Craft Room Makeover

I think I would get some graph paper and the measurements for the shelves and other items you're thinking of getting from Ikea off of their website and sketch it out to see how it flows on paper. I did that with my studio space when I was trying to figure things out and it really helped a lot to help me visualize things before I ever spent any money. Now that my cabinets and shelving units are all installed, it looks exactly like I thought it would. Now it's just a matter of getting everything unpacked, sorted and put away, and that's proving to be the bigger challenge!

I will third the graph paper suggestion! There are also some room planner sites online where you can do this digitally, but I prefer the paper route. I map out the size of my room on graph paper and then I cut the furniture out of another piece and label what each piece is. This way I can move them around and see how it would work in different spots around the room.

I actually keep these pieces and use them every time we move (we have moved a lot for DH's job). It's a huge time saver! I have them for almost every single piece of furniture we own.

Another thing you can do is mark out the space with painters tape on the floor. And even the height up your wall, if you want to see it that way. This is sometimes more helpful if you're a visual person.

I did something almost like this on one side of my room. I put in desk height cabinets along a 12' section of the wall that had cabinets on either end with an open area in the center to create a desk space for my sewing machines. The cabinets continue around the corner of the room in a solid bank (mostly drawer units with cabinets on the ends) along the adjacent 14' long wall. They are also desk height because it's easier on my back to have the diecut machine at desk height vs. counter height. Above all of this on both walls I added custom shelves to increase my storage space. The shelves are all 13" deep so if I want to use them for albums or 12x12 stuff it will all fit. I figured if I want to later I can add some different desktop type organizers on top of the counters for smaller stuff once I get things figured out. Or not.


I specifically didn't want the shelves to sit on top of the counters. In our old house I had a massive desk in my office with two shelves sitting on top of it against the wall like you've described. The problem I ran into with that was anytime there was stuff piled up on the desk (which felt like ALL the time), it made it impossible to get anything out that was stored on the shelf behind it. By having the shelves mounted on the wall above, it gives me the flexibility to use all of the available counter space without compromising accessibility to the things stored on the shelves.

Hope this helps!

this^^^^ worked for me!  Even on graph paper, I couldn't visualize it. 

This is a very good point. My wall shelves are mounted about a foot below the ceiling. There is still enough room up there to store things on top if I want but not so high that I'd need to stand on a chair to get things down. Most of the heavier things are stored down lower.