Craft Room Part 6 | The Reveal!!!

Sharing the final reveal of my beautiful craft room/office that took me 5 1/2 months to build from scratch! I have learned so much about myself and acquired skills I never knew I would possess!

 

My favorite day has come – my dream craft room reveal! I have been so excited to share this day with all of you!

The cabinets are all made, installed, painted, and best of all, level. The countertops are made, installed, sanded, and stained. Door handles and drawer pulls are installed. Cabinets have been filled.  The room is complete.  Don’t miss out on the video tour at the end of the post!

I wanted to be done before my parents came for the holidays and I did it!!! The day before my parents arrived I cleaned up the garage so we could finally park in there. Remember, I told my husband we would be able to park in there before the first snowfall.

The wood scraps got thrown away and the tools got packed up. I had to do all of these little things because I knew that once I started unpacking and moving all of my crafting supplies into the room I wouldn’t want to stop!

I built this peninsula large enough to have a friend or two over to scrapbook, lay out and cut fabric, wrap gifts, organize through photos, or hang with the kids while they do homework or work on a project!

The room is absolutely beautiful and I couldn’t be more thrilled!

I was able to use the room just as intended and my wrapping cabinet was perfect for wrapping Christmas presents with my mom after our annual Christmas shopping trip. It was just as I imagined it to be and I can’t wait for years of fun in this room!

I opted to build closed storage in this room.  It is right off of the kitchen and I wanted everything to be hidden so I could keep the door open and see this beautiful room all of the time.  I know that if it was open storage I would never want to look at it and always have the door closed because it would always look messy.

Plus, I want the family to feel calm in the space when they use it for their projects and homework and I think it will stay more organized this way.

It is a fantastic room!!!  One day I came home and my 4 kids were sitting at the peninsula, each on a stool, each on their computer doing some kind of work, chatting and laughing…. together.

My daughter uses it for crafting all of the time and I have everything I need in one place. A place for everything and everything in its place.

I am still tweaking where I want my things and I use every bit of storage in here including the upper cabinets by the ceiling. I am so glad I built those. I keep things that I use occasionally up there and just pull out my ladder if I really need them.

I contemplated installing a rolling ladder but it would just be in the way all of the time and I would have to move it around the room. That seemed like more of a pain to me than just grabbing a small ladder out of the garage on the few occasions I need it.

I created my own custom sewing table. I wanted to be able to have my sewing machines out all of the time so I can easily access them.  However, I didn’t want to see them so I put the table on a wall that you can’t see from the kitchen.  When I look into the space I don’t have cords and machines within sight.

It was hard to find a table that is just the right height for me so I built it at a custom height. I bought smaller legs that match the peninsula legs for this table. The front legs are full size and the back two are one leg cut in half. I ordered it that way from the company.

I did this here so I could maximize the walking space in between the peninsula and the sewing table.  This way the counter could be placed right against the wall like I did in my entry way without losing precious inches because of the baseboard.

I drilled large holes in the countertop to feed the cords for the machines through and I no longer have to pull out my machine from the closet and locate the right thread in a drawer.  Now I can pop in and create or mend something quickly! I love the colorful whimsy of the thread on the wall and now I can find what I am looking for right away!

The bench seat is comprised of two independent compartments and each lid opens on its own.  I created the tops with piano hinges! There is so much storage…I just love it!

 

Nobody had a lot of interest (zero) in helping me so I truly built this room completely by myself. I had an idea in my head of how the room was going to be and it turned out better than I imagined. Besides saving A LOT of money building this myself (tens of thousands), I acquired the knowledge and the tools to be able to continue adding beautiful and functional spaces to my home.

I will be able to pass along this knowledge to my kids as they get older and start to take interest when they need or want to do a project. I feel so empowered!!

 

When I tell people that I built this room, I don’t know that they fully understand what it took to do it. Those who know me watched it happen in real-time. It was a huge project to take on and I persevered.  I learned so much about my own strengths and weaknesses along the way.

Now I understand what it takes to do these projects and can solve so many problems on my own with the knowledge that I didn’t have before. I am so thankful for this process. I believe it’s a bit like having a baby. You forget about the pain and the long process and the discomfort and the fear…..you swear when you’re going through labor that you will never have another baby.…..  I have four haha.

I am REALLY proud of the room and of myself! I have never taken on ANYTHING so large and so scary and it was really hard work. There were days when I wanted to quit, and days of many tears and  frustration.

I started out with a goal of 16 weeks to build the project. The reality is that with a family of six, all of the kids’ friends and all of their activities, two dogs, a hedgehog, and a fish in my home AND it being summertime, the days were never my own. They never are.

That’s why it ended up taking me 22 weeks. That is over 5 months to build! My family was patient with the piles of wood in the dining room and getting the door for me when I was carrying an armful of tools into the house.

I promise that you have this in yo, too!  If you ever decide to take on a project of even half this magnitude.  Even if it’s just a built-in hutch in your dining room, the pride you will feel and the fears and doubts you will overcome will surprise you. Go ahead…..surprise yourself! (And everyone around you!) You can do it!!!

And remember, you can do it yourself, but let’s do it together!

In case you missed any of the build, you can read all of the Craft Room Diaries here to catch up:

part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, part 5