Craft Room Ideas

I recently reorganized and decluttered my office. I share some craft room ideas that fit my eclectic vintage vibe, plus a variety of tips on creative craft room organization.

I spent most of January not making miniatures, but organizing and reorganizing my craft room. I have officially lived in my new place for 7 months so you would think that I have things in their proper place by now!

But like most things, it takes living in the environment to really help you see if the system you have in place works for you or not. It seemed like every time I worked on a miniature project, my office and floor would look like a disaster.

I finally realized that I had to tackle this project because I bought a second dollhouse off of Facebook marketplace. And where, oh where was I going to put it?!

I scoured online to get lots of inspiration and ideas on how to organize my craft room and office. Some posts gave details, but most left me wanting for more. So pardon me, I am going into nauseating detail on what I did and what I purchased.

My office is not finished, but I do believe it is a lot closer to what I have always wanted.

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Work bench

I recently replaced my old traditional desk for this butcher block top work table from Home Depot. This baby is 6-feet long, but it does come in other sizes. I have my desktop computer sitting on it and still have plenty of room for crafting.

For my chair, I sit in one of my extra dining chairs. It might seem odd, but I have yet to find a desk chair that looks cute, is comfortable and doesn’t cost a fortune. I sit at my desk A LOT.

What has saved my tailbone and spine after sitting for long periods of time is not the chair but this fabulous seat cushion for spine support. I have had this one for YEARS and it has remained super comfortable.

My work table has two big drawers, which I managed to fill with lots of tools and doodads. Although the drawer is huge lengthwise, they aren’t very deep. I had to hunt for short drawer organizers that would fit in them.

Another great thing about this desk/work table is that they height is adjustable. So if you prefer a standing desk, just crank it higher. Since I was losing the file drawer I had with the old desk, I purchased this smaller model, cranked my table to the perfect height and slid it perfectly underneath my desk.

I’m GenX so I still keep files and papers. What doesn’t fit here is in bins in the garage!

I always have small bins on my desk holding projects I am working on or will work on. These can be small plastic food containers, drawer organizers or any other little containers I have on hand. I also keep some frustrating older projects hidden in bins in drawers.

Cabinets

Drawers – a crafter’s best friend!

In my older house, I had these tall Alex IKEA drawers in the kids’ playroom that I took over. I brought them to the townhouse and they held a lot. But when I purchased my second dollhouse, I realized I needed something in my small space that could both store a lot of crafty things, look nice and hold the dollhouse.

Most of the craft rooms I saw on pinterest were very WHITE: white furnishings and very standard. The vibe I wanted for my office is a little eclectic and a little vintage. I scoured online, Pinterest and antique stores but couldn’t find anything that matched what I was looking for or within my budget.

Then I found this rolling cart with drawers and fell in love. It checked all of the boxes. While waiting for this to arrive, I went thru all of my cabinets and bins and started to binge and reorganize.

Organizers and bins

My small closet was stuffed with clear plastic bins of various sizes. These bins were organized, holding my polymer clay, resin, scrap paper, scrap wood, vinyl, dollhouse furniture and various other things.

What really saved me and doubled my storage in this tiny closet in this over the door pantry organizer. I quickly filled it up with my paints, glues, tapes and other related items. My only issue with this organizer was that the shelves were wire and smaller items would fall thru the gaps.

I found clear organizers at Marshalls that fit perfectly in the shelves. These would easily hold my paint pens, glues and small bottles, keeping them from wobbling and falling out.

This door organizer cleared up TONS of space in the closet. In the closet I have medium sized bins holding items like:

• Extra dollhouse furniture- ugh, I have a lot!
• Polymer clay
• Miscellaneous “junk” and trinkets I have collected for future mini projects
• Photography and electronic cables that I use frequently. The ones that I don’t use as often are in bins in the garage.

The shoebox size plastic bins hold smaller collections like:

• Resin supplies
• Embellishments like glitter and colored sand
• Cut scrap wood
• Large silicone molds for resin/clay

I found some smaller plastic clear bins to hold lots of miscellaneous craft items like:

• Random plastic beads
• Nail stickers and little bits to add to resin
• Washi tape

Next to the closet sits this big mission style cabinet that I received from my brother when he moved. One day, I hope to strip the stain as it is too orange for my taste. But for now, this very heavy and big cabinet holds a lot of my goodies.

The right side is dedicated to my food blog. I managed to cull and reduce my glass props to fit on two shelves. The other two hold my precious cookbooks. I kept my favorites, especially the ones written by my friends.

The left side of the cabinet holds my gargoyle collection and even more craft supplies. I wanted large bins that hid the clutter inside so I chose these cute cube canvas bins. One holds random “nature” stuff (artificial plants, greens, moss, flowers, grapevine, bottle brush trees). Another holds foam pieces and plastic/acrylics I collected from packaging.

