So here's PHASE 1 of the Closet Craft Room. At this point, NO prettyfication has taken place - none. For this phase, we focused on modifying the storage and coming up with a work surface solution. Continuing to organize (not everything's been put back into the room yet) and prettyfication will be the next step (in phases I'm sure :-))... I used a hodge podge of items that I already had and my husband added some unfinished wood pieces to the work surface, so I'm sure there will be some paint (possibly some fabric?) used to make things more cohesive. I can't just go crazy with it because it has to blend with whatever I do for the guest room makeover which has yet been undecided.
Here's the breakdown of what we've done so far.
STEP ONE: Replaced part of the white closet shelving with a deep shelf to match the existing ones. This still has to function as a guest room closet, so part of the white shelving needed to stay for guests to hang their clothes. The shelves obviously don't provide any solution for storing/organizing smaller items, so I took the rollers off of these rolling carts that I already had, and used them on one of the shelves - perfect for smaller storage and didn't cost me a dime! There's actually enough room to add more so I may buy another one and put it on that shelf if I feel like I need more small storage. I haven't actually ORGANIZED this storage yet, so I'll be working on that.
STEP TWO: The space below the bottom shelf was basically wasted. To make the best use of the space, we decided to hang plastic storage bins from these brackets that my husband made. They're not the prettiest things I've ever seen but we needed a specific size and they needed to be very sturdy, especially the rim that slides on the bracket. These were the ones we were able to find. He did an awesome job and sliding them in and out is a piece of cake!
They're working great for pillow form and fabric storage...
STEP 3: Work surface solution. This was tricky because this is still a guest closet so we needed something that would provide a decent size work surface and still be out of the way when we had guests. Enter this old desk top that I already had had from our previous house, but hadn't found a place for since we moved. My hubby made legs and bracketed them to the desk top. We attached velcro to the bottom of the desk top and the bottom of the legs so that we could just velcro them up when folding the work surface down. He then modified the back of the desk top and bracketed it to the wall. Based on the desk top size, it's mounted close to the floor so that it would be the right height when raised.
This is how the craft room/guest closet looks when the work surface is down. Nice and open!
And when it's up... a great work surface! The legs look a little spindly but they're working well and needed to be that size so that the work surface would fit snugly against the wall when it's down.
Notice the chair? Another one of the Pottery Barn chairs that I had left over from my previous house. You may remember that I used two of them for my mudroom bench. This one will be used in the craft room when I'm in there and moved back into the guest room when we have guests, so it's probably going to get modified in some way, but not sure exactly how yet.
Edit: Some of you let me know that you are interested in tutorials for hanging the undermount bins and the work surface. I'm working on those and will try to get them posted soon. I've also got some prettyfication ideas for the space that I'll be putting into action, so stay tuned!
I'll be editing this post to link to these blog parties as they happen. Linking to:
Make Your Monday at Twice Remembered
DIY Day at A Soft Place to Land
Get Your Craft on at Today's Creative Blog
Strut Your Stuff Thursday at Somewhat Simple
Funky Junk's Saturday Night Special
So Fresh So Clean Party at Thrify Decor Chick
