My Craptastic Craft Room...

Although it still has a few finishing touches that need to be taken care of, my room is essentially done.  I did the entire room for around $130.    Here is how:

1: The entire room.  I created the shelves out of 5/8" particleboard.  I got all but 2 sheets of it for free as scrap lumber.  I did buy the 1x2 to create my shelf brackets but at $.88 each, I can manage 5 pieces of 1x2. 

2:  I had the chandelier hanging around (har har har) and sandblasted it, primed it, then repainted it and hung new jewels from it to create a one of a kind beautiful piece. Since I had the piece already, all I needed was the beads and they cost me about $12.

3:  I found an old VHS tape center that spins and thought "There has to be something great I can do with that!"  In fact there was!  I was in real mental chaos over what to do with all my ribbon rolls and didn't want to go thru and take everything off them or repackage them and this turned out to be perfect!  Painted it, inserted dowels into each spot I could find, added wire spice racks to one side, wire can racks to the other (Both of which I found at the "Last Chance Goodwill" for about $3 total) and Voila!  I have this amazingly handy rack that holds over 200 rolls of ribbon in a very compact space!

4:  When I originally laid out my scraproom, I planned on putting a pull out table that I could put away to create more space if I needed it.  Well that would cost me too much and, frankly, it was just too much work.  That idea went out the door and then I was left with deciding what to do with that space.  I am obsessed with scrapbook organization and have 2 rolling bags, 1 over the shoulder bag, 1 tackle box, and 1 carry-all bag.  I wanted a place to keep these and keep them out of sight so I created the idea of having a "ribbon wall" to keep them out of sight and my lengths of ribbon at arms reach and in my line of sight.  The result was beautiful!  (Let me know if you want to know how I did it!)  This cost me about $9 to create!

5:  I hate knowing I have an embellishment but never knowing which box it is in or where it might be.  I decided to create my own clip system to keep them where I can see them and go thru them whenever I want!  Not only is it very pretty-- its very functional too!  Using leftover pieces of 1x2, 1 dowel, and some paper clips and small clothespins-- this is a great way to keep things handy!  Cost: about $5 because I already had the paperclips.

6:  My jars!  How pretty are they?  This was totally repurposed from around the house so it cost me nothing!  My old canning jars, small pieces of ribbon, and a shelf painted white make such a pretty statement and keep everything within reach!  I ran out of room for my loose ribbon so I added some on to the bottom of this too!  Cost: $0 Yay!

7:  My picture frame!  I got this ugly frame at the "Last Chance Goodwill" for about $1 and after getting FREE paint from the paint recycling center in town, I repainted it and it turned out beautifully!  I added $5 shelves (garage sale find!) to the middle and put pics of my darling children in it! Love this and love the bright pop of color it adds!  I already had the shelf and jars next to it and just reused them in this room! Cost: $5



8:  Last but not least, My Table.  This is the find of the century!  After searching garage sales, estate sales, thrift shops and more, I was sitting at breakfast with my in-laws and was whining to them about how I wanted to go to a few more estate sales to look for a table.  My mother in law says "Why dont you just take that table we have in the basement?"  I wasn't thrilled with the idea but, HEY! Its FREE! So we went over there and picked it up.  After stripping the top (it had melted and was sticky all the time) and working on it in the 104 degree heat, I finally got it clean enough to paint.  I was able to find a beautiful blue spray paint at the paint recycling center for FREE and set about painting it.  It ended up taking about 4 cans of paint but it was only $1.79 a can after rebate so I could manage that.   Total cost of table: About $50 for the stripper (HA!) the stripping tools, and paint but it was so worth it!

I got the chairs around it at various places but know I have spent less than $20 on all 4 of them- Including the paint!

So thats it.  My $130 Craptastic! craft room.  It couldn't be more perfect!  Oh yeah!  I got my rug for free at a garage sale that just wanted to get rid of it!  Yippee!

Let me know if you have any questions!