It's Coming Together

Before I ever began the process of renovating I took some graph paper and drew out a scale version of the new room’s shape. I then measured my furniture and took a piece of heavy cardstock and drew and cut-out squares and rectangles the size of all my furniture. I labeled each one so I would know what they were. 

This really helped me in designing my space. I must have tried a hundred designs before I settled on what I felt would work best. Before I decided to get my Kallex from Ikea I went online and got the measurements for the piece I wanted and made a rectangle to size to figure out the placement. It turned out to be too big, so I went with the next smallest size.  I also decided to get rid of several items because they were either not needed anymore, or I was able to consolidate my things to fit in 1 cabinet instead of two.

One end of the room complete

 As you can see, it was a perfect fit! I still have some more paper packs to put away, but I've gotten my stash to a much more reasonable amount.

  As I put things back into my newly renovated craft room I asked myself, “Do I really need that?” If the answer was “No.” then I would put it into my give away pile. If the answer was “Yes” then I would quiz myself.  “When will I use it?” “What will I use it for?”  ”How many of these do I really need?”  (you know what I mean!)  This question helped me really narrow down my paper stash. I had multiple sheets of the sane themed paper. I’d keep 2-3 and get rid of the rest.  And in the case of storage containers I asked myself, “Do I have something that will work better or hold more?”

Any paper that was faded, torn or wrinkled I threw away. The good sheets I packaged up by color and gave them to anyone that was interested. The rest I donated to a women’s shelter for their store.  I went through all of my paints, pens, and color pencils. If they were dried out, hard to write with, or I had duplicates they went into my give away box. Once something went in there it stayed in there and I tried to remove at least one box from the house weekly. I sold some of my equipment and furniture on an online garage sale. I’ve kept the money from the sales in an envelope and it’s now my rainy day craft fund.

Renovating My Craftroom

One wall down.
Carpet tacks removed. Ready to start scraping walls.

 I found that by spraying a small section of the wall with plain water and letting it sit for a couple of minutes the texture came off much more easily. Also, I started out with a 3 inch putty knife and that was more work than it was worth. I found this old long handle scraper out in my husband's workshop and it worked much better. I'd put on my earphones, start up a good book on my Kindle and get into the zone.

After about a week of scraping on and off I finally got the walls and ceiling finished.

The walls are painted and the trim is up. The paint came from Ace Hardware and it's called Romantic Blue. It looks like periwinkle to me. It's almost identical to the color on the walls before and it makes me happy.

The laminate flooring is from Home Depot. It's Hand Scraped Saratoga Hickory. Of course we had to purchase enough to not only finish this room, but our bedroom and hallway too. 
Now for the fun part. Setting it up the way I want.