I have made peace with the fact that everything that I touch is going to forever be a work in progress… because I like changing things up and I am constantly learning new things. My crafts room is one of those things that I will probably keep on working on until it is time to part with it.

In the past two years my crafts room [really, my whole entire house] has changed significantly. Originally, this room was a dining room. From experience, we don’t really do the whole dining room thing. Also we have an eat-in kitchen and it is big enough for me and John [and guests too if we have people over], so we opted out of having a dining room and decided to make it into my crafts room and load it with all kinds of prettiness.

I used to be in the farthest corner of the house. I had an L-desk and a cube storage to house all of my stuff and that was it.

Huge sloppy mess!

So when we decided what to do with this room in the very front of the house, the first thing I wanted was this desk. My husband built this for me.

As I was slowly moving in to the new crafts room, we realized, if we were going to make this the “pretty room” we need a place to house all these supplies I have. Otherwise, they would all just be randomly laying on the floor like it is in the photos.

While we were trying to figure out what we really wanted to put in this room, I put together this corner. I DIY-ed the lamp, the table is something I already had. My cat ruined the finish on it, so I sanded it some and painted it heirloom white by Rustoleum.

Then it warped into this… The armoire we already owned. I needed a place to store the printer and printing supplies, so this had to happen.

And now, it looks like this. I have been going back and forth over painting it… but every time I come in here, the first thing you see is this gigantic dark armoire. So a couple of days ago, I finally decided it needed to get made over. And… VOILA!

This whole thing was a long grueling process. From picking out the color to getting it finally done. This piece of furniture is HEAVY. I could not move it by myself, not even John could do it. So, spray painting it was out of the question. This needed to be brushed and rolled. I used paint conditioners to reduce brush and roller strokes, the finish is pretty awesome, but it increases drying time.

The light has also since been changed from this wimpy semi-flush mount to a more stylish one.

This was the state of this room for a while. It was a mess until late March and early April this year. We got brave and added more storage.

Here’s what it looks like now…

Since April, we were able to get two new task chairs for my new work space. I have picked up some knick knacks. The ampersand was from Marshalls, the big @ sign on the wall was a great find from the Goodwill, the task lamps were from Big Lots. I didn’t really care whether they matched or not because they are temporary. I didn’t want to spend too much money on them. The plan is to add recessed or track lighting over the counter. The pinwheels I made myself out of my paper stash, as I was organizing during the spring, I found that I had some unopened paper stacks that I had purchased a couple years back… I finally found good use for them.

My desk never stays clear of stuff because I am here every single day making something or working on something. This is one of my most favorite places to be. In fact I am getting a little sad thinking that I may not be able to spend as much time here in the next few months because I am going back into teaching. But I also realize that I really don’t want to be a stay-at-home wife forever and be stuck. I always knew this gig was going to end…

I am just thankful that I was able to create this beautiful space in the process and be teaching again. I miss being in the classroom! 🙂