Two bins hold all of my fabric scraps. Apparently I have collected A LOT! These include pieces of felt, free samples from stores as well as fabric samples I have purchased.

the top shelf is where I keep many plastic bead boxes that hold lots and lots of minis. I have them semi-organized by holiday, food, toys, etc… Some of the bigger collections are in larger clear bins.

On top of this cabinet I have a few favorites, like my green house lantern with mini terrariums, a newly acquired vintage typewriter and this beautiful wood machinist chest, which has lots of drawers and holds all of my clay cutters and accessories.

This chest replaced these clear acrylic drawers, but I didn’t like seeing the clutter. Again, I wanted a warm eclectic yet vintage vibe.

When my rolling cart arrived, I was ready for it. Each drawer has a function. One side of the cart holds my wood pieces: dowels, flat pieces, popsicle sticks and other random pieces.

The other side of the cart has other items I use

• Metal pieces
• Felting supplies
• More art supplies
• Ribbons and cords

I have collected a lot of random strings and ribbons that were a big miss so I bought some antique wood spools to store these mismatched pieces.

Rolling cabinets

I already had this small white rolling cabinet that sits next to my desk. This one came from Michaels, but it is similar to the Alex version sold by IKEA. You can also find it on Amazon in white, black and even neutral wood.

I love that most of my cabinets have wheels which allows me to easily move them around, since I am constantly reorganizing and rearranging things!

The small white cabinet holds all my beads and jewelry supplies. Again, those plastic bead boxes are a life saver! They come various sizes so you can find one that fits your space. The bottom two drawers hold my electrical supplies: mini lights, bulbs, batteries, etc…

I had collected several art caddy’s over the years, for myself and for the kiddos. But none of them could fit everything I wanted. Finally, I was able to consolidate everything to fit in this large wood caddy and I absolutely love it!

On the other side of my desk is another rolling cabinet that I brought over from my old house. This is large enough and sturdy enough to hold my original dollhouse. I think I bought it from Wayfair or one of those furniture websites.

Underneath are baskets that hold even more stuff! One holds a lot of my craft tools like my mini potting wheel, wood burning kit, heat gun and mini heat press. My toaster oven that I use exclusively for polymer clay is in the other basket. Thanks to my Buy Nothing Group on facebook, I got it for free!

Underneath I have a basket to hold things like my special printing papers and fabrics I use for printing dollhouse rugs. The other basket has random electronics I use for my photography and videography. You can also see my paper printer and Cricut maker sitting on the shelf.

There is a little space underneath this cabinet, so I use it to store my tripods and photography stands when not in use. You can also see my dremel case and some free weights.

Wall storage

My office space is just large enough to not feel cramped, but it is smaller than I wanted. I love the big windows and natural light I get everyday, but those windows also limit my storage options.

So when you run on out furniture space, look upwards. Luckily, I have vaulted ceilings, so I can hang things on the walls without feeling claustrophobic.

Above the dollhouse you can see my my printer drawer (where I bleached the wood) hanging on the wall above it. I moved it over here from its original location. Some of my favorite minis that don’t fit with my dollhouses or what I want to show off all the time are featured in it.

I have also hung up some of my smaller room boxes that I have made. You can see more details on my miniature Ukranian scene and Nowruz room box in other blog posts. These boxes didn’t have a way to hang them on the wall so I purchased these sticker plastic hangers, attached them to the back of boxes and hung them up easily.

Above my new addition, the Magnolia store dollhouse, I hung up this cool blue shelf unit I found from the same website that started my total reorganizing. I loved the vintage vibe and I can hold larger minis and other favorite items in it.

The router and modem for the house is here in the office. I have three boxes I have been juggling and shuffling around, along with their bulky cables. They were sitting on the tall Alex cabinets that I replaced and I no longer wanted to see them.

I had them on the floor, but again, it was a huge mess and eyesore. I soon realized I could hide them and hang them in this wooden router box on the wall. Why oh why did I not do this sooner????

Next on my to-do list is to get these cord covers so I can finally hide the ugly cables. They attach to the wall and can be painted to match your wall colors so they blend in more. You can also buy these boxes that hide your extension cords, power strips and routers on the floor or on the wall.

So there you go. My very organized craft room. What you don’t see is my small heater under the desk that keeps me warm when I’m on the computer. I also store some of my extra camera equipment here when it is not in use in the kitchen.

My office is right off my living room so it tends to become a dumping ground for random items when guests come over. But now that everything has a place, it should remain relatively uncluttered.

And of course, I have a dog bed in the office. My pup follows me everywhere so I made sure that he has a comfy spot so he can stay close to me while I work. My little stalker.

Let me know if I missed anything or if you have any other questions.