…into my craft space!
Now I don’t know about you - but I ADORE it when people post pics of their spaces online for us all to see. I crane my neck trying to see around the “corner” and squint and enlarge to see all the little details - it’s like being a voyeur, but being invited - so much fun!
So here are some pics, and some short descriptions of my little space.
I”m very lucky - I’ve extended the house, and this is the walk-through area that used to be the 3rd bedroom, it leads to the extension (main suite and the 4th bedroom). Now when we drew up the plans for this it was always meant to be a combined study space for me and my school-teacher husband (now Head of Science - yes I’m proud of him!)….. HAHAHAHA! I think he did have some inkling that that may not be how it would end up, but bless his little cotton socks, he never said a word (although I’m sure he did some internal eye-rolling)….

This is the view you get when you walk into the room - yeah I know it’s a mess, surprisingly it’s actually a little neater now that when I took this pic - but oh well. It doesn’t usually get much better than this - but its always a work in progress. I LOVE my tall desk - this is standing height for me, and Mum bought me the funky bar stool for when I need to plonk my bum down, it’s really comfortable. I love standing while stamping, and I find that it actually helps me put things away straight away, all I have to do is turn or take one step and its away! All my Stampin’ Up! cardstock (A4) is stored in the 2 filing cabinets under the desks. I did always have visions of this being one of those gorgeous, pristine rooms with a place for everything and everything in its place - unfortunately I just dont think my mind can work that way - I LOVE the look, but just cannot get my head around recreating it
I might have to take some pics when I do finally work it all out though! That can be my challenge for the month - what do you reckon?

Hey I found another neater pic
The desks were an absolute bargain, I got them when the BIG garden centre that my mum worked at closed down - these were a set of benches they used for display - I got 2 lots of 3 nested, so 6 tables all up, for a dirtcheap price through the online auction they had. This setup has used one of the large ones and one of the medium ones - the 2 smaller ones are outside for the kids to use.

Now if we turn around 180 degrees (remember we’re in a walk-thru hallway type of area), we can see this!

My wonderful IKEA Expedit shelves…. now I wasn’t actually “allowed” to have these - hubby really wanted to keep this wall clear of any furniture or bits that he could stub his toe on….but he was so darn smug about it, well I just had to have them didn’t I?
Can you spell “pig headed”? LOL - yep thats me. I DID compromise for him though - isn’t that what marriage is about, and long term happiness - compromise? Instead of the BIG unit that I really wanted, I got this hip height number instead - and I hate to admit it, but he was kinda right - the big one I was talking about would have totally destroyed the flow of the house - at least this way you still get an unencumbered view to the rest of the house, while still having a practical and convenient storage solution! Oh and PS, I didn’t actually tell him about the unit, I just put it together one day while he was at work - and asked him to live with it for a month and if he still hated it, well then I would take it down. Teehee, 6months later it’s still there!!!!
Anyway….. this stores an array of goodies, from 12×12 papers from SU and cardstock, to a box of scrap kits waiting to be used, to forms and paperwork for my business, all my embossing gear in a box, watercolouring in another, my BindItAll and coils live in yet another of the boxes - I’m continually amazed at how much goes into this unit (and hope I never have to pull it down and find homes again - it’s amazing how we expand to fill the space we have, plus some, isn’t it?)
Now ABOVE this, is the newest addition to my craft area, and latest storage solution - and I have to say - I LOVE IT!

It’s my RIBBON WALL! It’s so textural and tactile, and I just have to touch them when I go past - it has that effect on most people - its very spectacular. AND it has the added bonus of being a “feature” on the wall - plus i can now see all my ribbons so easily, and I USE them now. *GASP* I know, shocking isn’t it???? If you check out my gallery tab at the top, I think you can see a larger pic of this….. and it truly is spectacular in real life, it just shimmers and sparkles…and ooooooh, I LOVE it - can you tell???
Now turn around a little more, and you are looking at the door you walked in through, and just to the right of there is this….

This is my inkpad storage, and again, I love having it on the wall. It frees up space on my fairly narrow desk - and also is only an arms reach away so is so easy to put them back when I’m done. These are once again a bargain find from IKEA - they are DVD holders, but unfortunately they no longer make them. I did need 2 more to hold some extras - and YAY for good friends - my mate (and partner in crime) Jen no longer needed hers since she bought the inkpad caddy, so she gifted them to me….love ya Jen! Doncha just LOVE good friends - I’d be lost without gems like Jen in this world!
And under the inkpad storage, are more IKEA gems - $35 each these DVD “bookcases” cost me - and they fit perfectly!

These were MUCH much fuller - our retirement list took out heaps from my shelves - good news is though, I’m selling them all - contact me by either email or call (02) 46476735 for a list and prices of what I have available, trust me there is HEAPS, and some fabulous bargains in there too… but they are a great size for storing our stamp sets - I’m really happy with these too.
So there you have it, a quick tour of my stamping space…. would love to hear what you all think, and if you have any fabbo storage ideas, let me know. I’m pretty happy with how most of it is panning out - but these things are always a work-in-progress are they not?