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Craft Room Tours
Explore the craft rooms, studios & kitchens of crafters to see where they work and how they organise their supplies
We go behind the scenes of The Cards We Drew to tour Abbey's inspiring craft space in Columbus, Ohio."I love the bright colors and that I have a place to store all of my craft supplies. But my FAVORITE thing about the room is the chair that I refinished to put in there. When I first started blogging and crafting and didn't have a space yet it was starting to get ridiculous seeing the piles of supplies around my house. So I knew I had to find a place to store them and what better than to create a unique space in ridiculously bright and random colors?!"
Tell us about your space?
We live in a suburb of Columbus, Ohio and have been here in this specific house for four years now. My craft room is in the basement. When we bought our house the previous owner had finished the basement and had created a little room off the stairs complete with a built in corner desk. When we first moved it we just used it for storage, but I finally decided to move the storage to another part of the basement and designate that room as the craft room. It's a small room, but it's PERFECTLY sized for what I need it for. It's only a craft room and it's all mine!! It can be a work space, but typically I like to bring myself upstairs so I can be available to my kids and family while I'm crafting. Plus, since I blog about my crafts it's a bit difficult to photograph steps without the natural light that a basement room obviously can't provide. I like most to create wreathes for my front door!
What have you done to make your space cosy, beautiful or inspiring?
I have tried to bring in printables and quotes for the walls that make me happy or inspire me. I've purchased a collection of craft books for the space that I display proudly for those times when I'm needing some ideas or inspiration. I also tried to put my own personal touch on items throughout the room like the pretty chair and the stenciled desk.
How do you keep organized?
Whew...I don't? If you saw my room today you may be a little appalled. The supplies I have gained since I originally started have come in and are overflowing. I initially used craft room labeling tags created by DimplePrints to label all the drawers and bins...those are all still labeled, but I'm running out of room in many or most of them. I need to add some more paint storage areas, as well as places to hang things on the walls for storage.
Do what makes sense to you. I try to organize things in groups such as party supplies (striped straws, favor bags, hanging lanterns, garlands, etc.), fabric, yarn, paint, "doo-dads" as I call them, paints, ribbons, etc. all separated out. My biggest tip is to not let yourself get too disorganized because once you get there it's way longer to get back!
Which are your favourite possessions and are there any of your own creations on display?
I have a lot of older crafts stored down there, but I plan to sell them soon. I created a series of canvases with lyrics to a song that reminded me of my son that hang in the room and always make me smile. :)
How do you organise your inspiration and ideas?
I use an Erin Condren Day planner where I write down monthly craft ideas and keep my blogging schedule.
Where do you look for inspiration?
I don't really look anywhere, I just spend a lot of time thinking about things I functionally need for my house (whether food ideas, home decor, organization, holiday, etc.) and try to cater my ideas to things I already need. I don't like creating without a purpose.
If you had three wishes, what would you do to make it the dream space?
I would wish for an organizer to come and reorganize the space and find places for all the things I don't know where to put stuff, I would add a photo staging area to the room with a lighting setup (and plan to one day), and finally I would put it on the first floor where I could craft AND be with my family at the same time.
We head to the small town of Ascoli Piceno, Italy to explore artist lOll3's adorable studio in her bedroom.
"The thing about my room that I love the most is surely my loft bed. As cats do, I love to sleep in high places, and this was the best refuge to dream or read a book in total serenity…"
Tell us about your space?
My old House has a pretty strange structure: there is a spooky long hallway with many rooms on the sides…mine is one of these rooms… a little pink cube of 16 m². I've equipped my room with a big working table with all the tools for painting, or drawing, making plushies, tees, cloths etc…
What have you done to make your space cosy, beautiful or inspiring?
