I know there’s an awful lot of people out there who have turned their spare room into a craft room.  I come across these people all the time - at craft fairs when they buy my craft room plaques

craft room door plaque

and when I’m teaching craft classes, crafting space is always a hot topic of conversation - and those with a dedicated space are always the subject of much envy!

This article from Ideal home may help get you started, if a dedicated craft room is what you’re hankering after: http://www.idealhomemagazine.co.uk/news/Crafts_crafting_room_article_295181.html 

If you can keep your craft room as tidy and co-ordinated as the one in the photo, you’re either a neatfreak obsessive or you don’t do any crafting in there.  Well, I would say that, wouldn’t I?  Mine is an exciting but jumbled mess of paint

messy paint

half-made items

half painted plaques

repurposed items (it’s not shown here, but even my desk is an old door!)

syrup tins

and far too much dust and dirt on the floor (this is the kind of thing I only notice when I drop a half-painted clock on the floor, paint-side down.  Oops….).  Full of authentic sploshes:

floor

You’ll find more pictures of my studio here: http://www.1stuniquegifts.co.uk/blog/creating-the-garden-studio/ and here: http://www.1stuniquegifts.co.uk/blog/2010/02/dont-touch-my-craft-room/

Visit the website for the finished products! www.1stuniquegifts.co.uk

There is a reason I’ve called this post “Don’t Touch My Craft Room”.  Really.  Other than the fact I’ve had a bit of a re-organisation in my crafting space and plan to share some of the piccies here with you.

Here’s the reason:

craft room door plaque

One of the door plaques I sell is this one.  It surprised me that so many crafters attend craft fairs as customers (I don’t know why that fact surprised me - I attend as many craft fairs as I can as a customer even though most weekends I’m selling at them) - I only know they do because they buy this plaque.  The wording seems to be something many crafters definitely associate with!

It’s available as a hanging plaque too.

hanging plaque for craft room wall

I can change the wording.

personalised version

If you’d like a craft door plaque of your own, here’s the link: http://www.1stuniquegifts.co.uk/doorplaques.2.html

And if you’d like the hanging plaque: http://www.1stuniquegifts.co.uk/hangingplaques.html

But now onto my space.  As home-based workspaces go, it’s quite a generous size - I’m very lucky, I know.  I still manage to fill it - and mess it up!! 

This is the main space I use for painting:

my painting area

It’s often quite messy.  But also sometimes a bit like a production line:

watching paint dry

Round the corner, there are even more shelves of items ready to be finished off:

waiting to be finished and packed

It’s sometimes quite organised.

white boards

 The whiteboards keep me on track (mostly) - I update them daily.

It’s not just practical stuff that finds its way onto the walls.  I’ve put up some of my own paintings and you’ll also find postcards and photos that inspire me on the walls.  The beach hut canvas is one of mine.  I was inspired to paint this after getting lost in Devon one night.  I had to stop the car in a mad frenzy of excitement when I saw beach huts in the dark lit up by fairy lights.  It was magical, although the rest of the family thought I had completely lost the plot by this point.  They may well have been right.

pics on the wall

More of my paintings in another corner.

my paintings

This bit of the studio is a bit messy:

untidy area

I love sewing too but my poor sewing machine is feeling a little neglected these days.  It is a fabulous machine and deserves much better.  I will dust it off soon (promise!) and may even do a bit of something creative with it as well as the practical (read: boring) jobs I have lined up for it to tackle.

my sewing machine