Let me first say that looking back at my "before" pictures, my space had gotten really messy! Things were literally piling up, and I had run out of places to put all my great buys. My old space consisted of office furniture (desk, file cabinets, computer desk) and a makeshift area for crafting. So to make more room, I now have a separate office, and a room for crafting. The office furniture was moved out to a small bedroom upstairs, and the space remaining was filled with modular furniture from Ikea. I kept my computer desk and hutch in my new space. Here's a pix of the craft side of my room "before."
And here's the "after" pix.
I did the same thing on the other side of the room, which used to be the office side. Here's the before.
And here's the after.
And in the middle remains my computer desk. Before...
After...
And the best addition of all is on the wall opposite my computer desk. It's one of those "cubby" bookcases from Ikea. I love it. Here's the picture before the file cabinets were moved out.
And here's the after. I love this bookshelf; it has so much room.
If you can't tell yet, my accent color is red! The colors of the room are sage green, tan, and red. My husband repainted the ceiling and the walls above the chair rail for me. And of course, put all this Ikea furniture together. That was a job. The square baskets, the red boxes and magazine holders all came from Ikea. I bought the photo boxes (red and green) from Joann's. The white baskets with green trim I had bought at Michael's several years ago.
Now let me show you what I did with my papers. For all the 12x12 paper stacks and cardstock, I laid them horizontally in one of the cubes, and labeled them on the binded edge.
I put my 8-1/2x11 white cardstock and other packaged colored cardstock in a basket, along with 8x8 stacks and 4x6 stacks, most of them standing vertically. And because they're pretty tight, I don't think there will be any problem with them bending.
For my single sheets of patterned 12x12 papers, I bought a Cropper Hopper Vertical Organization Value Pack. Says it holds up to 400 sheets of paper (way more than I certainly have). A little expensive, but I used a 40% or maybe 50% off coupon at Joann's for this. Original price $24.99. I haven't filled it yet with my papers. For my scraps, I got the cutest thing at Target. It's a hanging file organizer, made of plastic and holds 10 hanging file folders. Comes with clear tabs and labels. I figure my scraps will be this size or smaller, and I plan to organize them by color. I can store it away with my vertical paper holder and get one or both organizers out as I need them. Isn't that great?! Cost $9.99.
And I have another drawer (this one in my computer desk) that is full of more 8-1/2x11 cardstock, which unbelievably was given to me by a woman I work with! How nice is that!? She stopped her paper hobby and is into photography now, so I was a lucky recipient of a lot of her craft supplies!
Lots of storage in the 2 drawer units. They both have 6 drawers each. Here's what's in some of them.
And, here's my little scrapbooking mouse proudly displayed on a shelf.
Well, what do you think? Did you perhaps pick up an idea that might work for you? I still have some fine tuning to do, but at least I can function now, and hopefully keep my new space nice and clean as it appears in these pictures. I'm thrilled with my new space! Thanks for looking! I certainly enjoyed sharing. -- Pat
Here's the original lampshade that I painted in green, yellow, and blue when I brought the blue chair from my living room into my office. The color scheme actually comes from the ottoman. My sofa and loveseat are made with that material, and after the furniture was delivered, I found that same material at Joann's and made the ottoman to go with the blue chair. I was going to change the curtains to match the theme, too, but never got around to it!