I designed the blueprint for my room when I was about 21 years old and my dad, who is really good at DIY, built what I drew…like the loft bed, the desk, the shelfs. I painted the pink walls by myself and my mom (who is a good seamstress) sewed the pillows, the awning and the blankets. I've tried to fill up my room with all the stuff that I love the most like books, fairytales, my old toys, my new toys, my dolls, barbies, illustration books, comic books, plushies, posters and all the stuff for painting, creating, and making amazing stuff.
How do you keep organized?
I'm the most messy person in the world, so I've a personal idea of the organization of a room… but I've helped myself with a lot of boxes, containers, drawers etc.
I'm not the right person for giving this type of tip… I can say just one word: boxes boxes boxes!
Which are your favourite possessions and are there any of your own creations on display?
I think that my favorite possession are my childhood toys, like my beloved doll camilla, my polly pockets, and my barbies… but I'm particularly attached to my self-made plushies, like the sparkling bear, the pink totoro and even my funny bats.
How do you organise your inspiration and ideas?
I take inspiration from everything that surround me, like people, magazines, books, movies, internet, tv etc… I've a folder in my pc where I save all the inspiration pics that I find … and I also use pinterest to share the things that inspire my art… I also have a small collection of illustrations and art books with my fav artist.
Where do you look for inspiration?
Mostly on the internet, it's a big window for peeking at the world and taking ideas, incitements and inspiration!
If you had three wishes, what would you do to make it the dream space?
I have nearly moved in a new apartment with my boyfriend so this is not my room anymore… in the new home there is not enough space, so I'm working on my dinner table =?='' i don't have three wishes, but only one: to one day have a studio for just me, a little place where i can keep all that is necessary to do all the things that I love the most, like drawing, painting, making plushies, and dreaming! ^_^
We head to Tulsa, Oklahoma to go behind the scenes at A Prudent Life and explore Melissa's super organized craft space.
"It’s so hard to pick a favorite, but I love that everything has a designated place. It’s so much easier to complete projects when you know what materials you have on hand and where they are located."
Tell us about your space?
I took over one of our upstairs bedrooms as my craft space. In addition to serving as a craft room, the space is also a guest bedroom for occasional overnight guests. One of my big challenges was blending the two areas together. I didn't want my craft space to feel like an afterthought in a bedroom, and I didn't want guests to feel like they were invading my craft space. I'm lucky enough to have a separate home office, so editing pictures and writing posts generally happens in the office. The craft room is used most often for home decor DIY/craft projects. Lots of gluing, painting, and experimenting happens in that space!
What have you done to make your space cosy, beautiful or inspiring?
Making the space beautiful and inspiring was important to me, for my own enjoyment and for the benefit of house guests. I used a cohesive color palette between the areas that had bright accents, but was still calming. I love that we were able to include a small reading corner to encourage relaxing. Creating a gallery wall that incorporates art and supplies together was another one of the ways I made the space beautiful.
How do you keep organized?
I stay organized by using lots of bins and labels. When supplies have a labeled home, they are much more likely to be put up when I am done with them. Also, when a space is pretty, I want to keep it that way. So even though adding art and decor items doesn't contribute to the function of the space, it adds to my incentive to keep the room clean.
It’s a tricky balance between having items in plain view so you don’t forget about them, and having them tucked away so everything looks neat and tidy. My biggest tip is to make sure you are using appropriately sized bins. I used to think buying bigger bins was better, but the opposite is true. For example, the drawer unit I had before was a mess because the drawers were large enough for me to keep shoving unrelated items in them together. Now inside each drawer there are smaller sections for designated supplies. It's so much easier to keep smaller sections organized. A bin within a bin always wins.
Which are your favourite possessions and are there any of your own creations on display?
In this room, my favorite possessions are definitely the three paintings by my husband’s granny. It is great to be inspired by prior generations in your craft space! The favorite piece I created for the room is the turquoise bird lamp. I found the ceramic bird and clear lamp at separate stores and combined them together into a custom piece of functional art.
How do you organise your inspiration and ideas?
