My New Kitchen Scrap Space
Since I talked all about the recent moving and transformation of my scrap space on this week’s Paperclipping Roundtable episode, I figured pictures were probably due of it as well!
Up until last fall, I’d had a scrap space in our spare bedroom that doubled as my office as well. (I wrote about it awhile back – it had changed some since then, but the basic idea of the space remained the same.) Then when my husband started working with me full-time for awhile before he was sentenced, he asked me to start sharing his office with him for both convenience and so that we could spend as much time as possible together. To our surprise, we both loved the arrangement and have decided to make the joint office permanent.
That left only my scrap stuff in the spare room – until the family tag feud in November and December required a work space that could seat two people so we could both work on our tags together. We took over the kitchen table “temporarily” as a joint workspace. And something amazing happened…I discovered I scrapped more, and got more done, than I ever had when I was hidden away in the spare room.
All of the reasoning and methods of my move to the kitchen are pretty thoroughly detailed in the Roundtable episode on shared scrap spaces, but here’s the photos of what I’ve done for my new space, which is still actually a bit of a work in progress.
To take this photo I stood in front of the TV. When I scrapbook at the kitchen table, I sit in the chair with my back to the window. That puts the multi-color drawer unit within reach to my left, and I can see the TV easily too. Between the windows and the track light in that end of the kitchen, there is tons of light to work with, even at night. The desk area has a light as well, which is helpful when I’m using that area.
These two units make up a key portion of my scrapbook storage in the kitchen. They provide surfaces to store my die cut machine and my trimmer in easy reach, and I keep my in-progress album projects and some stamp binders here as well.
The cubes I already had and was using in the scrap area in the spare room. The cart is a Cropper Hopper 12×12 drawer unit that was a Black Friday special at Joann’s last fall that I bought especially because I knew it would be perfect for using in my kitchen (which tells you when I began plotting this move to my kitchen).
The cart is turned sideways so that the drawers face toward the chair that I sit in for easy use. The drawers are labeled for easy identification of contents. Some of them are full of embellishments, and some are full of stamping tools. This is all stuff that I use very frequently, placed close for easy access. One drawer is all of my Distress inks, another couple are all my Tim Holtz idea-ology embellishments, and then there are a few drawers of embellishments by theme (like love, vintage, and journaling items).
Next there is the built-in desk area in the kitchen that I took over for my scrapbook supplies as well:
This “desk” is way too small and cramped to sit at – I’ve always just used it for storage. Two functions needed to stay here: the phone and recycling bin/soda storage. But everything else is now scrapbook related in this area. The rolling crate under the desk used to hold my paper scraps in my spare room. I purged them majorly and the remaining ones are now stored in an embellishment file in that room. That allowed the cart to be put to better use.
The cart now holds my most frequently reached for paper and some 12×12 sticker sheets, arranged in legal hanging files and with Cropper Hopper paper dividers as file markers. (Really, is anyone shocked that the entire front half of this crate is Tim Holtz? I didn’t think so.) The rest of my paper is still in storage in my spare room, kind of pitching back-up if the crate doesn’t have what I want. The crate is from an office supply store. I had to buy the wheels separately. I can’t remember where.
The desk area in front is kept clear as a work area, but in back is used for storage. Besides the necessary phone (besides the master bedroom, that is the only phone jack in the house), there is my stash of index cards for scratch paper, a basket of stamps, a basket for electrical tools, and a tool bucket. I also have one of my photo albums stashed here that contains a partial index of my stamp collection. This contains the part of the collection that I use most often, for quick reference.
In the basket, I keep my embossing tool and my hot glue gun. I can plug them in the outlet on the wall above the desk and use them right on the desk. The bucket holds my frequently used small tools like scissors, pens & pencil, ruler, piercer, and bone folder. It can be moved to the table for more convenient use if I want. The bucket is a $1 item from Target, and the baskets on the desk are from Michael’s.
The drawer in the desk area is also devoted to scrapbook storage for some of my most frequently used items.
On the far left is an area where I store our two Ranger Inkssentials Non Stick Craft Sheets rolled up when they aren’t in use. Next to that is a drawer organizer that holds my Sizzlets strip dies and the cutting pads for using them. The rest of the bins hold various important tools like adhesive and some Tim Holtz tools that I use frequently.
The cupboard above the desk is also devoted to my scrapbook supplies as well. It’s filled with a variety of baskets. The small ones on the middle shelf are actually drawer organizers from Walmart. (I use a lot of drawer organizers in my home – they are everywhere. I find them very helpful for dealing with small items with my ADHD.) The big baskets are by Sterilite (can’t remember which store).
The top shelf is basically embellishments such as brads, buttons and other bulky items. The left and center part of the middle shelf are small containers of various mediums like Stickles and Distress Crackle Paint. The one wide basket contains the elements from my Project Life kit. Next to it are the index books for my Cricut cartridges, and my Sizzix embossing folders, standing on their side in one of the organizers.
The bottom shelf contains very frequently used items. On the left is a basket with cleaning supplies for my stamps. In the middle is a basket for large stamps, such as card backgrounds. On the right, the basket holds my Sizzix dies.
My kitchen scrap area isn’t quite complete. I’m still tweaking and making changes as I settle into it. I’m still deciding what all needs to be brought out from the spare room into the kitchen, and what of the stuff that is left in the spare room will be kept. In the end my scrap area will be much smaller – and much more efficient – than when I started these changes. That is something that I never could have imagined I would want…but I love it!
