Learn how to create an organized and inspiring small craft area in any room in your house, and get that sewing machine off your kitchen table with these easy-to-implement ideas.
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Nothing sucks away your creative drive like cleaning crusty peanut butter from your kitchen table and hiking upstairs to retrieve the sewing machine from the linen closet before finally getting to work.
Since childhood, I’ve had a passion for creating and the desire for a dedicated creative space. I learned to sew in my parents’ sewing room, crafting Barbie clothes and miniature pillows for my dollhouse on my grandma’s Singer Featherweight from the 1930’s.
Unlike my parents, most of us don’t have a whole room for our hobbies. So, the kitchen table and nightstand seem like reasonable places to work and stow supplies.
But there’s another option.
Do you have an empty nook or wall and a lot of disorganized craft supplies? If the answer is “yes” then you can create a little haven for all your crafting bits and baubles.
Our guest room has the perfect nook for a small craft area, but it didn’t live up to its potential until I gave it a big makeover on a small budget.
How could I create anything here? The mess doesn’t inspire creativity and prevents productivity – and there isn’t even a chair!
Fed up with wasting time rummaging around for my hot glue gun, I followed the five room makeover tips used to redecorate the other half of the room to create a functional and pretty small craft area.
Set the Groundwork for a Creative Space
Here’s how I used the 5 Room Makeover Tips That Will Make You Love Your Space to set the groundwork for a makeover with major impact:
- Removed my blinders: The photo above screams “CHAOS!” The work surface is too small, the lighting is all wrong, and there’s no chair.
- Determined who and why: This nook is a craft space for me and the kids, office for our family, and occasional workspace for my husband.
- Visually mocked up the design: The mood boards from our guest room makeover guided the nook’s color scheme.
- Shopped my home first: I seriously decluttered the space, and the only new items are the wall light, monitor, and chair.
- Mixed styles: The tufted chair works well with the dresser’s pretty curves, and the basic IKEA desk goes with just about everything.
Before we get into more detail about what you need to create your very own small craft area, let’s look at the “after” view from the same angle as the first photo.
New paint color: Nebulous White by Sherwin Williams.
Related: 8 DIY Art Caddy Ideas That Will Organize Your Creative Mess
3 Essential Elements of an Organized Small Craft Area
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If your passion is making things but you have limited space, look for an underused wall, nook, or closet to create an inspiring and organized crafting spot.
1. Storage that Hides the Ugly and Displays the Pretty
Guests who stay overnight in this room don’t need to see a pile of felt, glue sticks, and paper scraps. Here’s how to craft supplies in a small space:
- The IKEA Alex drawer unit has plenty of storage for craft and office supplies, while the dresser (an estate sale find) is filled with fabric, paper, and more.
- An old filing cabinet, revived with white spray paint, holds important documents and folders for each school year to keep my kids’ mementos neat and organized.
- A DIY pegboard, made from materials we already had, keeps tools off the desk and adds a bold pop of color.
- Basic laminate shelves got a quick, paint-free update and provide a place to display meaningful artwork and keep paper organized.
Related: 14 Ways to Organize Your Life for Free and Cheap
2. Room to Work
Select the largest desk to fit in your space so you have plenty of room to work. IKEA has excellent inexpensive options, or build your own with an old door topped with a sheet of Plexiglass on top of two filing cabinets.
Moving our filing cabinet a foot to the right maximized the work area and made room for useful tools under the desk, such as:
- Recycling basket (my kids check here first before using the “good paper” for their projects)
- Trash can
- Paper shredder
Dowels and twine keep ribbon and washi tape attached to the board. Old shower caddies – minus the suction cups – keep craft paint easy to access.
3. The Right Light
Our old floor lamp took up precious space and wasn’t bright enough either. A wall light is a much better solution, although I’m still on the fence about the IKEA RANARP. This plug-in wall lamp’s industrial style looks great here, but the 40W bulb is too dim for nighttime sewing.
Related: 10 Affordable Swing-Arm Sconces Under $150 and Where to Use Them
Never worry about peanut butter on your fabric again.
It’s a nice dream to have a whole room filled with washi tape and scrapbook paper from floor to ceiling. But since that’s not the reality for most of us, we need to get creative.
Don’t let a lack of space hold you back. Look around your home for a small area to transform into a creative haven, where the only sticky substance on the table will be from your hot glue gun.
Do you have a craft room or a craft nook? I’d love to see it! Drop a link in the comments below, or share a photo on Facebook.
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Lynn says
How does the shower caddy fit onto the pegboard?
And if you made the framed pegboard, how did you make it?
If you didnt make the framed pegboard, where did you find it?
Thanks!
Lynn
Laura says
Hi Lynn,
My dad made the pegboard for me. We already had the frame from a past project that we never completed. I believe he used construction glue + finishing nails to attach the frame to the board. He also cut a secondary frame with basic wood that’s on the back of the pegboard. The purpose of that frame is to pop the pegboard away from the wall so that the hooks can fit on it without damaging the wall. There’s probably a less complicated way to achieve that, but my dad’s a perfectionist! As for the shower caddy, I removed the suction cups and stuck the peg board hooks through those holes in the back of the caddy. I just like messing around with stuff I already have to see what works! Most of the time I manage to MacGyver a solution, but it may not always be pretty! 😉