Organizing a Craft Room Armoire
Methods to Maximize Storage Space for Tools and Supplies
Mar 10, 2008
If you're like most people, you don't have space for an entire craft room. A dedicated, organized place somewhere in your home, however, can work just as effectively. Here's how we organized craft supplies inside an armoire. You'll be pleased with the variety of tools and supplies that an armoire like the one pictured below keeps organized and accessible for many types of craft projects. (The accompanying descriptions correspond to the photos in order from left to right at the end of the article.)
Small wicker drawers are useful for holding many types of craft supplies. Each drawer can be removed and transported to the place where you're working on a craft project. 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 also find similar drawers made from wood in craft stores.
Don't forget about the backs of the doors when organizing an armoire. Here, a wooden dowel stores rolls of ribbons. We carefully placed the dowel where it would enable the door to close correctly. Below, a cutting mat and a craft ruler are stored on hooks. A plastic wall-mounted file unit from an office-supply store holds rolls of paper and gift bags. Make sure that the doors of your armoire are sturdy enough to support mounted objects.
A variety of plastic bins keep supplies organized in the drawers of the armoire. Each bin contains a special category of materials such as craft paint supplies, flower-arranging supplies, and safety glasses and protective masks. The drawer bottoms are protected with pieces of styrene light panels to prevent scrapes or spills from harming the bottoms of the drawers.
One shelf stores magazine holders to keep craft books organized. The shelves in our armoire had to be rearranged to accommodate the holders. Using an armoire with adjustable shelves allows you to move the shelves around inside the armoire to make the most use of space when you arrange your craft supplies inside the armoire.
On the opposite armoire door, we attached eye hooks and placed heavy-gauge wire between them so that we could hang a pad of drawing paper. Small, round containers (pictured on the shelf below the top shelf opposite the pad of paper) contain labels, made from a Brother P-Touch labeler, identifying each container's contents.
SOURCES
Craft Room Inside an Armoire Source Guide
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