This content series was part of our Back To School promotion. Read on to see how Dannyelle organized her craft room, a great project to kick off your new year, too.
It’s nearly back to school for us and something I always try to do this time of year is get things organized. I’ve actually been working on an office refresh for a little while and part of that included making over the closet of the room into a craft cupboard and homework station.
A few years ago, my sweet husband surprised me for my 40th birthday by turning his little study into an office space for me while I was away for the weekend – see the amazing reveal here. With the help of my girls and my super kind sister and brother-in-law, he shifted his workspace into a corner of our basement family room and re-did this little space for me.
The closet before
The office was great and with a reading chair, desk space, and shelves for craft supplies it became a favourite spot for just about everyone in the house. It also got pretty messy. The closet had some really great plastic drawer systems that helped a lot, but there was a ton of unused space too.
The craft closet after
I’m not the most handy…but I decided to tackle removing the hanging rod and making some simple shelves for the space so I could reorganize all my craft supplies. We re-did some of our other closets recently and so I re-used the boards we had from them to make shelves for this closet. I kept the plastic drawers for the bottom section and then added two more shelves above. What a difference!
After I had the shelves made, I measured my space and went to Kitchen Stuff Plus to find some storage solutions.
Fabric bins
On the very top row of the closet, I used these Home Basics Collapsable Storage Bins. They’re the perfect way to store items I don’t use very often, but still like to store in this cupboard. They come in a bunch of pretty patterns and were really inexpensive, too. I added a simple label to each one to try and keep me organized. 😉
Glass jars
In the next row, I used a selection of beautiful glass jars. I love these because they let us see exactly what we have. How many times have I picked up some craft supply to use for a project only to discover later that I already had it home. This way, we can see our inventory so easily.
The other great thing about these beautiful glass jars is that seeing what we have is inspiring. As soon as I got things organized, my girls got excited about supplies they’d forgotten about and were inspired to start new projects.
These smaller Kitchen Stuff Plus Chalkboard Glass Canister Set come with chalk board labels, so it makes it easy to label everything and change it in the future if we need to. I also love that you can grab them and bring them to your work space really easily.
These large Kitchen Stuff Plus Glass Canisters might be my very favourite. They’re perfect for anything you have a lot of. Why shouldn’t storage be beautiful as well as practical?
Plastic baskets
I also used several of the Sterilite Staking Plastic Storage Baskets, which are perfect for craft supplies. The handles fold down and make them stackable and the design lets me add some simple labels. I love that the bins are light-weight, making it easy to grab one and bring it to the work table.
In the centre, I added a Lazy Susan, which is perfect for getting at everything easily. I used some mason jars to hold pens, pencils, paint markers, paint brushes, and other supplies that are great to have at your finger tips.
Homework caddy
I also made a really simple homework caddy with the InterDesign Linus Pantry Organizer ‘Medium’ Cabinet Tote.
This little caddy was so easy to put together and is perfect for taking supplies to wherever anyone is working on their homework.
We added some of the essentials like gel pens, pencils, pencil crayons, pens, scissors, a ruler, a pencil sharpener, string, glue, and an eraser. Depending on the age of your kids, you might add crayons, a calculator, a math set, or even a cell phone charger.
Having everything corralled together means it can be carted off to the kitchen table, the study, or the desks in their bedrooms whenever it’s needed.
The homework caddy also helps eliminate the distraction of wandering around looking for supplies in the middle of a homework session.
I am so thrilled with this project. It feels so much more organized and inviting in this new craft cupboard and homework station. I’m sure that being able to see what we have and get at everything easily is going to make craft, art, and homework projects much easier -which is exactly what we want for back-to-school!
This whole office space is really coming together and I can’t wait to share the whole room’s refresh with you next week. What a difference having a beautiful and organized workspace can make. Let’s hope it leads to a productive and stress-free September for all of us. 😉
Looking for more ways to get organized for back-to-school?
Check out Easy Ways To Turn Organization Goals Into Reality Before School Starts.
Know an organization hack that we missed? Tag us @kspstuff on Instagram or get more inspiration on facebook.com.kitchenstuffplus.
