Simplify . . . Craft/School Room

Here is our front living room . . . it is a room that I liked, but it just didn't get much use. We hardly ever sat in here just because our back living room is our "comfy" room. Even when we have people over - we sit in the back room. So I decided to make it more user friendly for our family. I listed the furniture on Craigslist - even through it was almost 10 years old, it was in perfect condition because we didn't use it. Next came organizing it into my craft/sewing room and the kids school room. We have these great desks for the kids that my mom and dad found at a sale, but they were in the dining room and since we lost 2 of the windows when we added on the back room, everything just seemed so "dim". I really wanted to open up the front room and have the kids' desks in here where there is lots of sunshine and light.



So I brought the other white cabinet back in from the laundry room and decided to have one be for all my "sewing" things . . . I measured and found Rubbermaid containers that fit perfectly into the space. I didn't just want to stack my fabric because the cabinets are so deep that I would have to take all the fabric out from the front just to get to the back - this way all I have to do it pull the bin of fabric out that I want and then put it back in without having to rearrange all the other fabric.


I made the other white cabinet all my "crafty" supplies. I want to start scrapbooking again and this way I have everything in one area and I don't have to hunt through bins to find what I am looking for.

Next I wanted to find something for our shoes. I didn't want to just have them laying out all over the floor - so I found this storage shelf at Hobby Lobby and it worked perfect for our shoes.




The next thing was a sewing table - this is just a 6 foot folding table, which I am not that crazy about, but for now it is working. I sewed a table skirt in 4 different sections so that I could slide my chair in and reach my foot pedal. I also like the fact that underneath the table I have my scrap bin of fabric, a bin for my yarn, and the large roll of batting that I got from my Mom - so even though I don't like the table itself, I love the storage that it gives me.


I have also had this quilt rack that my brother-in-law made me a few years ago out of a cherry tree we cut down in our front yard. I never really had a good place to put it so it has just sat in our back closet. Then as I was looking for what to do with the space above the table I remembered that I had it and it worked great and it really added so much to that wall. The words above the rack say "Everyday holds a possibility of a Miracle" - which I love especially since the kids are now in this room with me.


Of course I had to redo the piano bench to match the table skirt and then buy new rugs for the piano and my cutting area (burgundy just didn't go too well anymore).


If you know anything about my house - you know that it is 99.9999% decorated in Hobby Lobby things. I just LOVE Hobby Lobby (sometimes a little too much). But they have the cutest things and with the sales that they run, I cannot find things any cheaper even at Wal-Mart. This is the top of one of my white cabinets. I found the metal bird cages at HB for 50% off and the sign for 50% off. The candles were just white candles from Wal-Mart that I tied some black ribbon around and added some bows.


We don't ever use the fireplace anymore, but I still love the look that it brings to the room. A few years ago I found the metal "Pennsylvania Ave" sign and thought it was quite fitting for this Pennsylvania native.

This is my cutting/ironing station. It is actually the two white cabinets I had at the end of my sewing table from before butted up back to back. The only problem was now there was a gap down the middle so I want to Wal-Mart found some caulking strip that you would use in the bathroom and cut a piece for both sides - gap gone - problem solved. I also hung the 3M pull-away hooks on both sides. This side holds my medium cutting mat and the other side holds all of my rulers.



I now LOVE our much more simpler craft/sewing/school room.

Have a wonderful day everyone - Lisa