House tour: craft room

Well, this is it, the last room of the house to tour (other than the basement, but who wants to see that?). I guess it's more of an attic/storage room, but I have also adopted it as the craft room. Since I am short, I can at least stand up in the middle of the room, and that is enough for me.

I "wallpapered" the back wall by making many color photocopies of one sheet of patterned paper and affixing them to the wall with double sided tape (it comes off quite easily--so easily that it sometimes falls off, which half explains the blank spot below the window--I can't explain, however, why I cannot find that fallen piece. I have searched many times and it seems to have vanished into the ether).

Here is my sewing/printing surface. It is actually a kitchen counter from Ikea but since this house actually has counters, I did not need it for its original purpose.


Here we start to get to the part where I cringe a little bit. I often see images of other people's craft rooms on blogs. They are very neat and organized and pretty. That is not my craft room, and I don't think it ever will be. I am a hoarder, especially with bits of paper and fabric and other random objects that I can't let myself throw away because I might be able to use it for something, someday.

That said, above you see a few of the boxes stored underneath the counter (which contain supplies), a wastebasket full of rolls of paper in the corner, a tacklebox of art supplies, stool filled with sewing supplies, and a blanket I knitted a couple years ago which is now falling apart. I have been meaning to sew it back together but for now it sits here on top of the sewing stool.

Please don't yell at me. This is my supply of fabric. Well, actually, the lower shelf and the tote bag are filled with articles of clothing that I have been meaning to alter (for instance, Dave will go to throw away a pair of pants because there is a hole in the knee, but I'll think, "Wait, I might be able to make a skirt out of that!") The pieces of store-bought fabric are in the wicker boxes (and the plastic bag...ugh). The moral of the story is that I have to actually start sewing more, so that the volume of stashed items dissipates.

In the other half of the room we have my ironing board (everything to the right of it is just storage stuff--luggage, winter clothes, etc). There are always wires scattered about because of unfortunately placed electrical sockets (i.e. none anywhere near the window). The little rug used to be our bathmat, which I made by knitting together scraps of T-shirts. Now it lives up here, not really serving a purpose, but I like it too much to get rid of it.

Dave's mom gave us this old children's desk, in which I've stored my printing supplies. I reupholstered the desk chair sometime last year after the original cushion split open.


Inside the file cabinet are various documents, ephemera, and papers I've cut out of magazines (for collages, cards, fliers, etc). My rubber stamps and ink pads are inside the Milk and Cheese lunchbox. The Pee Wee Herman dolls are just fun. (Probably should have reassembled the fallen figures before taking the photo. Now it looks like Dirty Dog is doing a headstand and Pee Wee #3 has just fainted and fallen out of Chairy.)

Lastly, here is my yarn stash, sorted by colors, with my Daniel Johnston tapes stacked on top. I wish my guitars could stand upright but the slanted roof does not allow for that.

Well, there you have it. I have revealed my secret hoarding tendencies to the world. For emphasis, I should probably mention that these photos were taken right after I spent hours cleaning and throwing things away, though I did not go through the fabric heaps (and, admittedly, a good sorting out is probably in order).