In steps my dad (who is visiting us for a long winter's vacation from New Hampshire), along my wonderful hubby, with a brainstorm of an idea. Replace my desk with a homemade workstation, at counter-height, with storage underneath! BRILLIANT! Initially, my dad suggested kitchen base cabinets, but upon measuring how much space we could work with and figuring out the cost, it was going to be more than I could afford to spend. Then I remembered seeing something similar to what I needed on Jona's blog a while back. So off to Ikea we went!
A day of building and a day of organizing later, this is what I have!!! I'm so happy!!
The workstation itself is made up of 6 metal shelf carts from Ikea - 3 are 36" long by 14" deep ($39.99 each), and the other 3 are 18" long by 14" deep ($34.99 each). They are arranged in such a way that I have about 15" of leg room on the back side, where I'll be sitting and working. The top is one piece of 83"x44" pressboard and one piece of 83"x44" gloss white flat wall paneling (total of about $35.00), glued together with Liquid Nails. To attach the top to the shelves, my dad screwed eyescrews into the bottom of the worktop, then used 20-guage wire and wired the shelves to the worktop. He also wired the selves to each other, so they'd stay in place and not shift around.
I used double sided sticky tape to put my cutting mat (24"x36") on one end of the workstation, so that it won't move around. I LOVE that I can have it there all the time and not have to move it around (and not be working on top of it all the time like I was on my old craft desk)! I have my printer and my Cricut on the other end of the workstation, and still have TONS of workspace. I do need to get a new chair, because my old chair doesn't raise up high enough. The workstation is the perfect height for standing at, though - which I often like to do, especially when I'm cutting fabric, and my back used to get so sore from leaning over to cut fabric on my desk!
I have my sewing machine cabine at an L-shape to my workstation, which is the same as it was with my old craft desk. It works out well there for me.
The storage cubes to the right of my workstation. They mostly hold scrapbooking/papercrafting supplies, stamping supplies, embellishments, etc. (The cubes are from Target.)
You can see that my serger is now sitting on the long desk against the wall behind my workstation, so I basically will be sitting in the middle of all of my crafting "stuff." Isn't it AWESOME?!
This is the view from the working side of my workstation. I have the things I use most often on the working side...my sewing basket, Xyron, Sizzix, dies, Cricut cartridges, a box with elastics/zippers/etc., a box with cover-yourself buttons/magnets/etc., a drawer for purse handles, a basket for sewing works-in-progress, and space on the floor for big tubs of things like sheets, clothing blanks, and tulle/ribbon/etc.
On the front side of the workstation, the shelves hold mostly fabric...felt, flannel, a bag of tulle, some corduroy, chenille, and other varilous fabrics. There is a box of cloth diapers for making burp cloths, an art kit of the kids, and even an empty shelf (with empty plastic boxes).
The shelf on the end holds all fleece - bulky stuff!!
My serger on the back desk, which is built into the niche in the wall (this is supposed to be the formal dining room of the house). That cabinet is filled with items to be recycled or altered.
The kids' desk..not much has changed (although it's much cleaner now than it was a week ago).
The view from above, on the stairs.
So what do you think? I am IN LOVE!!!! Signing off to go do some crafting...
