Craft room on a budget (Under $200!!)

I am on a roll this week! Whew!  I read a couple of blogs and searched Pinterest high and low for ideas on how to make an inexpensive craft room.  I am not a "messy" person.  However my house had become: Sewing machine/thread/material/patterns/embellishments you know the usual items needed to sew, located at one crafting station that was formerly known as my formal dining room table.  Paint/brushes/floor coverings/cleaners were located at crafting station number two, formerly known as my kitchen bar & kitchen table.  Burlap/silk/organza/lace/chiffon flowers/hot glue guns (two- pink for high temp and blue for low temp)/mounting sticks/felt and middle flower bling were neatly organized on the item formerly known as my coffee table.  I was out of control.  If you build it the ideas will come right?  So I began my quest for the items to build a crafting room.

I became so overwhelmed that I stopped and started looking for reenactment costumes instead.  That is when I came across this blog!  It looked easy enough for me to attempt on my own.  So off to the store to find the closet maid storage shelves in the post.  However, as I eluded to before, I am thrifty.  While standing in the store contemplating the $39.88 storage shelf, I couldn't help but gravitate toward the $19.98 bookshelf.  So after a brief contemplation, the bookshelf won out.  I loaded 3 into my buggy. I knew I already had one of these exact bookshelves at the house.

Next stop was off to a box store for a top for my table.  I will admit that I made an error in judging the flexibility of MDF and probably should have gotten a thicker one but I opted for the least expensive $21 a sheet instead.  According to inspiration blog I needed a table topper that was 36 x 60, but remember my substitution of bookshelves for storage cubes?  Well, that altered my dimensions to 30 x 60, leaving me with two scraps: 49 x 37 and 19 x 60.  Let the creativity began!!! First,  I am a firm believer of repurposing items.  So, in keeping with my quest for repurposing, I walked around my house with a measuring tape locating items that were of the same height.  I was able to locate 4 items, two tables, a shelf and desk.  all of which were tucked into various corners/guest rooms of my house.  Only one of these tables I have found that I miss...so I'm looking to replace it in the craft room but haven't found a solution yet.

I put the bookshelves together following the directions but adding the step of painting the back of the shelves teal with a sample of paint that I had on hand.  If I were to add the the paint it would have been $2.98 (*My color was from last year and not available anymore.)  I  arranged and rearranged the middle cutting table at least 1/2 a dozen times before I decided that the 49 x 37 was the best fit for the middle of the room.  I covered the MDF with Quilt batting that was $11.97 (It did not take all of the batting.  I used some for a chair and still have some left over.)  Next I covered the top with an old sheet.  If I were to buy the sheet it would have been $4.97.

I used the remaining paint on the scrap pieces of MDF.  After a day of arranging/rearranging I settled on the layout.  I used gorilla glue that I had on hand ($6.48) to secure the top of the island, two bookshelves on top of each other to make the tall unit, and the two desks.  (I still have some left over.  This stuff is seriously a beast!! LOVE IT!)

I had baskets all over my house, but could not resist a clearance section of Walmart where I found 5 small blue cubed baskets for $1.50 each!  I would have purchased more but it was all they had.

That brings my grand total of all in to duplicate this this craft room to: $134.82.  (*I didn't have to spend but $100.41because I had various items already on hand.) You will have to find 4 matching items to use as the table bases which, if you can't find any in your house and you have to buy them, may drive your price up.  But not bad for a craft room under $200!!

**Note: On the cutting table in the middle of the room, I put a tension rod that I already had and one panel of a curtain that I also had in a closet.  The curtain was cut in 1/2 with one for this side and the other 1/2 stapled to the the bottom of the MDF on the other side. I still think that you could recreate this under $200 even if you had to buy those items. **

49 x 37 MDF with two bookshelves as a base.

19 x 60 MDF with a small shelf and table 28" high.

Two bookcases gorilla glued together. Notice the teal paint in the background. 

A desk and a side table as base also 28" high, 30 x 60 MDF.

Boho dresser redesign

I have discovered Annie Sloan chalk paint.  Well, to be honest, I've known about it for over a year.  But what I have discovered is the boldness inside of me to actually use it on major items in my home.  I started with my guest bedroom. I got so many compliments that I decided to go headfirst into my bedroom.  While sitting on the floor painting around the legs of the dresser...because I am a single lady...and I didn't have anyone to take the dresser outside so I could properly paint it!!! I had THE idea.  Why not put lace on the drawers?  Not a lace stencil, that looks good in photos but to me looks  cheap in person, but full thick lace that I happen to have in my sewing basket, scraps from a wedding dress that I purchased at Goodwill for a whopping $7.95!  

