You are definitely on the right track with the need for two separate sit-down spaces. I too was thinking of the Expedit desk extension. This may really be a good solution for me. I purchased the Expedit specifically because the openings were large enough to hold my 12x12 scrapbooks. I’m going to look at the drawer unit that fits it. I could incorporate this as one work station and then add a separate desk. I love two of the Vika glass tops (Love in many different languages and the black with butterflies). I am going to look at the different leg options to see what would work with my birch Expedit.
I am less concerned about cutting as my sewing projects are never that large. However your idea of a 39” kitchen cabinet is an intriguing idea, I am going to give that some thought. I like you idea of using a material that I could pin into.
I am hoping that I won’t need a bookcase. I’m going to sort through my books and see just how many I have and want to keep. If I could get away with a Lack shelf I’ll be very happy.
I have a small docking stereo for my ipod that takes up a minimal amount of space. I wish I could have a tv but I don’t have cable in that room.
Wow, a design wall! This is now a must have. I think I like the idea of corkboard combined with something magnetic. I know I bought my son some sort of magnetic board in Ikea a few years ago, I’m going to see if that is still available.
I haven’t seen the Aspvik cabinets. How do you plan on using them? I am wondering it they would provide a good source of storage for containers of embellishments. I going to check them out as well as the Effektiv cabinets.
I was considering a track lighting system for just the reason you mentioned. I have a OTT like desk lamp that I will be using as task lighting.
I did as you suggested and entered my room’s specifications in the planner. I’m sure it will be just as helpful as it was for my kitchen planning. Speaking of the planner I wish they had a planner for living room component. My daughter is planning her bedroom which will have an Ikea sofa. I’m sure others would like such a piece too.
I will search for articles to help me plan. Although I don’t know what else I could learn after your thorough assistance.
I really want this space to reflect my creativity and can’t wait to get started.
Susan, I will start a project blog when I have a few spare minutes.
DH definition
DH usually means Dear Husband (or, pick your own adjective starting with D).
It's a sewing room, not a craft room, but it's really an awesome job with lots of details. And, she uses my favorite piece - the Varde drawer cabinet. Just love how pretty it looks in here.
I don't know that I've seen the ALEX drawers either...but my local IKEA does not carry everything --
Emeryville
is the place
w
/the big stock. Mostly, ALEX illustrates what I was trying to point out - wide, shallow drawers for paper, not narrow deep drawers.
IF you don't do a lot of sewing, or don't cut out large things, *maybe* you might want to consider a wall-mounted folding table. Here's an image of what I'm positing: Google Image Result for http://www.topblogposts.com/files/wall-mounted-picture-table/2.jpg If you do one that folds *down* you can use the underside as one design wall, or for posters, or anything (ribbon spools on dowels? ). Mount it 40-ish" up from the wall, and you can use tall cabinets on *wheels*, and push everything back when not in use.
You can use any tabletop, or even a door blank, for a fold-down table. I can provide more instructions later if you're interested.
PM
me for details on using homosote/cork on a tabletop.
Me - I do a LOT of large projects and my cutting table is 3x5 ft. If you use a rotary cutter, then your -minimum- table size is whichever cutting mat you have! :^)
One of your best bets is messing around in the planner. Doing this, I found that if I rotate my sewing table and serger table (an "L") 90-deg clockwise, I'll open up the passage betw. this area and the cutting area by more than 30" -- NOT something I would've thought just standing there and staring at it.
(Just use whatever furniture most closely approximates your needs - don't try for exactness at the moment -- my "ironing board" is represented by a Galant desk and quarter-round piece overlapped to the correct length).
Keep in mind that any windows are possible sources for glare as well as lighting, so probably you don't want a window at your *back* (glare) but do want it at either side (light)
You might look at shelf/drawer units in birch for your tabletops (v/s just legs) -- no use wasting storage options! Maybe white kitchen cabinets with Nexus Birch fronts (and cover panels, if you want complete coordination); or the birch finish "special" kitchen cabs - the PERFEKT ones.
RE: Aspvik sliding door cabinets: Right now I have some of those white wire shelves on one wall, with plastic bins holding scraps from recent projects; mending; interfacing; etc. It's "functional" but "inelegant" and downright "ugly"
I think the sliding door cabs are **ideal** for this usage - sliding doors meaning I don't have to worry about door-swing outward...makes access pretty easy. Cram stuff in and slide door shut. YAY. I like the base cabinets for the same reason- to replace the stacked cardboard boxes under the window which contain linings, interfacing yardage, etc.
For containers of embellishments for your scrapbooking -- I'd suggest rather something like this ALVE drawer unit: IKEA | Storage furniture | Drawer units | ALVE | Drawer unit --- smaller drawers for smaller goods. (I was considering this for buttons, elastics, zippers, etc)
This over the ASPVIK mostly because of size - small containers in a large cabinet... not so efficient.
MAYBE a bathroom wall cabinet would be good! the GODMORGON wall cab comes in birch - it's about 5.5" deep. If you had a bunch of extra shelves, then your little containers would be -really- easy to see and organize!
so yeah! Play around in the planner.
And if you want to keep your room for your stuff, DO NOT let hubby in!
Paint it really PINK (and whatever other color he dislikes) to help discourage him!
Just to add my 2c, a customer told me that she used the STOLMEN system, as the drawers were large enough to store many of her larging scrapbooking supplies. Interestingly enough she used the ALEX units as well.
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It's not a huge space - 10' x 11', but it will be mine so I am excited.
Treasure the people in your life, not your possessions. 
that being said....I sure treasure my new Adel White Ikea kitchen 
