The re-organizing of my home office/craft room

I was getting real tired of my home office, it ended up being crowded, I’d throw things in there and shut the door, etc….so I decided I needed to organize!  Over on Pinterest I found some great ideas for organizing my craft crap stuff 😉

I LOVED seeing all the peg board ideas on there and knew that was the way I wanted to go.  So we went to Home Depot and picked up a large sheet of peg board, we had to have them cut it in half because it was so enormous (for some reason, they weren’t selling it in 2’x4′ pieces, which I’d read most people picked them up in that size) So after them cutting the piece we had two 4’x4′ pieces.  I hung one on the wall and stored the other one hidden behind my computer desk because I have a feeling I may need to use that one eventually!.

We picked up a couple of the peg board basket kits and a couple of kits that had all the pegs you hang to hold stuff.  I wanted to get more than I thought I’d need because even though everything in the room is now organized, I still have a walk in closet, that you can’t walk in, and it’s still loaded will stuff.  I might tackle that monster today.

I have a cheap little white folding table I’m using now, but I’m looking into getting a longer table.

Here’s what it looks like so far.  I love it!

You don’t realize how much stuff you actually have till it’s on display…you also don’t realize how many darn pairs of scissors you actually have!

I also picked up an over the door organizer from Target, I was going to use that for more craft stuff but ended up putting all of my nail polish on it and some misc spray paints.  That freed up a whole entire drawer!  The organizer can be found HERE

Those little tin buckets at the bottom of the peg board holding my markers, brushes, pens, etc. were from the $1 section in Target

So then I had to start thinking about all of my yarn (I love to crochet)…so I picked up an over the door shoe organizer and started to fill that up.  It’s not completely full because there’s still bags of yarn in the walk in closet that I haven’t tackled yet that will go in it too.  I got mine for $8.99 at Target, but I think this is the same one HERE.  I wanted a cheap one, didn’t need it to be fancy and no one would see it unless they were in my home office/craft room with the door shut.  I’ve heard the dollar stores sell these too but I have yet to find one there.  I figure when I want to start a crochet project, I’ll pick out the yarn and hooks I need, put in a bag and just take that where ever I want to do it, usually in front of the TV.

I did paint all the walls in the room too.  The color might look a little funny, but these are iphone pics so it’s hard to get the color right and I didn’t feel like taking these photos into photoshop.  But it’s a really nice neutral tan color.  The color I used is Quinoa and can be found HERE.  We had actually used the same color in an exterior paint to do the railing on our deck outside.  I tested a bit of it in the room and fell in love with it so we got a couple gallons of interior satin to do the room with.

My computer desk is the Ikea Expedit (bookshelf with desk you attach).  I LOVE this thing.  Have had it many years now.  It’s enormous but I still love it. I think the newer version Ikea makes of this desk is called the Kallax.  I already had a couple of storage boxes, drawers and magazine holders that fit in it, but wanted more.  I figured the less clutter you see, the better.  So I picked up four fabric cubes from Target.  They’re similar to this HERE but I got two solid lime colored ones and two solid colored blue ones.  I was able to put all of my misc craft paper in one, greeting card stuff in one, sketchbooks in another, etc.  This way, I have it all, you just don’t have to look at it.  Pull out a cube and grab what you need.  I still have some stuff on the shelves that needs to be stored in the closet (and framed things that need to go on the wall), those pillows are for a future storage bench….but I’ll post a picture and you can get an idea….

When people see my monitor they always ask which one it is, it’s the 27″ BenQ HERE….and yes, that’s an enormous ice tea cup…..I love me some Crystal Light.  Also, you do see windex there, I was cleaning my scanner.

I also need to get new curtains for in here.  They were all I had on hand and the tan looks weird with the tan walls so I’m going to look into some sort of fabric with lime and turquoise in it.  That’s another thing.  Now that I have all this SPACE, my husband can bring home my grandmother’s sewing machine from our warehouse.  I haven’t used that machine since I was a little kid and used to make Barbie clothes so I’ve got a lot of learning to do 😉

Like I said, I have a walk in closet to tackle next…after that’s done I’ll put some pictures on the walls, do the new curtains, and I think this room will be done.  I’m hoping once the closet gets cleaned out and organized I’ll have room for my mosaic stuff that is taking up space in the spare bedroom.

Pinterest has so many amazing ideas for getting organized, I did start a new board to save anything interesting I came across for the home office/craft room so if you’d like to take a look at that, it’s right HERE

I did save a couple of ideas on how to hang the peg board on that Pinterest board too.  There’s several options but the peg board kits I bought (that have all the metal hooks to hang things) had spacers in them so we used those.  The key is to have the peg board slightly away from the wall so that you can put in the pegs.

I did finally sit down and make some animal topped mason jars….if you’re on pinterest I’m sure you’ve seen these a million times on there….but once I was organized and had all my stuff together it was super easy to get these done 😀  Just glue a plastic animal to the top and spray paint.  I put buttons and beads in them (which freed up a whole entire plastic storage container) and for now they’re on top of my desk’s bookshelf.

Side note: the Classico spaghetti sauce jars say Mason on them once you take the label off, so don’t throw those out if you want to make these jars!

We also picked up a ceiling fan while we were at Home Depot.  Every room in this house has a ceiling fan except my office, so I wanted to change that!  My husband put it up and I did help put the fan blades together….and Jack the fat cat helped too 😉

So, that’s it…or at least that’s it so far….still more to do…and that darn closet is calling my name….