I'm not sure I've perfected this yet! My process while I'm at home is a small notebook that I jot future project ideas in. If I'm out and about, I also tend to take photos with my phone that serve as inspiration. OR if I have an idea, but there isn't a picture involved, I use the Google Keep app to list the idea. I probably should make everything electronic, but I still love writing things in my notebook!
Where do you look for inspiration?
All around me! I love giving boring products new life, like the plastic popcorn tub I turned into an herb garden. Reading other blogs can bring new ideas – bloggers as a group are the most creative people I've ever seen. I love that we can all build on each other’s ideas to make something completely new. Of course, magazine, catalogs, and fashion are always great jumping off points for ideas as well.
If you had three wishes, what would you do to make it the dream space?
Oh, fun question!
1) I’d have a GIANT counter-height island in the middle of the room for big projects.
2) I'd have a separate beautiful gift wrapping station.
3) I'd have really tall ceilings and a gorgeous crystal girly chandelier for the light fixture. Was that
cheating? It's kind of two things :)
We head to Northern Ireland to go behind the scenes at Heart Handmade UK to tour Claire's lovely craft room.
"Honestly, my favourite thing is the amount of natural light that I have. My craft room was previously in a little room right beside my current craft room but it was located at the back of the house which is in a row of terraced houses and was totally dark and grey and rather stiffling creativly!"
Tell us about your space?
My craft room is in my house. It is about 4mx3m and it's a craft room/home office/cat bedroom and greenhouse (it gets all the best light so my plants live in there). It is also my workspace, and the crafting I do most in this room would probably be art journalling or project life.
What have you done to make your space cosy, beautiful or inspiring?
I like to add vintage touches within all the new furniture and I try to change the items on the wall and rearrange the 'stuff' on my big ikea expedit case with each season. I find having seasonal colours and images surrounding me really helps to get the creative juices flowing.
How do you keep organized?
I tend to give the illusion of organisation. I have a large wicker basket in the bottom of my large basket, inside I have acrylic pen pots that fit the basket perfectly and in there I have all of my pens, pencils, lettering markers and excess office supplies. I use a decorative lolly pop maker to store my paint brushes in the one place and I use little ikea drawers and acrylic drawers to group all of my items together. I have an entire (Moppe) drawer full of glue sticks, one full of versafine ink pads, another full of unmouted rubber stamps and another full of embossing powders!
I used old yougurt pots and hot glued them together to create drawer organisers and I store all my little bits and bobs in those. I had a bit of a sequin accident over christmas, so there are suprise sequins in all the little pots. A nice little sparkly suprise!
All of the above! I love my food cans covered in decorative paper for storing my most used pens and pencils and craft knives. I use pretty jam jars to store small spools of decorative thread and I try to have a place for everything. Athough, everything is not always in its place.
Which are your favourite possessions and are there any of your own creations on display?
Yes I have lots of my own little decorative items on display. My favourite thing to do is art journalling so I keep those old journals grouped together in a large basket and I have a little 'mini albums' basket so that if I'm feeling nostalgic I can look through them all. I have lots of decorative frames and handmade cushions and crochet blankets of my own that are on display all through my home.
How do you organise your inspiration and ideas?
I use both art journals and pinterest.
Where do you look for inspiration?
Usually pinterest.It's probably my favourite online social media site. I've always been a very visual learner and images have always evoked certain emotions and inspiration in me so I love it!
If you had three wishes, what would you do to make it the dream space?
These are going to be quite sad. Quite honestly; remove the damp in the walls, insulate the outer wall better and find somewhere to put a tiny/comfy couch!
We head behind the scenes at Something Turquoise to tour Jen's turquoise craft room in Long Beach, California.
"My favorite thing would have to be the light. The wall that it's against is all windows. I love sitting there, working and watching the busyness of the outside."
Tell us about your space?
My craft room is in Long Beach, California - the same city I was born in and have lived in for all my 31 years. I love Long Beach and I love my little craft corner! We live by the University in town and our street is action packed, so there's always someone to watch. I also love that it's all mine! ...even though my cats think it's their's too!
