Saturday, April 11, 2009

Craft Room Reveal!

Okay, FINALLY I am blogging! There are so many things to show you and so much that we did that I have been avoiding working on this! It has taken me hours just to upload the pictures! If someone out there can tell me how to blog without spending so much time on editing pictures and uploading on blogger, that would be SO helpful as I do NOT know how some of you blog daily!
There are 2 things pending that I have been hoping would get finalized for pictures but I'll just tell you about them so I can share this fun transformation! There are so many things to show you that I think I will break it down into walls--here is a collage of the left wall, center and right wall, before and after! This desk epitomizes her challenge. Outdated furniture. Lots of stuff. Her scrapbooking supplies as well as products to sell to clients. Many projects that she wants to do at some point. Bins and baskets where she started a system but it wasn't quite streamline enough to keep her straight. Stacks of pending albums for herself and some that people pay her to create. Yes, she's cool like that--people pay her to make scrapbooks! Throughout this transformation, you will see areas that have been created to fix all these challenges that she has! Here is the left wall. This is where two items are missing. The glass jars on top of the bookcase will be moved to the right side and on the wall facing the desk at an angle will be a flat screen TV. To the right of the drawer cabinet above the basket on the floor will be a really cool magazine rack mounted on the wall which will balance out the space below the "inspire"! There is a picture of the rack below.I had way too much fun making this and felt a little guilty this day that this was my job! This is her project area. She had boxes and bins of pending books to make, projects for clients, albums to start and she needed an organized way to handle all that. This cabinet now holds them in separate drawers! On the display board is a list of the 6 drawers and which project is in each drawer so at a glance she knows what she needs to work on. She can easily reprint and put on the display area as things change. This Simply Renee embellishment holder is SO handy for a scrapper (I LOVE mine!) and her business cards and current catalogs are right there for her Creative Memories clients! Here is the Longaberger Magazine Rack that she has ordered and will go to the right of the above items. The cabinet in the corner houses her scrapbook paper, resources and her personal albums. She had a couple notebooks with references/resources and simply putting them all in matching white notebooks and printing coordinating labels makes them look great! The desk has an open are to hold her papers, current work in progress and cutting systems! Her chair came with a boring gray cushion so I sewed a cover out of the matching fabric that I made a window treatment with. Goal #1 was that it was comfy and swiveled so she could easily get into her cabinets behind her and this one is pretty perfect! This window needed to be lightened up from the heavy treatment it once had and now the room looks so much larger! Here are the resource notebooks that she used to pull together pages from magazines and random idea books that she was holding on to! Resource Books are needed by all creative types who like to hold onto inspiration! Fun crafter items displayed for easy access. This is the bottom of her desk where there is open storage. She made the cute sign! Here's the right wall! We needed Storage, Storage and some more Storage!

The left cabinet has often used supplies since it is right behind her desk. Fun labels transform this from utilitarian to gorgeous!
The center has all the 'stuff' that was in boxes and bags before in these cute jars from Crate & Barrel! She had an amazing collection of handmade cards given to her by friends that we displayed on the display frames with more in the fun metal container below them. The right side of the cabinets is 100% Creative Memories products available for her customers. Come shop! Here are a few details:



These magazine bins are 5 for $3 at Ikea and are the only bins I would spend money on! Transform them to match your room and look at how amazing they are! Perfect for loose resources that you are holding on to.

On the same wall as the door is a large closet. This closet was FULL of stuff she needed often, things she was holding on to and products. We worked hard at getting out the often needed items and getting this to function well for her.
Everyone has what I like to call their 'crazy'. We all just have something that we buy too much of or can't get rid of and some are even useful which is quite nice but still is just over the top! I have an awesome client who had an uncountable amount of free Christmas cards that were sent to her by charities that she donated to. They weren't even all cute but they were free and she had hundreds and hundreds and it was just 'wasteful' to get rid of them to her so she had saved them all in office space that she could really have used for something esle. So that was her 'crazy'--but are you ready, she is Jewish. Yup, never even used them. So, back to this client's 'crazy', hers is gift giving supplies! And she uses them so it's okay! She has LOTS!! We really had to figure out how to better sort her supplies and she loves her curling ribbon. This was an easy and affordable solution and she can get to it so much easier! She has lots of projects to complete, just like the rest of us! We created a section of her closet just for projects and added a list of all that she needs to finish. She can check these items off as they are done and then easily print this again and switch the sheet out as the list changes. If you do this, just use a removable glue or adhesive so you can switch out the basic white paper!
You can just see it at the top center but that box is for her son's school work. At the end of the year, she put it in a storage container with the date and this box is where she can now easily place new items as they come in.
This bin was here with gift giving already but we pulled out the gift bags (in their own bin standing up) and the ribbon so it really freed this up to be sorted better and is much more accessible for her.
This room was transformed from top to bottom and was so much fun to work on! All the furniture is from Ikea! I know, Ikea is NOT for everyone and I personally wouldn't use it in the main living spaces of my home but for kid's rooms, craft rooms, work spaces, playrooms- Ikea is AWESOME! This store is viewed as very contemporary but you can see there are some pieces that have a more traditional look and your accessories/paint/fabric choices can drastically improve upon the furniture's streamline look! There were many questions from my past post about this room, like where is the furniture from, and I may be forgetting some. I think some asked about cost and I think she spent around $2,500 on all the furniture down to the chair, new lighting, new accessories, storage containers, etc. I worked around 45 hours on this job and was there 1 or 2 days a week to start and then a bit more often at the end with the detail work. She worked with me 100% of the time which is great as I can move through organizing decisions quickly. At the start, I helped her get through the decision making process while sorting and determined storage needs and then would leave her with 'homework' of things she needed to accomplish so the first few weeks left her with lots to do in between my visits. Once we were getting into decorating, I'd start a group of tags and then show her what I was thinking and she'd bring out a cool corner punch or have an idea and we'd finish deciding and then she'd make that group while I moved onto another decision. She not only wanted to transform the space but really transform what issues were there that prevented her from getting projects done and wanted systems in place so that she could move forward without piles and stacks of things that overwhelmed her. This is the perfect example of the type of project I love--making things Pretty AND Neat! And I am a firm believer that clutter in your life is clutter in your head. An overwhelmed space is an overwhelmed person, in my opinion. Both decor and systems were addressed at once and she is now ready to use this room to be more productive with her personal projects as well as her scrapbooking business and it was a pleasure to work with her! I wouldn't put someone's name on my page but if you want to buy Creative Memories supplies from her, email me and I'll get you her contact info! You can order online too so even if you aren't in the Central Florida area, if you want to order and have products delivered to your home and don't know a consultant, she will follow up on any questions or needs you have and is now who I shop with too! If you have more questions about this space, let me know and I'll do my best to answer!

