May 15, 2013 by 3 Comments

All About The Furniture: Cutting Table from Storage Cubbies

Hallo!  Hazel, from Sunny South Africa again.  By now you would know that I am the world’s biggest hybrid crafter. That translates into “ I’m allowed to have a lot of stuff”.  I also love to recycle, reuse and repurpose – that means A LOT MORE STUFF.

Today I’m sharing cubicles recycled into a wonderful cutting table. The idea is super great and easy to do.  I hope my husband is not reading this post – I want him to think I’m brilliant and saving him money by thinking up “our” next project – a table from recycled storage cubbies!

I got the idea via my friend Pinterest ex the blog of Georgia Peachez. First up the before picture of her space: a folding table (balanced on paint cans for extra height) and a wall of cubbies.

 

And NOW:

 

In Georgia’s own words:

“Instead of building a wall of cubbies, I used the cubbies to build the island cutting table. To build this I used 4 sets of cubbies and connected them for stability using L-brackets and mending brackets.  The top is just a cutting board.” 

Hop over to Georgia’s blog and tell her how much we love her idea and while you are feeling inspired – try it out and send me a link to your project. I would love to see what you did and …………………….. my hubby and I will sure try an adapted version of this – I will post my link in the comments as well. Just watch this space!

That’s it from me.  I’m off to find my husband. Have a great day and please check back as my teammates and I have a lot more storage ideas to share with you.

Hazel

Filed Under: All About the Furniture Tagged With: , ,
May 2, 2013 by 4 Comments

Storage Solution Roundup: Fabric storage

Hallo, Hazel from Sunny South Africa again and today I’m sharing fabric storage ideas.  Now, I’m a hybrid crafter – for me it means that I buy the minimum, recycle, reuse and repurpose as much as possible and I craft in ANY medium. My mom used to make all our clothes and I do mine as well and therefore I can’t resist a beautiful piece of fabric.

They are quite bulky to store so I’ve made a deal with myself – with clothes I don’t store anything – I only buy once the previous item has been made.  However, I do indulge in my little secret pleasure – a beautiful piece of fabric. My rule is – if it is not for clothes, I’m only allowed the minimum yardage they sell.  It works very well – I always have beautiful fabrics to choose from for my hybrid fancies and I don’t go overboard and buy stock that will never be used.

Anyway, it still has to be stored and I went to my friends Google and Pinterest for some tips. Want to see what they came up with?

First up:  Recycle, reuse and repurpose the furniture you’ve got.

A dresser:

 

A chest of drawers:

SOURCE

CD Racks:

SOURCE

Now that we have covered my favorite options, what about a few new ideas?

Gift wrap rack:

What a great idea that you can make yourself.

 SOURCE

Hangers:

SOURCE

On Rolls:

 SOURCE

Wall mounted racks / hangers:

SOURCE

And now for my favorite – storing scraps!  If you only buy the minimum yardage I think that most of the time my fabric stash is categorized under scraps. This is what I found:

Wire baskets:

 SOURCE

If only we could find these in Sunny South Africa, this would be the one for me.

Plastic baskets:

 SOURCE

Look at the banner made out of vintage patterns.  I love it!

Closed plastic containers:

 SOURCE

Now, this one is for me.  Not the one that looks the best but at least I can see what is inside and don’t have to chase dust bunnies as I go.

And something I stumbled upon that I think is a GREAT idea:

 SOURCE

Why not tag your fabric? Name and yardage.  I can’t tell you how many times I had to roll down an entire roll to re-measure and when I have to re-order ………………  well, I don’t because if you buy the minimum, you don’t get the print on the side with the name, repeat and color.  Mark my words, in future I’ll write it down when I buy!! (and I’ll tag my fabric)

I hope you have enjoyed my extended tour around blogland to see what is out there for storing fabric.  If you have a system that works for you or an excellent one you found online PLEASE send me a comment – I would love to look or hear from you.

That’s it from me. Have a great day and see u again soon.

Hazel

 

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February 22, 2013 by 1 Comment

Craft Rooms in a Closet

I have a special place in my heart for craft spaces that have been fit into small places, particularly into closet spaces. I love the thought and ingenuity that goes into fitting everything in, especially when it is done with decorative flair. Today I thought I’d share a collection of some great closet-to-craft-space makeovers.