My space is tiny! It's in the corner of our living room... from when the pictures here were taken, it's actually spread out quite a bit more (much to the chagrin of the hubby, lol) Our couch looks at it and our tv cabinet is right next to it. I do crafts and making all over the house - literally. If my desk is clear I'll do things there, or anywhere I have space. Especially when I'm working on paint projects, they'll usually be drying all over the house. I definitely sew at my craft desk... I probably don't do enough at it... it's always covered in projects.
What have you done to make your space cosy, beautiful or inspiring?
I started by painting the wall with a turquoise ombre... then I made sure to have a few of my favorite pictures, quotes and all my favorite supplies in plain view. Like all the paint, I love being able to see them all. Same thing with my markers, scissors, and adhesives. I love my "Listen from within, your heart knows the way" print... that's a very important saying to me - if I didn't follow my heart, I wouldn't be here with you today. I love being surrounded by my crafty things... so my favorite projects cover my space.
How do you keep organized?
There's a saying, "A place for everything and everything in it's place". Most of the time it's a mess - but I know where everything is. I have to clean up, toss and rearrange constantly. Since I'm a (wedding) craft blogger I get supplies sent to me all the time... so it's important to throw out the
old and make room for the new. I give a lot of supplies away too, which I think my mom and friends appreciate.
Any tips & tricks for organising supplies?
My biggest tip would be to focus on your most important and favorite supplies; your go-to tools and the items you use regularly because it will make crafting easier on you. For example, I was tired of getting my scissors, ruler, pens and adhesives out of a drawer - so I put them all OUT. My best scissors hang on the wall - those are only for fabric (and the hubby knows that!) and the others are in a bucket on the wall along with the rulers. All my favorite adhesives, markers, pencils, twine, brads, tape and paper trimmers are also right out in the open. Find the perfect home for your favorite items and work from there.
Which are your favourite possessions and are there any of your own creations on display?
Sharks! lol! I have a tiny (j/k large) collection of sharks because they are my favorite animals. You can see a few in the pictures ;) I also keep cards and gift tags, little things
friends give me or memorabilia from events like concert tickets and etc. Pictures are my favorite, three to mention are: one of my mom and dad ages ago... they are just so young and cute - one of our wedding day where I'm turning back to hear my dad say that he and my mom give me away - and the last is me and the hubs looking at each other on our wedding day.
I have quite a few creations on display... let's start at the top: the giant "J" scrabble tile (one of my tutorials), the three 'Honeymoon Fund Jars" (also one of my tutorials), the glitter champagne glasses (again one of my tutorials), the tiny shell wreath which I made ages ago, the lamp was an Ikea embellishment also from years ago, and I made the candle on display as well ;) Then if you look under my desk, I have two boxes full of all the projects I've made - I always keep at least one... I love having them and being able to look back through them.
How do you organise your inspiration and ideas?
How do you organise your inspiration and ideas?
For the most part, it's all up in the good ol' noggin. But if I come up with an idea that I don't want to forget I write it in my reminders on my Mac Calendar. Once I create the project I check off the reminder ;)
Where do you look for inspiration?
I dream about girls planning their weddings. What would I want if I was planning a rustic mountain wedding, a romantic beach wedding, or maybe a green garden event... etc. I try to come up with
projects that fit weddings along with parties of any theme. I also love walking through craft stores and getting inspired by new products on the shelves.
If you had three wishes, what would you do to make it the dream space?
OMG - For one I would have my own entire room with one whole wall being floor to ceiling windows! With gorgeous built-ins... like Martha Stewart Craft cabinets, all turquoise of course. A giant table in the middle for making... and the perfect photo shoot station built in one corner - I can see it now...
OMG - For one I would have my own entire room with one whole wall being floor to ceiling windows! With gorgeous built-ins... like Martha Stewart Craft cabinets, all turquoise of course. A giant table in the middle for making... and the perfect photo shoot station built in one corner - I can see it now...