How I organize my craft space
My current space is 12 ft x 12 ft. As a military spouse who moves every two-four years, I chose to use IKEA products for a few reasons. Moving can be very hard on furniture. We currently live in Tucson but previously lived in Italy. Moving overseas did a lot of damage to my old furniture and I wanted furniture that looks amazing, but also that is easily replaceable. IKEA is worldwide and in the event my furniture was damaged during a move, I can easily replace it. I also chose the items as I’m not sure what my next room will look like and I wanted furniture that can fit in a variety of room sizes.
Products in my room:
- Ikea Kallax – 5×5 cube system – Color Walnut Gray
- Ikea Kallax – 2×4 cube system – Color Walnut Gray
- Ikea Alex Drawers
- Ikea Linnmon Table Top
- Kallax drawer inserts
I chose Stamp-n-Storage products for my paper storage (specifically their 8.5×11 Max paper storage). I love that I can store not only my 8.5 x 11 card stock, but also my 12 x 12 Designer Series Paper, plus have the option of flipping the storage to be horizontal vs vertical.
I storage my 12×12 Designer Series Paper in plastic paper pockets from Amazon (found here) that I trimmed down to fit into the 12 x 12 spaces. They work perfectly for holding my full sheets of paper as well as the scraps from each package. I also love the Storage Pockets for my metal dies as they are perfect for seeing what I have and I can easily flip through them.
My stamps are stored on a tiered platform I created by using the Variera IKEA shelf inserts. The inserts were a little too short, so I added a white core foam board on top to keep the stamp cases from falling off the sides. My husband helped modify the shelf to make it a little taller but using scrap pieces of wood.
I then added a small tension curtain rod (found at my local hardware store) to the back of the cube to keep them from falling behind her shelf and a non slip mat on the bottom to keep the shelf from moving.
In another cube sits my ink pad refill bottles and textured paints organized on a 6-tiered nail polish shelf. Again, another Amazon find found HERE.
Organizing card stock scraps and making sure I’m using those smaller scraps of paper first before I reach for full sheets was one of the things at the top of my list. For scraps, I purchased two 31-pocket accordion files from Staples and using Post It Tabs to organize my scraps in the order they are filed in my paper holders. The accordion files are then stored in cloth cube bins.
My desk is where I keep my ink pads in a repurposed cassette holder, and mementos I have collected from travels around the world. I have a cross and small box I got when I traveled to Russia, unique rocks from around Arizona, crystal owl from when I lived in Italy, a dachshund stamp, and shells from our cruise travels.
My punches are stored on Ikea towel bars that I have anchored into the wall. These get to be quite heavy with the punches stored on them so a good anchor is needed.
Drawers were another storage space I took extra time planning. I wanted to have the maximum storage to keep certain supplies organized and out of sight. I purchased the drawers for the Ikea Kallax, but spruced them up with a removeable teal vinyl and pretty knobs I found at Home Depot. The vinyl allows me to easily change the color in the future if I change the color of my room.
Finally, I store my die sets in the Stamp N Storage Storage Pockets. These clear plastic pockets allow me to see the dies and I can easily use my label maker to keep them organized with their name. I use the Dymo LetraTag label maker to create all the labels in my room.