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13 comments:

Kristy said...

Wow - thanks for posting all that detail. I know it must have been a lot of work to get all those pictures up and sorted (and, no, I wish I knew of a faster way, myself).

I have a question about the Ikea magazine holders - exactly what did you use to dress them up? Is that just scrapbook paper and embellishments on the spine?

Lisa said...

Completely AWESOME! What a fabulous transformation. I bet she is so much more creatively inspired now.

Thank you SO MUCH for taking the time to post this. Wow. I'm in awe!

ch said...

This looks fantastic!! It looks like she will be very productive now. I know when I feel overwhelmed all you have to do is like at my work space and see why. Once I clean it up, the creative juices just seem to flow.

The only suggestion I can give with editing and uploading pictures more quickly is picasa. If you don't already have picasa, just google it, to find the program(it will tell you what to do.) You will then have a picasa icon on your desktop. Once you have picasa you can edit your pictures there. You will see a blogger icon. Select your picture and bam! it will upload them to your blog!:) Very easy and quick! If you go to my blog you will see a little picasa icon under most of my posts with picture. (You may be able to click on that to take you to picasa).ArtSpectrum
I hope this helps.
Thanks for the great post with all of the details. It was worth the wait.

SoBella Creations said...

I was going to suggest the same program Art Spectrum did....Use Picasa. It is through google. And there is an option to post to your blog from Picasa. And it will make collages out of the pictures you upload. And you can edit them with lighting, cropping, etc.

Astrid in Bristling Acres said...

Beautiful!

I'm curious about that cabinet...you said the furniture was from Ikea? What is the cabinet called?

Mannie of MannieMandible said...

Amazing transformation! I'm totally jealous of her new craft room!

♥Mannie

Nana said...

OMG! I am looking at my room!!!! If I went and took pictures you'd swear your before is my now....and the clutter there is overpowering me. Someone come to my house and HELP ME!!

Two Little Tots said...

Love the room. Would you be willing to share the different things you actually got at Ikea...I would love to know, since that store is great for storage, crafts and kids stuff.

Thanks so much!

Unknown said...

What a great transformation. I love everything you did. It looks like a professional area.

You are very talented.

Cynthia

Christie in Dallas, TX said...

Fantastic job -- how neat that you are doing what you love and changing people's lives in the process!

The Pretty Neat Company said...

As usual, so sorry I've not been on in so long! Working lots! I'll try to answer your questions!

Kristy, yes that is SB paper and we used the CM cutting system to cut the hole out as it is much easier to grab with it. We made the labels and then attached the beads with ribbon. Decide on measurements, make them uniform and it will look great and they are like 5/$3 or something nuts!

Art Spectrum and So Bella--love you, I will be checking out picasa! I use the CM software for my main editing and storage but use picnik for collages and the edges but then have to save it again after uploading to that and then upload to blogger and I am not kidding, this entry took hours! I want to share but as you can see, I've not blogged since. I have some new stuff so I'll be trying it!

Astrid-the line is Liatorp. It has more details than some of their lines and is great for a more traditional space.

Mom of twins--hey, you know I love twins right? :) The items bought from Ikea--entire white liatorp system, Alex 6 drawer cabinet where her projects are stored, Expedit cube cabinet where her paper is, desk and chair (recovered their boring cushion with her fabric) and the magazine bins. I love Ikea for kids and work spaces!!!

Lisa, Mannie, Nana, Cynthia, Kim and Christie-thanks for the comments!

I am working on more fun projects and am glad you guys check me out even though I'm a horrible blogger!!!

Kiersten

Misti of Studio M Designs said...

Ahhhhh...I have goosebumps! Love what organization can do for a place. You did an amazing job!

~Misti

Holly said...

Yeah... what's that song... Commona my house, my house a come on... That is a FABULOUS space!