My Space

I’m not going to lie.  When we bought our house and I saw all that space in the basement, I knew.  I knew that my craftroom was going to occupy a large space down there.  It was going to be creative and beautiful and entirely mine.

I began where any crafter begins: Pinterest.  I created a board and started dreaming up my space.

You can see the whole board here: Momma Femali’s Basement Craft Corner

 

I knew I wanted a black and white palette to create on so I started by painting the basement walls white and the floor black.

This was way back in late July on one of those hot, muggy unbearably humid days that we get in Wisconsin. It seemed like a good plan.  The basement was cool and dry.

The problem was that the floor paint was oil based and I didn’t realize it.  I made half the household, including myself, sick to our stomachs with the fumes! Note to self: read the labels and ventilate!

We got through it though.

Then I used  (an acrylic) white paint and a 12″ stencil from Cutting Edge Stencils to stencil a pattern on my floor.

This was my first time stenciling and it took a bit to figure it out.  My best advice?  Less is better and patience is key.  Also, measure out those first rows precisely.  Although in the end it’s hard to see where things got off and were a little too close. I think it turned out magnificent!

Plus it hides all the threads I drop on the floor while I’m sewing.  My wonderful husband used some sort of sealer on it to protect it.  It’s not a polyurethane because all we could find were oil based which, beside the ventilation issue, would yellow.  It was something he got from a buddy who works with concrete.  Sorry, can’t tell you more because I simply don’t know.

Speaking of my husband he built me the most marvelous cutting table.  It’s 4’x8′ and its on wheels so it can be pushed out of the way.  There’s a shelf below as well. Right now it’s holding 3 giant tubs of fabric (I have a problem.  I buy pretty fabric without a plan and then I wind up with tubs full of 2 yard cuts.) as well as some random things.  But it is awesome.  Big enough to cut drop cloth curtains for our sunroom!

You can also see the floor and how beautiful it is in this shot.  Have I mentioned how awesome I think it is?!

There were cupboards in the basement left over from the previous owner’s kitchen remodel.  I used the lower set to organize craft supplies like knitting and crochet needles, a plethora of beads and jewelry making supplies, craft paint, K’s crafting “stuff”, etc.

 

 

Any good creative space deserves some pegboard in my opinion! Thanks to the good people at Lowe’s I was able to buy a piece and fit it in my car after they cut it in half for me.  Of the three main home improvement chains in our area, only Lowe’s would cut it so I wanted to give them a shout out.  The pegboard was a couple bucks more, but the service was worth it.

It was a nice way to incorporate the duct work that I couldn’t eliminate and hide the whole where it looked like someone had hammered out the concrete block.  I also added in a plethora of magazine files from Ikea.  Not sure what I’ll use them for, but they make me happy and it’s my space!

Turns out K’s thought it was “our” space.  She does have her own little corner in the room though where her sewing machine is set up. I do love this shared space where we can both be working.  She also comes down and sews on her own.  She created this apron for herself a couple weeks ago.  She figured out the measurements, made the cuts and stitched it together.  All I had to do was wind the bobbin and thread the machine, but she has that figured out now too. That’s her artwork behind her machine as well.

All in all I love my new space.  It’s bright, artistic, and inspiring. It has trendy lighting which is just track lights. It has fun pops of color. And it has so, so much space.  No more sewing on the dining room table!

There are a few more things I need to do.  I have these fabulous pulls to use as a door handle on my emerald green door.  I need to get hubby to drill a hole for them.

I want to hang a barn door over an open closet space, but I want to make the barn door.  I need to get my hands on some galvanized corrugated metal for that. But I did spend all weekend in this room and made some fabulous things, so it’s serving its purpose as creative retreat!