Craft Room Inside an Armoire
Create a Simple Storage Solution for Supplies and Tools
Create a craft room inside an armoire that contains the essential tools necessary for doing many types of craft projects. Plus, learn how to maximize storage space.
If you're like most people, you don't have space in your home for a craft room. A dedicated, organized place somewhere in your home, however, can work just as effectively. Today, we'll explain how to turn an armoire into a storage space for easy access to all your craft tools and supplies.
Using an armoire with shelves already installed makes the task even easier. If your armoire contains adjustable shelves (as our armoire did), you can simply move the shelves to accommodate the sizes and shapes of the items you plan to store in the armoire, such as magazine holders to keep craft books organized. In our armoire, we inserted a set of wicker drawers containing Velcro, raffia, twine and other similar supplies; we identified the contents of each drawer with a label. Since each drawer has a small opening that works as a handle, the end of a piece of twine can be pulled from the opening as if from a twine dispenser.
You can find similar sets of drawers at craft stores or some home interior stores such as Ikea or Pier 1 Imports. Some come in natural-colored wood, and they can be painted or stained to match your desired color scheme. The drawers can be removed, so the drawers can be pulled out and transported to the place where you will be working on a project.
On a shelf above the wicker drawers, we inserted several plastic bins that hold a variety of tools and supplies, such as wood-carving tools, a gold-leaf kit and candle-making materials. Since the bins are clear, you can easily find what you need; a Brother P-Touch label identifies the contents of each bin.
No space in our armoire gets wasted, including the backs of the doors. A wooden dowel stores rolls of ribbon; a plastic wall organizer, sold as a wall-mounted office in-bin, holds rolls of paper and paper gift bags. A craft ruler and a protective cutting mat, which prevents work surfaces from being marred when working with a utility knife, hang on hooks on the inside of one door.
On the opposite door of the armoire, we attached two eye hooks and placed heavy-gauge wire between them to hang a large pad of drawing paper. (Before attaching items on the doors, be sure that the door hinges are sturdy and screwed in tightly to the armoire.)
We protected the drawer bottoms in the armoire with pieces of styrene light panels (the panels can be trimmed to size with a plastic cutting tool). We organized the drawers with a variety of plastic bins, each of which contains a different category of materials, such as flower-arranging supplies, craft paint supplies, and safety glasses and protective masks. The top drawer stores a variety of gift-wrapping supplies, including paper, tape, scissors and ribbon. A box kept in the drawer keeps scraps of wrapping paper and ribbon organized so that they can be turned into gift labels, cards and materials for other craft projects.
Look for armoires such as this one in home furnishing stores, catalogs and retailers online. Antique shops also have old country armoires in their inventory on occasion, so don't overlook these places in your search.
View the photos below to see how we arranged the inside of our armoire.
Learn more about organizing a craft room inside an armoire.
SOURCES
Craft Room Inside an Armoire Source Guide
Wicker basket drawers
White storage tins
Self-healing cutting mat
Gold-leaf kit
Martha Stewart craft ruler
from Michael's
800-642-4235
Small plastic bins
Round plastic bins
Available at housewares stores
Craft scissors
Paper edgers
Available at crafts stores
Tamor plastic shoe boxes
from Letcher's
800-548-2436
Wood-carving tools
from Pearl Paint
800-221-6845
Wall-mounted plastic file units
Available at Staples
Washable art markers
Available at local crafts and art-supply stores
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