A Colorful and Fun Office and Hobby Room

These home owners did a fantastic job of turning a very common and 

mundane basement into a colorful and bright office and hobby room

with every day materials.  The space is not huge but they make good

use of the space with a good floor plan.

The colorful walls are simply peel and stick carpet floor tiles.  Not

only does it give the room a punch of color but it can double as 

a bulletin board.  The desks and peninsula are made of MDF 

boards. 

The bottom half of the wall is covered with beaded board 

and gives the room a nice detail and finish to the walls.

They used old scrabble boards with Scrabble 

tiles to caption and frame photos.

An inexpensive way to make wall art is to take a set of photos, prints,

 or in this case cards and pin them on the wall in an orderly fashion.

Believe it or not, this electronics charging station used to be

a bread box.  Holes were drilled at the bottom for the cords

to come through.  Clever isn't it?

One way to make a space uncluttered is to not store anything

on the desk or counter space - take it all away by storing the

supplies and tools in drawers or lifting it off the ground and 

storing it on the wall like in the image above.

What I especially love about this peg board is that it is clear 

and made of acrylic.  It is very modern and lets the colors of

the supplies pop up.

Hmmm do I see 1970's popcorn ceiling?  The owners were actually

very clever in using patterns and colors that didn't make the popcorn

ceiling stand out.  If there isn't any space in the ceiling to install 

recessed lighting, track lighting is a definite solution around that 

problem.

Have a container for everything.

Chair covers make a great way to put some color in a space.

Creative Time and Space
Making Room for Marking Art

If any of you have hobbies or crafts and art projects on the side

but need some inspiration to get organized and get started...
Creative Time and Space is a wonderful book to help you in

 the mindset, get organized and to get started.

Photos from DIY

Turning a Closet into a Desk

When it comes to ideas for utilizing space, I think the idea of

turning a closet into a desk is a fantastic one.  I especially love

this design from Country Living.  The color scheme is absolutely

gorgeous and I adore the wallpaper in the background.  What a 

great way to give the space a punch with a pattern on the wall.

Wall paper is from GrahamBrown.com

This was what the closet looked like prior to the redesign.  

You'll notice the doors on this closet are very standard to

many modern homes and track homes.

In this design, this wonderful paint was used on the inside 

of the doors and it would make sense to paint the ceiling and

walls inside the closet (with the exception of the wallpapered

wall.)  I love that the designer used a pegboard (Home Depot)

for the inside of the closet door.  Framing the pegboard with 

molding makes it look polished and chic.  

I love that a miniature chandelier was used in the design.  Why

not indeed?  There are so many glamorous lamp pendants out 

there, why not use one to punch up the design factor.  

LampsPlus.com is a great resource along with many other 

stores.

In the design, a pair of very standard file cabinets are used.

This set of cabinets are from Staples but any file cabinets

of this size from Ikea or elsewhere would work too.  You

can choose stationary cabinets or add on rollers as it is in

this case for movement.

In this design, durable Krylon paint with a Satin finish

was used to spray paint the filing cabinets a similar color

to the paint used on the inside of the closet doors.  It's such

an easy way to customize and spruce up off the shelf office

furniture.  Make sure you choose a suitable spray point for

metal finishes in this case.

The table top is a very simple matter of MDF board cut to fit

the length of the file cabinets.  You can paint it any color you

want and in this case white is used to match the color of the

shelves above the desk (Ikea shelves are used in this design.)

Adding a fun rug under the chair gives a further

punch of color and really makes the area feel

like an office space.

The wicker office chair is also from Ikea.  I love how the doors open

 up to serve as the "side walls" of this office space.  It makes the space 

feel cozy.  

The beauty of this space is that it's designed with completely off the 

shelf products with much of the customization done with paint.  This 

allows anyone to really turn a closet into a gorgeous desk space quite 

cheaply.  The DIY elements of this design are simple enough that 

anyone (including me which I'm not very handy) can do it.  

Photos from Country Living

Creative Spaces and Craft Rooms

I've always been fascinated with great studios and craft
rooms. The organization, tools of the trade and inspiration
in craft rooms really inspire me. This post showcases the
fabulous craft room of Jenny B Harris who has a wonderful
blog called All Sorts. Jenny is a children's book illustrator as
well as being very talented with crafts.

Isn't her work space so fun and inspiring?

Her sewing and ironing station.

What a creative way to store craft supplies!
It's a great way to showcase colors and texture.

I really love the red checkered pattern
against the green turquoise color.

I always wanted a dollhouse when I was young.
Who am I kidding, I'm still fascinated with them...

Totally cute! It takes skill to make a dollhouse!

Kaleidoscope: Ideas and Projects
to Spark Your Creativity

We can all use inspiration and creativity in
our lives. I have some favorite books on
creative ideas to share with you. Sometimes
looking at ideas and projects that others have
done can really spark some creative ideas.

12 Secrets of Highly Creative Women
A Portable Mentor

This is a really awesome book about crafty
and creative women who really took their
"craft" and really made a life around it.

The Organized & Inspired Scrapbooker

Into Scrapbooking? This is a fun book on
scrapbooking and creating a workspace
for your scrapbooking and supplies.

Where Women Create: Inspiring
Workspaces of Extraordinary Women

Last but not least is my absolutely favorite
book on studios and creative work spaces.
The studios and work spaces featured in the
book are absolutely gorgeous. This book is
definitely a must have if you're looking for
inspiration to design your own work space!

Have a delightful weekend~

Photos from All Sorts