Good Wednesday morning. I have had so many people ask if I would share photos of my Kittie Kraft craft studio but I have always put it off due to how messy it usually is. This past week I made myself dig out, toss stuff, organize and put stuff away and thought I’d better snap some photos. I always have the best intentions of keeping things neat and tidy after a good cleaning but it never seems to work out. I seem to thrive working with a messy desk. Don’t ask me why!
Assembling the Kittie Kraft Craft Studio
The first photo was taken back in 2005 when my husband and I first completed my space. We purchased Mill’s Pride cabinets and pre made counter tops from Home Depot and assembled and installed everything ourselves. I was most surprised that I could actually follow the directions for the cabinet assembly and I personally assembled almost all the cabinets you see by myself. I became quite handy with the power screwdriver and rubber hammer. LOL! Back in 2005 I was able to store all my stamps, paper, ribbon, etc. in the cabinets and drawers. Not so now. I must admit that although I love my work space I would do many things differently if I were creating it now
Dies and Stamp Storage
From the beginning I stored all of my Stampin’ Up! stamps in the large pan drawers you see below. Slowly but surely my pan drawers became filled with more and more dies. The counter top holds my big tools like the trimmer, Scor-Pal and die cutting machines. These tools are left out all the time as I use them constantly.
I have tons of dies stored in all the drawers on the right side of my work area but just posted one picture so not to bore you.
Paper Storage
Two of the three large cabinets on the right side are filled with paper storage. It isn’t the best storage solution but it works. I checked in once with Stamp-n-Storage about having custom paper storage units built for my cabinetry but my cabinets were a little too narrow to get double width storage units.
My Desk
Even at the best of times my desk looks messy. I keep everything that I use constantly at my finger tips or at least an arms reach. I have two day light bulb lamps attached to a shelf directly over my work area. Good lighting is a must! When I take photos of my projects I open the cabinet doors on either side of my desk that hold two additional clamp lights with day light bulbs. My husband purchased the construction clamp lights from Home Depot and having them clamped on the doors all the time makes it so easy to prepare for picture taking. I keep all my inks, reinkers, markers, adhesives and tools on the desk at all times. You may notice a Sizzix Big Shot Express box under my desk. I keep a new spare at all times in case I break mine. LOL!
Books, Ribbon and Everything Else
The whole left side of my space holds tools, embossing powders and folders, books, ribbon, etc. that are not used as often.
Kitchen Cabinet Shelving
My husband purchased two upper cabinets without the doors and one drawer unit and created open shelving for me. He modified the drawer unit and created a pull out keyboard tray for me. My desk top monitor used to sit in the shelving and I could pull out the keyboard when needed. Now I have a laptop so I filled in shelving for my designer paper pads, and various other things for storage. Note the rubber broom leaning against the corner wall. It is great for sweeping up paper debris that falls on the floor all around me when I’m working. I wish I could tell you I’m a neat paper crafter……but I can’t.
Having my dedicated Kittie Kraft Craft Studio has been a huge blessing to me. I appreciate my husband Bob’s willingness to allow me to have this room built so many years ago as paper crafting was my stress reliever during all the years that I was in medical management. Bob is my greatest fan and my most honest critic. Having a supportive spouse is priceless. I hope you have enjoyed seeing my space and hope you aren’t horrified to find out I’m a very messy paper crafter. Thanks for coming by.
Nice space! You know the saying, “a messy workplace is a sign of a creative mind”!
LOL Your space is BEAUTIFUL, Kittie! This is what I’ve been thinking for a Craft Area for me…. The kitchen cabinets MUST BE cheaper than buying those Specialized ones, I’ve thought! You have to make it work with your budget! I LOVE what you’ve done! It IS NICE to have a hubby who is your biggest fan! Mine does the same for me! 😉 Never mind thinking you are messy! LOL I like what Rosa said! Try as you might, if you only looked at your craft space, it might stay neat, but not clean. Dust gathers! I’d rather have mess than just dust! 😉
Love your created space! Everyone has different items they use most and I have mine easily accessible like you. It is just great to have a dedicated space to do all the crafting! Thanks for sharing and letting us know we are not the only messy crafters! It is really hard to ‘keep everything in it’s place’ especially when working on multiple projects!
OMG, Kittie, I LOVE your craft area….. I swear I’m jumping on a plane and coming to play at your house…. I promise I will pick up after myself and I’ll be really quiet…. LOL. This is absolutely fabulous. I love all the room you have. Thanks for sharing the pictures…..
I Love your space!! And if you think your a messy crafter, you should see my space! I am in the process of cleaning it up and reorganizing. Somehow (gasp!) my craft supplies have grown over the years and my old system just doesn’t work any more! But, thanks for sharing, loved seeing your space.
What a wonderful place to work! It is attractive (who cares?), organized to your own wants and needs (super important), and built by an obviously loving spouse (worth more than gold)!
Congratulations on the picture-ready cleanup. Now it’s over with and you can get back to the reality that works for you. You won’t need more pictures for a long time, if ever, anyway.
Big Question: how do I always end up working in a teeny 12″ square space surrounded by all the stuff I tried before I actually got something done?
So love seeing your crafting studio Kittie…now I can picture you there. I am like you in that I clean my craft room…and say I will put everything away from now on as it looks so nice..then HELLO…paper happens…I have decided I also work better in a mess. When is is so tidy I don’t want to mess it up. But along with the mess, I often lose things.
Beautiful area and OH HOW I WISH my space looked as wonderful as yours !
I am truly THE MESSY SPACE CRAFTER ! i ALWAYS have good intentions of organizing and it never seems to get completed. OH WELL….here’s to CRAFTING ! ! Thanks for showing us your wonderful Craft Room !
Love hearing that you’re a normal ‘messy’ crafter. My aunt who was a fabulous cook always told us the best cooks made the most mess, so hopefully that means we’re pretty good crafters…LOL!…love you space.
You have an awesome space, Kittie! I really enjoyed this tour! Thank you so much for sharing!
What a great tour! On a side note…I really liked your “Take Me home Country roads” sign!
I now live in WV and noticed it right away. Thanks for sharing.
Hi Carol, I was born and raised in WV. My niece painted the sign for me for Christmas.
Nice space, Kittie!! Thanks for sharing.
Looks like a fabulous room, love all the table top area you have. I really need to work more on my space.
Love your ‘space’! Mine is similar to yours but I didn’t use furniture grade cabinets, drawers & shelving. Didn’t have the budget & wasn’t sure what was going to work. Although, I have come to the conclusion that there is no perfect way to set up. You always want to change something and the products we use are always changing so you have to change the way you store stuff. I did use pre-made counters that I got for free. All my drawers are the plastic units, big & little. You call your space messy, but I striving for that! You want to see messy, come look at mine….I can’t even work in mine right now! That is my chore for the next couple of months, clean, purge & organize, so by fall I can get back in there to start my Christmas Cards!!! By the way, I noticed in your last pic there is a Sweepa broom…aren’t they wonderful?!?!? I’ve had mine for years & I use it for everything!! I clean the snow off my truck, sweep up dog hair and works wonders for all those bits on the craft room floor.