I love how the wallcovering used on the back wall of the closet inspired the color of the door interiors. The addition of the small chandelier really makes it feel like another room:

Inspired Room craft closet

from The Inspired Room

This crafter shows the transformation of her closet to craft space. I love the before and after photos. The deep shelves in the space would be ideal for storing deep containers and bulky supplies. I also like how she removed the doors to really open up the area. A curtain conceals it all when necessary:

Fancy Frugal Closet

from Fancy Frugal Life

This clean and simple space offers some closed storage:

Style on a Shoestring

from Style on a Shoestring

This cool closet re-do doesn’t use any built-ins. The pieces are free standing and fit neatly into the space; a great solution of you need to adjust your space to accommodate your supplies.

Everything Etsy

From Everything Etsy

This is a brilliant solution for a small or single width closet featuring a table that folds up:

Redfly Creations

from Redfly Creations

This space uses the area adjacent to the closet, along with the closet for additional storage:

CreativeE

from creativE

I love the use of the pegboard in this closet-turned-sewing-space. This would be handy for storing all kinds of craft material:

Domestic Adventure

from Domestic Adventure

This closet is eye candy – so much pretty color tucked into this space.

Southern Flair Crafts

from Southern Flair Crafts

You can have a craft room in a free-standing closet too, as seen in this cute armoire:

Adore Your Place

from Adore Your Place

Hope these clever storage solutions inspire you carve out your own dedicated craft space!

Valerie

 

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December 19, 2012 by 3 Comments

Just One Tip: Using Crates for Storage

I’ve told you before about my obsession with hanging things on the wall for storage, and in that post I touched on hanging crates on the wall to make shelves or display cases.

I recently became the proud owner of a wooden crate that I bought as a photography prop, but while I’m not using it for photos I need to use it for something, so I decided I’d take a closer look at different ways to use crates to store crafty items.

Hang Crates as Shelvespastel crates in mudroom

Yes, I already talked about hanging crates on the wall, but I had to bring it up again because I just came across these lovely pastel painted crates from Thea’s Mania (which is not in English; you can also find them on Apartment Therapy).

She used them in an entryway to store shoes off the floor, which is completely adorable, but wouldn’t they look awesome stacked high with fabric or yarn, too?

Stack as Shelvesbookshelf made of crates

The Rusty Hinges Blog has a great roundup of ways to use crates as shelving when stacked together. I love this look for a collection of arts and crafts books with a few pretty, inspirational items mixed in.

Use as Drawerscrates as baskets

Of course you can also go the other way and use the crates as drawers or “baskets” on an existing shelf. This picture from Imperfect Homemaking actually uses crates to contain items in a laundry room, but you could use the same concept in your crafting area.

I particularly like this one because of the labels made with chalkboard paint so you know what’s inside since you can’t see through the crate. Bonus: making the labels is crafty!

What I’m Doing, For Nowsingle crate bookshelf

It’s a happy coincidence that my crate fits exactly in the space between my filing cabinet and the door of my office, so for now I have it stacked with some books that I intend to review soon. This keeps them all corralled and visible so I remember what I have, which is a big help when I’m trying to review a bunch of books in the same genre or with the same theme.

Do you use crates for storage in your crafty space? I’d love to know how you use them!

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August 6, 2012 by Leave a Comment

Olahbelhe Sewing Studio

Have you seen the newly unveiled Olahbelhe Sewing Studio?  I think pictures are far better than words….at least when it comes to this beautiful studio!

Nice and Tidy and Full of Fabric!

Beautifully Sorted and Organized

The Sewing Nook

 

Lovely Drawers for Sorting Buttons

Impressed?  I certainly hope so!  For more photos and information about this fabulous room, check out the Olabelhe blog!

 

Filed Under: All Craft Rooms Tagged With: , ,
June 4, 2012 by 1 Comment

Crafty Co-mingling {Craftaholics Anonymous}

Happy Monday!  I hope you all had a wonderful Memorial Day week!  Is there a better way to start off this week other than with a super cute crafty room?  I think not!

Linda at Craftaholics Anonymous has created the perfect multi-use craft room.  She’s a sewer and a papercrafter…and sometimes the two don’t mix well in a room.  There’s always the dilemma of co-mingling supplies.  Don’t laugh!  You know what I mean!  And Linda has made it work beautifully!

Gorgeous sewing + papercrafting room!

See what I mean? It’ gets better!

Fabric storage

And the sewing box from The Orginal Scrapbox.  To be honest, I’ve not see The Original Scrapbox products in person…but seeing this one in action makes me want to find one!

Sewing station

Do any of you have this sewing box or craft box?  I’d love to hear your opinions in the comments!

To see more of Linda’s craft space and tons of cute crafty ideas, visit her at Craftaholics Anonymous.

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