Update: Craft Room Makeover in Progress - Add Paint to Mismatched Furniture

Hello everyone!

The Painting in my craft room has begun

My mess of a craft room just got messier as I've been pulling everything down off the shelves and giving my room a makeover. I've had a room of mismatched furniture and storage bins that make everything feel cluttered and closed in, even though I've been organized. Below are photos of my progress. They're not the greatest quality photos because I've been doing much of my work during the evening and at night, but I think the difference in atmosphere, just by adding some paint and hiding all those paint bottles, really shows up. The before picture looks like an eye-spy photo.

I didn't paint stripes on the bottom portion of the shelves because I want to place my big ugly things in there and cover them up. I plan to paint many of my storage containers white or at least coordinate with the color scheme of the room to keep a light and airy feeling. The photo (left) shows the colorful plastic drawers that I took from the center of the two white shelves and replaced with a wine cabinet I use for my paper storage (right).

Making the old hidden wine cabinet a featured piece

The cabinet (pictured below) had very dark stained wood with a clear glass door. It had been sitting on the curb and I had no qualms about asking my neighbors for it last fall. Right now it's just primed. Painting will happen down the road since it is easily pulled out. A medicine cabinet sits on the top of it that I recovered from our garage. It's been wiped down and painted, but as you can see I have not cleaned the mirror yet.

  

Painting a flower motif

I've never painted flowers before, so I watched some one-stroke painting of flowers on YouTube. The people that do one-stroke painting are VERY impressive.

I lined the back of the glass with white, crinkle-cotton fabric and have begun to paint a flower motif on the front of the glass. Painting on glass is wonderful because if you mess up it easily wipes away. The paint can also be scraped off with a razor blade when it's dry. I did a lot of wiping away as I practiced using the one-stroke technique. I still have quite a bit of painting to do, but it's coming along. I used the leftover acrylic, craft-paint I mixed for painting the back of my bookcases so the color would be the same.

Removing the old shelves above the bookcases

I removed the black shelf that was once over the bookcases and found a piece of scrap plywood that I spray painted a turquoise color. All that can be seen of the new shelf is the underside over the medicine cabinet (pictured-right). There was also an ugly wood shelf above the black shelf so I painted it white and spray painted the brackets turquoise.

I wanted to attach molding to the top of my cabinets, but don't have the money for molding at the moment so I used a lace valance over the top of the shelves to soften their appearance. This is as good as it gets for now.

Making the stripes

I couldn't find any scrap wallpaper around the house and I didn't want to have to buy paint so I pulled out my painter's masking tape and my acrylic, craft paint. I had a large bottle of white craft paint so I used mostly the white with a mix of blues and some green to get the colors I wanted. I didn't want to have to use very much paint so I dabbed the paint onto the back of the bookcase with a dry brush. I like the texture I got.

I can only guess that there is something on the back of the bookcases, because even though I thoroughly cleaned them, they rejected the paint and made the paint splotchy in some places, but my daughter and I agree we like it and it just adds to the texture and character. Since the shelves break it up and there will be craft bins on the shelves it wasn't something to be concerned about.  

When my daughter saw the painted bookcases she told me that she wants striped bedroom walls. Hahaha! Being in the middle of this project I don't even have the energy to entertain the thought.

 Making my mismatched furniture more cohesive

Below in the next three photos, I painted white, the two cabinets that sit on my desk and weathered them with sandpaper. I used a sheer floral curtain I already had on hand to line the doors. The glass was missing from one door so I broke the remaining glass out and then placed white fabric behind the floral fabric to make the pattern pop. Glue guns are very handy for this.

I placed the cabinet upside down so it can sit on top of the other and the shaped wood looks kind of cute topping it off instead of hanging below. It's one of my favorite furniture pieces so far. Very Shabby Chic :)

When I broke the glass, I used a large piece of cardboard to protect the floor and make cleanup easy.

The cabinet that it sits on was another old medicine cabinet with glass shelves that I store my rubber stamps and ink in. I used cup hooks to hold a cafe, curtain rod on the front. All I had left was the bottom of the large curtain I had cut into pieces, so I turned the curtain upside down and it's now hanging from the hem. I roughly cut the curtain to size because I will be trimming it with thin lace. Fortunately the curtain was narrow so I don't have to do any sewing on the sides.

Fun with color
Months ago I picked up a small paint sample that was on clearance because I love the bright bubblegum-pink color. I had no idea what I would use it for, maybe crafts, but it was too good of a deal to pass up.To have some fun with a splash of color I painted the inside of my cabinet with it. The new fresh paint really beats the scratched up, dark stain that once covered the inside. I still need to take my razor blade to clean up the lines of the fabric that I glued on the doors, but right now I'm in a rush to get back to crafting, so it can wait.

