Craft Room Makeover - Part Deux

The reason this is a "part deux" post is because over a year ago I reorganized my space to look like this. Since then it has been changed a few times, but today I can honestly say this is by far my favorite. When I first had my craft nook, I hardly used it so it was small and not functional. Since then, I have grown my blog, opened an Etsy shop and had a baby. Needless to say, I need a space that can do my embroidery, blog and sew all at the same time (multi-tasking at its finest).

I apologize in advance for the craptastic pictures, I was lazy and took them with my phone. Since this area gets no natural light, it is nearly impossible to get good shots even with my nice camera, so phone it was.

As much as I liked my Ikea Expedit bookcase with the attached desk, it just wasn't enough surface area. With a computer and two sewing machines, it was impossible to have everything I needed on the desk at one time. So as you can see, I resorted to switching out my machines after every project and putting one on the floor while the other one was in use. Let's also not forget that this area was long overdue for a little cleaning/reorganization.

I'm so embarrassed with how messy and dysfunctional I let this area become. I realized I was wasting so much time setting up machines and then putting them away. It was taking me way too long to complete my Etsy orders because I never had what I needed at my fingertips. So to fix this, I needed to gain surface area while not breaking the bank, so off to Ikea I went!

Less than $100 and two hours later, I had this! I'm so happy with my new space and I LOVE that it fits everything with room to spare!

To make this L-shaped desk, I bought two tabletops and nine legs. One tabletop was 78"x 23" ($45) and the other was 47"x 23" ($16). Since the first one was so long, it called for five legs ($3.50 each) instead of just four so there is a middle support. Since I'm used to crazy complicated Ikea furniture, just attaching the legs made this project seem too easy.

I didn't get the black/brown color to match my bookcase for a few reasons, the main being that it was out of stock. Another reason is that because this is such a small space, I worry that if everything was dark it would look cramped and heavy. My last reason for using the white was for pictures. Whenever I would photograph a new item for my Etsy shop I was forced to use the black background of my desk because nowhere in my house do I have a nice clean white surface. So to tie it all together and not have it look completely disconnected, I bought black legs and white tabletops. My husband calls this the tuxedo look.

Some before/after side by side pictures for comparison:

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