I started with my dark brown dresser, and did not do any prep other than wipe with a wet cloth to remove any dust. 

Next I painted the dresser with Anne Sloan Duck Egg making sure that I kept some of the brush strokes.  I liked the effect of brush.  After it dried I distressed it a little.

Next I used 3M spray adhesive that is typically used for mounting photos.  Honestly, I used it to hold the lace in place because it is what I had on hand on the day that I attempted this endeavor! But it worked to hold the lace in place.  Next, I used a clear polyacrylic on top of the dresser and directly over the lace to help hold it in place.  I think it turned out okay, but there is probably a better way if you have something that works better let me know!  

I ran out of lace.  That is why I didn't put lace completely covering the middle drawers.  It is a happy accident.  I knew I didn't have enough lace so I played around with design and decided that leaving some of the top of the drawer open was my final design idea.  

I purchased the knobs from Anthropologie but kept the original silver discs that were on the dresser.  Again, I did this because when I took the original knobs off there was an indention so I used what I had on hand.  I had to put something there.  I cut around the lace to make the hole smoother.  

The lace is wrapped around the corners of the drawers but it does not keep the drawers from closing.  The lace is thick too!  **Note I have had problems with the drawers that I open daily causing the lace to lift.  I have put an additional coat of poly on it to see if that helps.  If not? Next stop might be to staple it down! (Or Gorilla glue it...that stuff is AMAZING!) 

Do you remember when it first happened?

Do you remember when it first happened?  When you first caught a glimpse of a thread that was unraveling?  The first time that you were SO sure of something, only to find out that you were in fact SO wrong?  I do.  It's a weird feeling for me to say the least.  I borrowed a movie from my best friend...I would tell you which one...but rule number 1 about this movie is to never talk about this movie.  I was so sure I had returned it.  She asked me about it...more than once, reminding me: "Hey, on your way over...do you think you can bring the movie?"  It kinda aggravated me.  I distinctly remember putting the movie in the car and taking it back...how could she NOT remember that?

Well...because it never happened.  YEARS later, while unpacking from a move, I open a box that held the contents of a drawer that was under my TV console and I see the movie.  But...wait...I REMEMBER taking it back! Was that a dream? A glitch in the matrix? Did I absentmindedly pick it back up that night? Did I not take it out of my purse?  Did I even go over there that night?  Wait...whats real?  OKAY hold the presses...its not THAT dramatic.  But at the same time it does make me wonder.  How many things have I been SO sure of, yet SO wrong about?

I have seen things with these eyes, and I have written blogs about how we filter things through our unique perspectives which is why two people can witness the same event yet state they have seen something totally different.  But this is different.  This is me... distinctly remembering an event that, obviously, never happened.  Is it a "senior moment" in my life? Is it insomnia? ;-) I don't know.  But I do like IKEA...maybe I need a support group...bahahahahaha! In all seriousness,  I do know that a couple of years ago you could not have convinced me that I didn't return that movie.  I was so confident that I had.

Vayomer elohim yehior vayehior

A couple of weeks ago the associate pastor at my church made a comment that was repeated in Sunday school this past week.  In the beginning.  Genesis 1:3 Let Gods light be (in the original Hebrew translation.)   Not God's light, but Gods light.  Yet the sun and the moon were not created until day 4 (Genesis 1:14).  The light that was on day one, in the beginning, was the light that IS God, that light is the Word.  In order to create with words, he had to create THE Word.  When that concept hit my brain a mini explosion went off *boom* #mindblown!  I was seriously sitting there in church trying not to start the slow clap, because it took a second for the whole concept to reach maturity in my thought process!

Just considering the fact that, in order to create with words He had to create the Word, in itself is a staggering concept.  It's so simple, and so easy to just dismiss as a "duh" type statement, but if you really ponder the thought, it has the potential to really excite you.  Then add to the mix; the first light created is the Word.  I've always just assumed that the sun and the moon were the first lights and overlooked the fact that they weren't created until day 4.  Or, I've rationalized that the first day/night scenario was the "first earth" that was destroyed before Adam and Eve's earth that we now know.  But the more I look at it, the more I think/believe that this first light was the Word itself.  The trinity is the Father, Spirit, and the Son (Jesus) who is also known as the Word.  With that belief, then the original light that was spoken into existence on day one of creation is Jesus!  *boom*

That's the belief I choose.  That's the praise I choose.  Have a blessed high holy season this Easter. Arise, shine for the light has come!!