What do closet organizers, wire egg carriers, a baker's rack, closet doors, and bread boxes have in common?

The beginning of the remodel
What do closet organizers, wire egg carriers, a baker's rack, closet doors, and bread boxes have in common?  Well nothing really - but to me they are all the PERFECT (and inexpensive!) items to help me with remodeling my daughter's old toy room, into a lovely, new Arts & Crafts room! And all has been done with recycled, up-cycled, & re-purposed items!!




The room is SMALL (like 9 & 1/2 feet by 8 & 1/4 feet) with a small amount of extra space next to built-out closet, so creating usable space and lots of storage was essential!

I had little money to work with and for the most part, used things I had or things I found for cheap at thrift and salvage stores. 

In the pictures above, you can see:
  • A wooden hutch (to the left) I found at a garage sale 2 years ago for $20 (and had been part of the toy room).  
  • A metal, rolling cart I found at goodwill for $10.   
  • A mahogany chair from my dining room set (since I only have a dining "area" and I don't have room for all the chairs, I am using 2 in the new room).
  • A baker's rack that I've had for over 20 years (and was bought on clearance then). This is not only being used for storage, but is also acting as a table support.
  • a stack of craft-room organizers (which I love, and received as a birthday gift several years ago)
  • 2 hollow, wooden, closet doors (one I had bought at a garage sale last year, for $3... and one I bought at a salvage store for $7)  
  • on top of the closet doors you can see part of a closet organizer which I turned on it's side along with it's friend and made an L-shape that mimics the L-shape of the 2 closet doors.
  • Short bookcases act as table supports
  • And I found a table-leg (which I had to cut down slightly to act as an additional support for one of the closet-door/tabletops).
The new view into the room
Love the white, desk-organizer - it's vintage too!

Most of the baskets are Goodwill finds, although I did spend $1.50 each on the little card cabinets which I got at Daiso (a fabulous Japanese dollar store!!!)
I decided (with the help of my daughter) upon a color scheme of cremes & whites, with mocha walls and dark mocha tabletops.  And my daughter's favorite (current) color is aqua so we added pops of aquas and teals to bring the space to life.  Did you notice the rolling cart is now teal?  As are the egg crates, various wire and wicker baskets, and a bunch of little tea tins (which will hold office supplies).

Wire egg crates for garbage and paper recycling
we even found a way to mount the mirror.

The white box is a vintage bread box with a shelf inside
We have a mirror that we have no other place for (and REALLY wanted to be able to continue to use) - so we even found a place for that.  Plus the sliding, closet door makes a great location for a memo board!


I have glass votive holders and vases which will hold water for watercolor painting.  I am using my mother's old floral frogs (plus a few I purchased at flea markets) for holding paintbrushes and possibly some writing utensils, and the metal, aqua box on top of the bread box will be holding some new art-markers (when I get the chance to buy some). 




The new fabric for the chairs.






It's not quite done (I still need to paint the chairs & hutch cream, and recover the chairs with new fabric (yes, I did splurge a tiny bit there... but still used a coupon and got it for $3/yard) - but overall ... we LOVE it!!!








Just to be honest about what I did buy for this remodel:
  • The 4 little card cabinets
  • 2 wire baskets to act as shelves and hold my stickles glues (which I is one of my favorite embellishments EVER!!)
  • Fabric for the chairs (dining area and craft room)
  • Wooden crate (painted cream and added casters)
  • LED under-the-cabinet lights from IKEA (how did I ever manage before them?)
  • Paint - teals & aqua's (spray paints for the metal objects, and a couple of sample-sizes for other objects)
The rest was either all bought at thrift stores, or I shopped for in other rooms of my house.  Not bad at all!!!  This little room is holding all of my arts and crafts supplies (except sewing), my daughter's art supplies, my scrapbook supplies, and still has enough room for my daughter to store her school supplies and backpack.  She likes it so much that she is now using it to do her homework in (without being told to)!

I've already started working on my scrap-booking (which I've managed to put off for the last 4 years).  I'm so happy to have a beautiful (and warm) place to work in!  

Unfortunately for my poor hubby, it's motivating me to see what other rooms I can "fix". hehehehehe. 
Wish me luck - and let me know what ya think!
Rebecca
























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