The money I've spent
$$$
So far I've spent money on a can of spray paint. For everything else I've either used things I already had in my craft room, throughout the house or found in the garage. It feels good to do a craft room makeover and it feels even better to do it without spending a lot of money. I set myself a budget of $100.00 and I've spent $4.00. Not bad for all the changes I've made and I didn't even use an entire bottle of craft paint.

If you would like to challenge yourself to redo your craft room like I'm doing, please let me know. I would love to see how and what you do and feature your story and photos.

Happy crafting and redecorating!

Copyright © 2014 Angela Conklin - Heartedly Handcrafted

All Rights Reserved

Decorating a Room Around a Few Pieces of Furniture - The Idea/Planning Stage

Hello everyone!

I'm looking forward to transforming my space into a space that not only works for me, but one that inspires and reflects me.

It's probably too early in the morning to be thinking about this, it's 7am here in Pennsylvania, but I'm in the ideas/planning stages of redoing my craft room and just laid awake in bed last night thinking about it. The rooms in my home are casual with a beach theme running throughout, but I would like to do something special for my craft room. I considered doing a very sleek and clean surfaced, modern room, but I find it sort of boring (uninspiring). I'm also drawn to a Shabby Chic - French Country look, but I've had no idea where to begin. I need to cover up the clutter I'm living with currently.

Recently a friend of my husband's was giving away two nightstands and a vanity. When I saw them I fell in love and my mind was made up. I want to go with a cozy, fresh, feminine room with soft colors and flowing curtains that gives off an atmosphere of history. The new furniture was the perfect start. Gorgeous!

Each piece is heavy, well made, with large deep drawers that I can organize my craft materials in. They were the owner's grandmother's furniture and that felt special even to me. I still have to clean them, but below are a couple of pictures of one of the pieces.

 There are two nightstands and the color in the photo is quite true to the actual color. I do not want to paint them as I love the softness of the overall color and the hand painted floral motif.

 

 Each drawer is different and I love that about it.     

 I used the flash to show the details of the flowers and leaves. The flowers are bluish with a slight turquoise appearance. These are the colors I want to focus on. I'm a huge fan of shades of blue.

Now on to what I have and what I would love

The problem I'm running into is that although my space is a decent size, my walls are blocked from end to end with mismatched furniture pieces. The only way to redo my room is to redo my furniture by making it look cohesive and softer in appearance. Like most craft rooms, my room is also filled with plastic containers, plastic drawers, boxes, organizers of all colors and shapes and boring filing cabinets. I need to do something about those too.

Below is a photo of the bookcases in my room. As you can see, although I have some of my crafting materials contained and organized on these shelves, the overall appearance is not appealing to look at. The shelves I added above them don't even match. There was a point that I felt proud of how organized and thrifty I am, but I completely missed the boat on attractiveness. For whatever reason I didn't even consider appearance at that time.

Yesterday I came across this decorative idea for my plain white bookcases from Just a Girl and Her Blog where you can see a step by step tutorial. I think she did a super job giving her bookcases a fancy and feminine appearance. This is something I want to do in my craft room that I think will be a good start to the look and feel. 

I like the color she used as her backing for the bookcases, but I'm looking for a color with a bit more blue in it. Like the picture below.

I think this photo is absolutely beautiful from the blog Lyckoslanten. I'm looking to hide the majority of my craft materials, but I love the soft feminine color. 

Compare the photo above with the feeling I have in my craft room. It feels horrible! I hear cheerleaders shouting the U. G. L. Y. cheer.

My craft materials are at arms reach and conveniently in sight, but my room is embarrassingly dark and ugly. My ugly clutter is dragging me down. I'm not one to want a room like those in magazines. After all, they are usually staged with accessories, color, perfect lighting for the camera and so forth.
How many people have their craft lace partially unrolled from a wooden spool and intertwined with a fern or keep an expensive doily with pearls on their work surface while they paint, glue and cut or even at all unless it's for a photo? These people could be out there, but I personally don't know anyone who does these things. 

I'm grateful to have what I have and do what I do. I just want a room that reflects ME and not my craft materials.

So I leave on a on a good note - I'm going into this with realistic expectations and I love to craft and decorate so this is right up my alley. I'm looking forward to transforming my space into a space that not only works for me, but one that inspires me. I hope you will join me on the adventure as I would love to hear any suggestions from you, your experiences and look at ideas you would like to share. I would also like to see your craft room do-overs and what works for YOU.

Happy Crafting!