I admit to being a huge fan of shows featuring tiny house builds. I like the innovative solutions to storage. I wanted to downsize my craft space and have it more conveniently located near the kitchen. Two hundred year old houses often have large pantries and this house has a four foot by eight foot pantry off the kitchen. It also is a walk through to the back of the house, that meant two doorways. So welcome to My "Tiny House" Inspired Craft Room and 20 storage ideas I incorporated. Everything was repurposed and upcycled, nothing new was purchased. It was four full days of painting and organizing.
One of the major issues with the space is the walk through doorways. The first door was removed that swung in. With the door casings it measured almost six inches from the wall to the doorway. My darling husband is handy and also open to my ideas... most of the time. So many craft supplies are small. A wall of narrow shelves was a perfect solution. Storage DIY number 1! The easiest thing to do was build a separate unit that could be screwed between the two doorways. Did I mention it was a two hundred year old house, plaster and lathe ugh, you disturb it as little as possible. He created a frame with six four foot long shelves using two by fours. I painted the unit black, leftover paint from another project. Once it had a couple coats, we installed the shelves. Wow do they hold a lot of craft supplies!
Since I was downsizing my supplies and just in general spending time spring cleaning and decluttering I ended up with a bunch of odd containers. A few shoe boxes and a lot of jars. I also discovered about three yards of sewing fabric I purchased for something a while back. Storage ideas 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6! Cover, paint or decoupage shoe boxes to match your space. Add trims or washi tape. Fill jars with bright colored items like pom poms, small flowers, clothespins etc.
I found a couple of long storage containers on the inside of an old sewing machine cabinet. Painted and then mounted on the outiside of the shelf to hold small paint bottles. Organizing by craft category was the goal and top high shelf holds some favourite things. I made an apron for the mini mannequin from the sewing fabric. I used every scrap! A note card box holds a collection of washi tape. A wire container from the Dollar store holds a few fabrics. On the lower shelf pictured above a basket that was too wide was turned on its side to hold larger ribbon rolls.
Storage ideas 7 through 10. A small old cabinet was outfitted with a new counter top just nailed on to give extra work and storage space. Inside the cabinet are felt and fabric storage. Craft carousel holds lots of tools and prodcuts. A kitchen tiered dish with an easy handle has scissors, thread and pin cushion. It can be moved to main counter. I had a bunch of fold up storage cubes, all black. Going for a lighter fun feel I used Fabri-Tac and and some of the fabrics to cover not the whole containers. I had only so much fabric and eight of those containers to cover. I covered the front and the sides about six inches. Just wrapping the fabric and gluing. I also discovered I had about three huge bottles of buttons and used stacked buttons to decorate the front of the containers. These containers hold many supplies, trims and kids craft items. Yes that is a button stool and I admit to a love affair with buttons!
Storage ideas 11 and 12. When my daughter moved into her previous home there was a set of shelves used for craft supplies she offered it to me. This holds tiny items and has two ribbon roll dowel holders. Saved jam and mason bottles, did I mention we have a Bed and Breakfast too, lots of jam jars! Washi tape wrapped around the covers made a decorative accent. The clear jars are great for small items as you can see exactly what is in them The small rose bowls also hold other small items. When you have alot of small supplies look for narrow display options, medecine cabinet. The top holds some of my favorite items. To high to reach anyway so just filled with inspiration. Decorative clothespins were glued to large buttons to make cards stands.
Storage ideas 13 and 14. A Deflecto storage unit is fastened underneath the craft storage, it holds buttons. I left enough space for the top to be a shelf to hold rulers and other small items that are easily accessed from the counter.
15. A small message board can be moved around and be used for inspiration, reminders or notes. It stands or hangs, that is handy. More mismatched containers on the top shelf were recovered to match the room plus with yarn on hand created a pom pom garland.
16. Being a "Tiny House" inspired Craft Room and only four feet wide the opposite wall had hooks which we left. I hung a couple of cloth bags with art canvasses, embroidery hoops and aprons. Shelves would have made it just too narrow.
17. A kitchen wire shelf made room for another container underneath to hold glue guns and other frequently used items. More felt in the colours I use often fit on top of the rack along with the craft space mascot. I use a lot of Kunin Felt!
18. Beat up black hat boxes from the attic were covered with fabric. The cake plate is used for display and when not in use makes a whimsical storage accent. It does kind of look like a cake and keeps it out of the way.
19. There is something about a shadow box with miniatures. I found this drawer box and tipped it up to use as a shadow box.
Using all of the space, above the door my felt house with #heartsathome. This makes me smile as soon as I walk in the room.
20. The final idea, not really storage but extra counter space simply made by a scrap piece of board which lifts up and off so I can get out. A piece of trim was attached to the wall with hooks and the board notched. Thanks again to my handy guy. The board simply rests on the trim and over to the other counter. It stores along the wall behind the apron. The doorway allows for extra lighting and the camera attached to the narrow shelves. Perfect for my doing some videos and more importantly crafty Facetime with my grandlittles!
I hope you find some inspiration from my "Tiny House" Inspired Craft Room. I set a goal to have all of my craft supplies fit in there except some of my bolts of felt fabric. Those fit in the cold cellar in the old coal bins. Everything else is in that very tiny space. It makes me smile everytime I walk in. It was a big job getting it organized but it was so worth it! It cost me exactly nothing, everything was repurposed and upcycled. I did learn though small spaces are a big commitment of time and organization! How do you organize your space? Looking for more inspiration? Over at Decorelated they have many great storage units and ideas.
Thank you for stopping by! You can find me on IG @debraquartermain.
