One Room Challenge: Craft Room Makeover - Before

One Room Challenge {Week 1}: Craft Room Makeover – The Before

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After years of watching other bloggers tackle and conquer room makeovers as part of the One Room Challenge, hosted by Calling It Home, I have decided to jump in and take the challenge myself. For at least the past two years, I have been wanting to give one of our spare bedrooms a craft room makeover, and now it is finally happening!

Full disclosure: I began working on this room back in January, but stalled out sometime in February. The One Room Challenge presented the perfect opportunity (i.e. kick-in-the-pants) to finish it up once and for all! For the next six weeks, I’ll be sharing my vision and plans for my craft room, with the big, beautiful final reveal happening on May 12th!

So let’s kick things off with—gulp—The Before.

I love to keep things real, but honestly, sharing these photos with you is a bit embarrassing. But you know what they say – it’s gotta get worse before it gets better, right?

One Room Challenge: Craft Room Makeover - Before

We have a four-bedroom house: one room is our master, one is the hubs’ office, and the other two have been sorely neglected since we moved in in 2011. They have evolved from empty spaces to the room-sized equivalent of a junk drawer, filling up with boxes full of holiday decorations, random furniture and unused knick-knacks.

One Room Challenge: Craft Room Makeover - Before

As I’ve gotten more and more into crafting, I knew I needed a dedicated space to work and keep my supplies, as my husband (and myself, actually) tends to get annoyed when our kitchen table is covered in hot glue, glitter and paint brushes. I attempted to set up this makeshift craft room in the smallest spare bedroom, but without the right kind of furniture and storage, it quickly grew into a hoarder-esque craft room:

One Room Challenge: Craft Room Makeover - Before

My “craft table”, i.e. a folding table, was usually covered in piles of crafting supplies. This photo from January 2015 sums it up nicely:

Craft Room "before". via www.twopurplecouches.com

Say it with me – yikes! It doesn’t even matter that this space isn’t pretty—it isn’t even functional! So back in January, I resolved to turn this poor, sad space it into a clean, functional and inspiring craft room.

Of course, I started things off by browsing for craft room ideas on Pinterest and wow!—there are some absolutely gorgeous craft rooms out there! Maybe one day we’ll finish out our basement and I’ll design a spacious, custom craft room. But for now, I am working with a 10′ x 13′-foot bedroom and want to keep my expenses relatively low, save for a few of the necessary things like a proper craft table and light fixture.

Here’s my plan for my craft room makeover:

  • paint the walls white
  • install a real light fixture (did you see that naked bulb? gah!)
  • large craft table/work surface
  • install shelving unit or bookcases
  • space for sewing machine
  • storage solutions for various craft supplies & materials
  • create a photo studio in one corner
  • wall art and colorful accents

Next Thursday I’ll be sharing the mood board and room plan I created, so be sure to come back and check that out!

Are you joining the One Room Challenge? What room are you tackling?

27 thoughts on “One Room Challenge {Week 1}: Craft Room Makeover – The Before”

  2. Samantha

    I’m excited too. It’s hard for me to imagine a full space devoted to crafting. I don’t know where I’d start! Can’t wait to see how you tackle it. I’m doing an entryway that was truly, actually embarrassing to share with the world.

    1. Two Purple Couches Post author

      Thanks Samantha! I’m so excited to have a dedicated space… my craft supplies have been spread out around multiple rooms, so it will be so nice to have everything organized into one space!

  3. holly

    ok — I have a craft one room challenge as well. I have a room now – and its a big ol mess… I will create a theme board too and we can see where we net out!

  6. Iris Nacole

    You are going to love having all your stuff in one space, and organized. I made over my home office last year, and neglected the fact that I am at heart a crafter, so I didn’t plan for the crazy amounts of supplies I was going to acquire over the past year. Big mistake! Now I’m going back into the space and fixing it up to accommodate everything. Even half done, it’s nice to know where everything is again. I look forward to following along with your transformation!
    Iris Nacole recently posted…One Room Challenge-Spring 2016: “Men’s Lounge” (Week 1)My Profile

    1. Two Purple Couches Post author

      Thanks Iris! I’ve had my craft stuff spread out for years – some in my home office and some in this spare room. And it’s so annoying, especially when I’d sit down (usually at the kitchen table) to make something and then waste time hunting down all of the stuff I needed for the project. It’s going to be so nice to have everything in one easy-to-access spot!

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