I am takin' over the place!

I am Takin Over! :D

Note: This is a long post with a lot of photos. It's worth it! I would rather risk giving you too much info than leave organization questions unanswered. Click on any photo to enlarge it.

 

You see, this is what happens when you give them an inch…they make a pile.

Let me right off the bat say that this was husband’s desk area in our family room in the man cave basement. The room is fully refinished and very comfy. I kind of let him roam around down there like it is his man-cave and take care of this area himself for the last year. Call me optimistic. . Some of you might be chuckling already. You know what happened next. Well Lately, I think that letting him tend the area himself was a mistake! LOL He is chronic piler-upper. He likes to stack things and sort things and then make new stacks.

It's not all his doing, his Dad is moving soon and has given my hubby about two or three pickup truckloads of MORE stuff to sort out. He has a lot of sorting to do. I am purposely NOT showing you his desk yet. Just the area near it and under the large train photo in the top center.  Oh yeah and that is a close up on right of just one of the piles nearby. Do you ever feel like screaming “Just FINISH something!” ???   LOL No, I don’t really scream. Well not often anyway.

Rather than rant and rave about it. I did decide that it was time for ME to do something. At the same time he suggested open-heartedly that my friends and I use the space to scrapbook again. So I decided to retake this basement family room. I am going to give him back my old Studio room for his office BECAUSE IT HAS A DOOR! Yeah! I fully intend to SHUT that door often since I know he will still be messy. But the family room is now going to be MY crafting workroom space.
Make a mental note of the train picture on the wall in the right photo above. That area is going to be the first to change! First, the messy tour....

Walking around the family room in the basement you might see lots of workspaces that just need to be pruned and maintained. It's not all him. LOL Shown below are page kits in the basket under the desk and finished pages in the album.

Above are finished pages in Iris boxes need to be put into albums. Art work needs to be hung.

Quilt projects look great in these baskets and tins but its time for a change in location to the laundry room. They are taking up too much real estate in the studio and I need the desk and floor space for croppers.

 

I start to pull things around the room....rearranging and planning. I figured out that heavy acrylic packaging (think Cricut cartridge outer packaging to be exact) work SUPER well as moving aids under the legs of things like heavy steel desks and sleeper sofas!!

And now.....some results!

Remember that train picture in the second photo up above? My first project was a die cutting and embossing station. I moved a small, inexpensive, doored bookcase over under the train pic and added a vintage wine crate for the QuicKutz, Cuttlebug and Sizzix dies. Barely visable on the left side of the crate are two small baskets with Sizzlet and small Cuttlebug die shapes. On the desk (his old desk) will sit the Big Kick and my computer. Much tidier! Meanwhile hubby starts working on removing his stacks! LOL (later changed out the hubbies train pic for a Mary Engelbreit LE of my own)

This is the same bookcase opened up so you can see my Spellbinder, embossing folders, lever Sizzix, QK Letterpress and other tools that cut. Mary E print now framed and in place.

 

This is my fiber station. My reels of larger ribbon are in the baskets below.  I have made a very concerted effort the last year or two to use up my fibers and I think it is working! It is a very manageable amount now. Pretty to look at too.I have my shorter ribbons wound on old vintage clothes pins in the apothecary jar. You can see the little print box letters spell out my name. Old baskets and Ball jars hold ribbon spools in color families. I use antiques and vintage items all the time for my storage containers. They really add charm to the décor. I found this Martha Stewart ribbon box set including ribbons in it at a garage sale for $2. Love the color. Love the deal.

Next I moved two tall thin bookcases over near my bar area. The bar is a good height for my old-school cast iron Guillotine cutter. At first I thought I wanted my Cricut cartridges like left under the quilt curtain...

Ooops!  I then realized my rubber stamp collection needed to go in these two matching cases. So I switched it out like below....(I still use the quilt curtain to cover it up when there is not a crop going on.)

Where to put the Cricut Cartirdges? I placed all the Cricut cartridges into the white children's school desk here with the actual Cricut machine. These old wooden desks are pretty common at garage sales and secondhand stores. Usually about $5-$10. I just painted this one white about a decade ago for my daughter. She is grown now so I am taking it back! LOL Perfect for this and the big 13X13 cutting mats and odd tools even fit in the top center drawer. I lucked out -- these desk drawers fit over 70 cartridges. So glad to be able to re-purpose this sturdy desk in this way!

Now to tackle some of my miscellaneous items like glues,tools, inks and Tim Holtz goodies. The tall thin bookcase below holds Copic markers, colored pencils, Zig markers, Tim Holtz stains, inks, sprays and bottled adhesives. The larger doored cabinet holds Tim Holtz metals and embellishments, grungeboard, chipboard, and pads of ink on a spinner made from a cassette tape holder. It also has a basket of glue guns, electric cords, foam stamps, and my Xyrons. Top it all off with a few antiques and that station is done!

But what about the seating, you ask? How can I fit 8 scrapbookers in this space?   Do you recall the two steel desks in the corner above? And that wooden table above? I used those. I also got the 8 foot table out on my porch upstairs. And the teal Deco steel desk my husband made a mess of? (Oh yeah, to create an aura of suspense, I haven't shown you that yet.)We will use all those horizontal surfaces because we already HAVE them. Use what you have.

