Craft Room Tour | Space for Crafting, Reading and Working
Hello and welcome to my multifunctional office, craft and reading room! This room has undergone a lot of changes since the last time I showed it here on the blog back in 2022. Back then it was divided into two sections with my personal office and art desk on one side of the room, and a shared sewing desk on the other side. However, now this room has become one for my “own particular use”, and instead of a sewing desk, I now have a sofa. Well… rather than just talk about it, let’s take a tour!
Firstly, the pretty blue floral wallpaper had to come down. It had always needed to be removed, ever since we moved into this house, but I loved the delicate floral design and couldn’t bear to take it down. It showed up as a background in a lot of the photos here on the blog throughout the years. Its time had come, though. It was quite damaged, so last March I began the arduous task of not only removing the wallpaper, but also repairing the wall (there was more hole than wall). Of course I injured my shoulder in the middle of that project, so I had to put it on pause, and it stretched out over a couple of months instead of a couple of days.
But, finally I completed all the patching and repairs, and it was time to paint. I went to our local hardware store and chose the perfect off white colour which was in fact called “Favourite”. Alas, we discovered that they were no longer carrying that line of paint! (General Paint) I looked at all the other paint samples from three different stores and none were as good as that initial shade. It is a warm white with brown, not yellow, undertones. At first glance it looks almost exactly like the same colour as my bedroom (Benjamin Moore’s “Acadia White”). I have found that Acadia White goes slightly lemony in the summer because of the green light reflecting off the trees, though, so I didn’t want to use it again in this room. I ended up getting the colour chip matched at Benjamin Moore, and having lived with it for now through all the seasons, it is definitely a “Favourite”. It is just warm enough to not look grey in the shadows, and was the perfect choice.
As you enter the room, this same little watercolour landscape greets you on your right.
Then as we turn around the corner, here is the closet. I put up lace curtains so it isn’t so messy all the time. I didn’t want bi-fold doors up as they intrude too much into the space, meaning there wouldn’t have been room for the dresser.
I used to have my printer sitting on top of the dresser, but it’s so big (and techy looking!) so I instead put it on wheels and roll it in and out of my closet whenever I need it. I only use my printer a couple times a week, so it’s no big deal to tuck it in here.
The shelves in the closet are full of decorating items, dishes and some larger craft supplies. I keep my dress coats in this closet too.
Now continuing to the left, here is my display shelf and dresser. I refinished this dresser a couple of years ago and I keep table linens and bedding in the drawers. I recently rearranged the top of the dresser to hold a sewing machine for crafting purposes.
There is also a basket with a bunch of completed scrapbook pages and documents for the photo album project I’m working on, and a completed album.
I received this floral card in the mail from my friend, and it kept falling over on my bedroom shelf, so I framed it and tucked it here. I think I might keep the picture frame here permanently as a revolving display of greeting cards.
I showed this display shelf in more detail in my last post here. Right now it has haberdashery themed items out on display, but I change it up for the season. I built this shelf last year specifically to hold my collection of books and dishes. I used mostly salvaged boards and painted it with the Mineral Fusion paint in the colour Raw Silk, which is almost a perfect colour match to the wall.
Now to the left of that, is my cozy reading (and internet browsing!) corner. I got this sofa off of kijiji and probably paid too much for it considering that it’s not in the greatest condition….but it is comfortable. I intended to reupholster it, but decided against it because the wood would require too much restoration. I love all those 70’s colours like “harvest gold” and “olive green”, but they clash with the colours in my bedroom, so I’ve used them in this room and they go perfectly with the brown-orange tones in the sofa.
With my dad’s help, we rewired this IKEA Ranarp lamp, changing it from a hardwired pendant into a plug in. I’ve had it for about 11 years, back when it was first released, but have never had anywhere to put it. Rewiring it meant I had to sacrifice the cute striped cord, but it was still the right decision as it lights this dark corner. There isn’t room for a table lamp, just a tiny metal tray table big enough to hold my teacup, so the pendant works really well.
On the wall I have an “inspiration” board of sorts. I’d love to get a magnet board for this wall, so I can put all sorts of collected things on it. Right now I’ve used washi tape to hang cards and calendars etc. that I’ve saved over the years.
Under the sofa, two vintage wooden crates hold items I have for sale in my Poshmark shop.
Now to the other side of the room…I found this curtain years ago at the thrift store, again with all those 70’s colours, and have never had a spot for it. It’s the exact size of this window- how serendipitous!
This desk area got a big upgrade since 2022. I used to have three simple shelves on brackets, but found that I always had to stack things, or items were in danger of toppling off the ends. My parents renovated their kitchen a couple of years ago, and there were a few of the old kitchen cabinets left over. I removed all the hinges and hardware, filled all the holes, and painted the outsides of the shelves. I didn’t do the insides, except a few touch ups because I knew they would get scraped over time, but even just painting the outsides gave them such a refresh. Now the shelves are adjustable and the supplies are easily accessible without having to stack them all.
I made two decorative corbels out of some 2″ x 8″ offcuts. They are attached through the bottom of the shelves, not to the walls. Above the desk, there is a metal strip/bulletin board that uses magnets and four pegs on the other side to hold scissors and tags etc.
The final touch for these shelves was to wallpaper the backs. I’ve had a collection of wallpaper samples for 11 years (I got them from a former coworker). I’ve used lots of the wallpaper pieces over the years, but there were a few samples that were so pretty I was saving them to do something special with. Even though you can’t really see them most of the time, the pretty patterns peek out and make the shelves so much nicer.
I keep a tray of brushes and tools and current projects on the top of the desk. The Tertial IKEA work lamp attaches to the side of my work desk and it pulls out and the head pivots to shine where I need it. I got it in the taupe colour, but it looks like they’ve discontinued that colour and only have dark grey now. I like the industrial look that contrasts with the rest of the room.
And here is a peek at what is inside my desk drawers.
Pens, paper scraps, tools and a paper cutter.
Beading and millinery supplies on the left and punches and cutting mats on the right.
Rubber stamps and paints on the left, and stationery, packing and gift wrapping supplies on the right in the big drawer.
Glue and adhesive, blades, punches, SD and hard drive tech things.
A couple of items find their home under the desk, including furniture paint supplies in a wooden crate, tools in my vintage toolbox and my antique sewing machine. I don’t use it for sewing as the tension is off and it sews too tightly. Maybe I will get that fixed one day, and actually use it for sewing! The green ceramic plant pot, above, is a tiny garbage can.
Then finally my narrow little work-from-home desk. Not very much exciting there, especially because of this ugly office chair! As much as loved my old IKEA office chair for its “aesthetic” lines, my shoulders and back didn’t love it, so now I have this more ergonomic chair. I use it for working at both desks, and the IKEA chair is now in the sewing room. One item to note is that I put my surge protector and all of my cords in a basket behind the monitors, which makes this area so much tidier!
Above the desk I have three framed vintage sewing patterns from the 40’s, 50’s and 60’s. The centre one, from the 50’s was a dress my Gramma wore as a bridesmaid.
And we’re back at the door… so, that’s my office/ craft room! I spend long hours in this little space whether I’m working, dreaming, crafting, reading or blogging….so many tasks take place in here. It’s such a dream come true to have a place to dedicate to crafting and I’m so happy with how the room turned out. Even though I was sad at first to remove the wallpaper, I must admit that the space is fresher, and brighter with the new paint, and because I removed the blue colour, I was then able to use my favourite warm toned fabrics and pillows that don’t work elsewhere.
Thanks for taking a tour with me!
