Welcome back to day 15 of our Craft Room Organization Challenge.
We’re now halfway through our 30-Day Craft Room Challenge! If you’ve made it this far without unsubscribing, give yourself a HUGE pat on the back!! Like seriously — an email a day is a little crazy. Some people give up before this point, but not you — you’re still here with me. I love that.
So we spent our first week talking about how to PURGE and our second week talking about how to ASSESS what we have. That leads us to the overarching theme of our third week: OUTFIT.
No, I don’t mean THAT kind of outfit — I’m not going to give you any fashion advice. Ha ha! That’d be funny. I am NOT a fashionista.
Instead, I meant we need to outfit our craft rooms with the things we need to organize all the items we found last week.
We know what supplies and tools we have and need to organize, and we also know what furniture and accessories we have to organize those items in. Chances are good — REALLY GOOD — that you need to outfit your craft space with more places and containers for organization. This week I’m going to talk about each type of craft room unit/organizer, in general order of size from large to small, like this:
- Day 15: Tables and surfaces
- Day 16: Shelves and drawers
- Day 17: Bins and boxes
- Day 18: Wall storage
- Day 19: Supply storage (paper, paint, etc.)
- Day 20: Small item storage
- Day 21: Storage for everything else
So let’s dive right into day’s challenge, tables and surfaces.
Challenge 15: Get Your Tables and Surfaces
When I began working on my craft room, I had only ONE table/surface in the entire room. It was an old dining room table and it was entirely all taken up with my lightbox, which I use because it has great light and helps me take clear photos for my blog. But because that lightbox was on the table, it was almost like I had no real table. After all, not everything fit in that lightbox. Even if I had removed it, not everything would fit on my table. It wasn’t very big. So I determined in my second week of this challenge that I was going to need a new craft table and some additional surfaces.
There are some really important considerations to take into account when choosing a new table and surfaces, though. Here’s what I consider the five most important things when choosing craft tables and surfaces:
SIZE: You need a table both big enough for the majority of your projects, yet small enough so it doesn’t takeover your craft space. Don’t skimp on size.
HEIGHT: If you get a table too high or too low, it will be uncomfortable. Either go for standard desk table height of 30 inches or, if you don’t mind sitting on a stool, you can go higher at 38-40″. The advantage to a slightly higher table/surfaces is that you can also stand comfortably and use the surface at that height, so if you like to move around a lot, a higher surface might work best for you.
STORAGE: You need either some built-in storage so you have access to tools you use often, or you need to have an optional mobile storage solution that you can move to your table as you work. I prefer to have some built-in storage. I had no storage at my old dining room table and it drove me bonkers.
STURDINESS: If your crafting will mean any kind of pressure or pounding on the table, make sure you pick a good, sturdy surface that won’t either be damaged nor just bounce back on you. For example, those plastic folding tables are cheap, but if you attempt to push on them with any force (such as nailing something in), the plastic will flex with the force and you will have to work much harder to get that nail in.
COLOR & TEXTURE: Think about the type of crafting you do and what surface color and texture will work best for your crafting. Do you need to be able to easily clean paint off it? If so, you’ll want a smooth and impermeable texture. If you’re working with white objects, a white surface might drive you nuts. Same for black on black.
I personally needed a large craft table at a normal table height (I dislike stools) with lots of storage, very sturdy, and with a white, easy-to-clean surface. I need white because that will be easiest to see the items upon it in any photos I take for my blog.
My solution was to buy several different storage solutions and “hack” them together to create the craft room table of my dreams. I now have TONS of storage in my table with both drawers and shelves, a hidden place for my trash can (it’s behind a little door on the side), some pull out “wings” on either side of my work area for storing things while I’m working, another hidden place for storing large items, and a “guest” side where my family and friends can sit with me (room for two chairs). The work surface is very large — 5′ x 5′, which is 25 square feet. I am overjoyed. And I’m writing up a detailed description of my new craft table that will go up on my blog in a couple days — here’s the link where it will appear when it is ready if you want to bookmark it: https://jennifermaker.com/diy-craft-table-storage-ikea-hack
In addition to my craft table, I put surfaces along either side of my craft room. They are higher at 39″ so I can stand at them. This gives me another 30 square feet of surface in my room. I’ll talk about about how I did that tomorrow when discuss shelves and drawers.
So ask yourself… do you have the table and surfaces you need? If not, it’s time to either get them or make them.
If money is tight, you might have something in your home you can repurpose something. Or a trip to your local recycle center or Salvation Army might prove useful — I know my Re-Use Center always has a lot of tables and desks of various kinds at really inexpensive prices.
If you’re in the mood to make something, definitely check out my Ultimate DIY Craft Table with Storage blog post — it’ll give you some great ideas on how you can make something that works really well for you.
If you want to just buy something, I have a list of affordable craft tables that I think are really awesome — check those out here.
Day 15 Assignment: Decide what you need for your table/surfaces and get it or make it. I know it’s not likely you’ll do this today, but keep pushing forward and come up with a plan. If you find a table, take a picture and share it on Facebook. If you have a plan for something, draw it out or find a photo of something similar and share it with us. I love to see your solutions and ideas!!
Until tomorrow,
