Back for Part 2 of my Organisation and Storage idea post.  The last one (find it here if you missed it) focussed on ribbons, dies and smaller bits and bobs.  This post is about The Bigger Picture – the furniture.

My Craft space is a mix of custom and make-do bits and pieces.  It has a ‘real-life’ look rather than a sleek custom made look, but it is functional, so that’s the main thing.

The Desk

The biggest piece in the room is a corporate desk I picked up at an auction, crazy cheap compared with what it would cost to buy new. It is very solid! It fits into the corner, with overhead cupboard doors that lift upwards to open. The height of the desktop is enough for some matching pieces from the same auction. I bought 2 small credenza units and a sliding door cupboard.  For this room I ended up taking the doors off the cupboard and using it like a low bookshelf for ease of access.

The Organiser Unit

Sitting on this unit you can see my favourite custom piece, a unit made by Colcraft that holds inkpads and punches.  These are exquisitely handmade by Colin Cadd, in any number of configurations. They are very reasonably priced for the level of workmanship.  Colcraft also makes inserts for the next item on my faves list, the Expedit/Kallax units by IKEA.

The Awesome IKEA EXPEDIT/KALLAX

These units are awesome! The old name was Expedit, which was replaced with a very similar, functionally identical version called Kallax.   Inexpensive, multipurpose, and hide a multitude of different kinds of supplies, from paper storage boxes to books to tubs of random stuff.  The picture shown below isn’t mine (this one looks much neater!), but I use the same Drona tubs for many of the shelves.

A4 Cardstock and Paper

For all my A4 cardstock, I use pastic drawer units from either Officeworks or KMart, these fit neatly into the cubby holes with room for spare packs, or a pull out tray for craft magazines etc.

Dream Island?

I have also seen a great idea joining two of these units with a benchtop, forming an island with lots of storage.  There’s not enough space in my room for this, but it might work for your dream room?

12×12 Paper and Cardstock Storage

The top of my Expedit shelves are stacked with my 12×12 paper storage solutions. I use either the Cropper Hopper open racks with paper in the paper files, or plastic boxes like these Options ones.  I have to say I use the paper in the open rack more than the others, there are some treasures in there I have pretty much forgotten about, I’m sure!

Diecutting Station

An great idea for Diecutting machines and dies is to re-purpose a strong butcher’s trolley.  This one came from Aldi, but Ikea and Kmart have similar options.  It had drawers for the cutting plates and smaller bits and bobs, and shelves for boxes of dies. It meant my diecutting stuff was always close at hand, which meant I used them more often than I would if I needed to dig through a cupboard to get at all the bits.  I put a cutting mat on the top for protection. I also stored my hot glue gun and embossing tool in the drawers as it was a good working height to stand at.

The Best Craft Organizer Furniture

OK, this was a complete splurge!  But, it is amazing storage specifically designed for crafters, and by adding some dymo labels I can find anything in seconds.  The desk unit has room for many drawers in two different sizes – paper shelves are also available, and there is an optional hutch.  The tower unit again takes a number of inserts in various combinations.  Great stuff! Not available in many places in Australia, but Arnolds in QLD is the distributor.

There you go.  What do you think?  What ideas have you got that you would like to share with us?  Please feel free to comment below 🙂

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