A Craft Closet and a Cast

This closet belongs to the bedroom downstairs.  It has looked like this and was piling higher with stuff, to the point of scariness, as time went on, since we moved in to this house last summer.  All along I have intended it to be my craft closet after my sister-in-law Kailie gave me the idea (I don't get to have a whole room devoted to my supplies, unlike my older sister. #envy :)).  I wanted to make it an extra special space and so I started out by giving it a fresh coat of paint.

 I wanted to add a little interest, so using the same color that is on the walls in that room, I added stripes. Not my favorite process, and don't think I would do it again. But for a small space such as this, it wasn't too painful. ;)

 My original plan for my sewing machine didn't end up working out, so for now I stole a bedside table to put it on. The space underneath ended up working out really well to house all my sewing supplies. The small drawer holds the sewing machine manual and some of the larger pieces that belong to the machine. Down below in the basket I have all of my other sewing supplies and an extension cord, since the closet obviously doesn't have an outlet. Next to it in the canning jars I stored all of my thread.  My mother-in-law suggested I put caster wheels on the bottom of the table so I can slide it out when sewing to give me a little more elbow room. I used it the other night and it actually wasn't too bad, but for working on quilts, it would be helpful to have a little more space.  The little shelf above holds buttons in the jars and most of the jars are still empty, so I am excited to start filling them.

 Baskets hold current projects, and quilting supplies/fabric for the quilt I am making (or hope to finish someday).  I really love the bird on the left with the little nest my sister made for me.

                                    All of my decorating/inspiration books. :) And more empty jars to fill.

 I found this tiered stand at Home Goods and the containers at the dollar store. They work perfectly to hold drawing pencils, colored pencils, colored markers, crayons, paint brushes, scissors and ruler, and extra sharpies, pens and pencils. Both of the shelves on the wall were found at yard sales.

 Up above, I have fabric in the big white box, silk flowers that I use for making flower clips for the girls' hair, and the three clear boxes hold all my scrapbook paper= I had way more than I thought.

 This desk was handed over for free from my parents-in-law. It is great for holding all my extra craft/scrapbooking supplies. I will be giving it and the night stand/bedside table a makeover down the road, but there is other furniture ahead on the priority list, so they will have to wait.  The only awkward thing about this space is the closet doors.  Hubby kindly suggested that we take them off and add a curtain (something I was hoping he would say, but didn't want to ask :)).

 Here is a shot of part of this bedroom, so you can reference where the closet is.  This room will eventually have our old queen bed in it for guests, when we get a new bed (Yay!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!). So all-in-all this room will be hub's office/my craft space/guest room/library. An suggestions for dealing with the mess of cords under the desk?

 The bookcases above are from Ikea and I have never loved furniture so much! They are real wood and really sturdy. They also have adjustable knobs on the feet so we could make them stand straight on our very slanted floor. Awesome! They fit perfectly on either side of the window. This is the first time in our almost ten years of marriage that I have been able to take all my books out of storage.  The kids books are in the family room.  This desk was another yard sale find for ten buckaroos that I made over.

In other exciting news, littlest man fell off the couch last night while goofing around with brother and fractured his forearm.  He was not a happy camper about getting the cast on and dropped his lollipop on the floor, once he finally calmed down halfway through the process, he kept saying, "Pop, pop". That poor lollipop wasn't forgotten. So they were nice and gave him a new one. He was so tuckered out by the whole ordeal that he fell asleep eating it on the way home and was out cold with little bits of red sucker stuck all over his chin. So cute. :)