I lined up all the desk and table space into the center of the room facing each other. In the center of it all, my hubby added a place for my tool caddies made from Coke crates.

These wooden Coke and divided cases all go in the center of the work areas with tools to share. Yes I do indeed have four Fiskars grey trimmers. ;P I share a lot during crops.

You can see here all the Coke tool caddies in place in the center of the work tables between the support posts. everyone also gets a trash can of their own, a coaster for their beverages, and plenty of light.

Where do we all sit to work? The crop work tables are in the center of the room facing each other. On the right are two small white steel office desks and on the left is an 8 foot work table we got for $1 about 25 years ago at a community college garage sale. On the far end we have a wooden dining table seating one and on the near end we have a white plastic table that seats two. In a pinch someone can sit at the Cricut desk and at my computer desk. In total, we have seating for between 8 and 10 people. If you are not a regular--and on time--you might not find a chair!


Remember I mentioned that I wanted to do this project with only three (3) purchased items? I did! Kind of!

My hoosier cabinet is number 1 and it replaces two white Ikea style laminate cabinets like other seen in the room. Here is the Hoosier cabinet all filled up with my bottles of embossing powders, glitters, some idea books and so on. Hoosiers often have these original wire and metal shelves in the doors for spices and I just filled them with bottles of glitter. I got this Hoosier from our local scrap store owner when our store went out of business recently. $225 or so-- and honestly I think it is even cheaper storage than IKEA and sooo much antique character.

Hoosier cabinet open above

Hoosier cabinet closed (looks good!)
Vintage clipboard from a garage sale holds "Life is easier with a List" note paper. Find the freebie Printable sheet here on ScrapperChallenge Facebook page in the FILES section!
As you can see I have a collection of old tins and boxes and prayer books from hubbies and my grandparents and great grandparents above the Hoosier. My dad carved and painted the cork-and-metal whatnot box on left when he was in high school. Make your space your own. Decorate with your heirlooms and special collections. It is what makes the area personal and fun. So that was my purchase number one.

My new paper spinner above is purchase number 2  and holds ALL my loose paper that is not in a page kit. I sorted it by color family with 'heritage' as its own category regardless of color. I also have a section for music and also for maps as those are kind of themes to themselves. This was about $25 also from our store. These kinds of racks are able to hold up to 3000 sheets of paper on a spinning 2 foot square footprint! (There are fourteen slots on a side x 4 sides x 50 -60 sheets per slot.)

My third purchase was to get four new Fleet Farm feed buckets for trash cans! Lined with recycled shopping bags of course for liners. $5 each

And the fourth purchase really wasn't for me at all--but for a friend. When our store went out of business I bought her favorite chair for her to sit in while cropping at my house. So I count that one as my gift to her. I would say that I got by with this room redo within my 3 purchase limit? Yes?

As we continue the finished scraproom tour, here is our 1940s radio all intact from a garage sale this last spring. $10 Vintage buttons in an old jar and a cast iron candlestick lamp add to the vintage feel. USA puff quilt a gift from my good friend Kitty. Those adorable tots in the pic are my children when they were wee things. :D All grown up now!

This collection of K.Aho baskets shows off basket making which I learned about 15-20 years ago in our Pax church craft group. Yes I made them! The little elf clown at far left I have had since 3 years old! Isn't he cute? :D Miniature quilts also made by me. Love both my basket making and quilting! Oh yeah, that 10 foot long country pine peg shelf? $5 at a rummage sale a decade ago!

Refreshments are kept on the bar including water, tea and coffee and small candies. We have a small refridge behind the bar as well as a small microwave and extra folding chairs and card tables for larger crops. Keep your areas cheerful and happy with your own collections. The storybook doll collection behind the bar is from my mother to my daughter. These dolls and their quaint handmade outfits were given to my mother during her childhood in the 1940s.
Also on the bar is the cast iron guillotine paper cutter that I got for $1 at a garage sale about 15 years ago. Still cuts like a charm! watch your fingers! No children allowed! :D

Drum roll please! Here is the last set of pics of hubbies old teal steel Deco era desk so you have a day and night comparison. :D

 

Man Cave Desk (before) above.Yikes.  

This is the same teal Deco Desk below (after) with my computer, idea books and Big Kick die cutter. 

The desktop is cool to the touch so I brought over a small hand quilt I made 25 years ago with my kids handprints cut out of red fabric to rest my wrists on when typing. Seems appropriate for a keyboard! :D I can now call it my personalized keyboard quilt! If your desktop is flat like this you might need a "keyboard  quilt" to rest your arms on as well. Miniature quilts are just the ticket! 

This sturdy desk also serves as the Punch Station. I put all the punches I own into the drawers. So handy! And these old steel desks can handle the weight of storing the punches and still have the drawers pull in and out easily for visibility and access. The desktop can double as a crop spot if needed when we get a big batch of ladies over on scrapbook night.

Finally the room is done and now all I have to do is set my laundry room right and get the hubby's new office more organized. Then I can CLOSE THE DOOR on his man cave whenever I need to! LOL We both sorted and purged multiple boxfuls out of our home in this redo. Hubby was a great help and didn't drag his feet which made my efforts much easier. Happy to have the space to share with my friends and get it all cleared up and usable. Now I know exactly what I have and where it is again. Duplicates have been shared and projects prepped!

Studio ready! Let's scrap!