Craft room and other progress

I thought I'd share the progress that I've made so far with my craft room/office.  There's still a lot of work to do but I'm feeling much better about the space. 

I gathered my favourite wrapping supplies in a wooden box above.  Shipping tags, baker's twine, jute and a little glitter - these are my go to supplies for just about everything.  Besides liking the way they look together, it's nice having them all in one place.

Here's the before.  I can hardly believe that I'm sharing these photos with you!  I'd just started decluttering when I took these but this is pretty much how it looked, minus a bag or two.  "Stuff" was everywhere and I felt a little claustrophobic whenever I came in here.

Much better now!  There's room to breathe!  I've been thinking about repainting the walls but I actually like how they look in these photos so I'm reconsidering that.  At least for now.

But I'm not loving the wicker.  It's just not working for me.  I bought it for our porch a few years ago but the pieces are too big (I have 2 chairs, 1 rocker and the table you see under the window).  Because of our winters, it can't stay out year round and storing it is a huge problem.  So every year I bring it inside and spread it out through a few rooms until the next summer.  I've stopped putting it outside because it's just too much hassle so I'm thinking of selling it.  If you live in the GTA and are looking for a white wicker porch set, email me!  Cushions are included.  :)

I brought one of the bookshelves from my reading room (that room got a makeover too) and put all my decor books there.  I thought of painting it but it's pressboard and honestly not worth the effort.  But it's functional and will do until I find something better.  My bulletin board still needs work but at least my desk is nice and clear!

And I tidied up my storage shelves so they look better.  An added bonus is that it's nice to be able to find things now.  The large cupboard is jam-packed full of fabric.  I've got a serious fabric addiction and have decided it's time that I actually use some of that fabric.  That way, I can buy more!  No, really.  I'm not buying any more fabric until I've used some of it up.  (But please, don't hold me to that!)  I love the basket on top. It's a butcher's basket from around the 1930's or 40's. 

So that's my progress so far!  I still have to "fluff" it up with artwork and a little paint here and there but overall, I'm pretty happy with it.  We were planning to have laminate floors installed on the second floor but I just couldn't handle all the packing up and moving of furniture so we put it off until next year.  I'm looking forward to getting rid of the carpet! 

In my next post, I'll share my reading/guest room changes.  The snowball effect continues!

On another note ... we had to buy a dishwasher today.  Mine has been slowly dying for over a year but each time my husband has been able to fix it so we could get a few more months out of it.  This time the digital control panel went completely wonky and it's just not worth putting money into a twelve year old dishwasher.  With the holidays coming up, we decided to get a new one.  It will be installed next week.  I also bought the shelving for the pantry.  Work on that began today by hauling everything out of there then hopefully I'll get a coat of paint done tomorrow before installing the new shelving. 

See you soon!

xo,
Lynda