The craft closet is D-O-N-E!  (WARNING!:  LOTS OF WAY TOO DETAILED PICTURES ARE INCLUDED IN THIS POST.)  And not a moment too soon.  We’ll have guests overnight this weekend who won’t have to trip over this mess…

Instead, they’ll get to use this closet…

Yep, you’ve gotta wait a little longer for the full ‘after’ shots (or just scroll down if you’re impatient)!  I wanna talk function before I get into the nitty-gritty details.  This closet is located in our guest room/playroom/craft room.  Since the room serves a lot of different functions, the closet must also.  It absolutely needs to store my sewing machine, sewing basket, fabric scraps, scrapbooking materials, cardmaking supplies and guests’ hanging clothes.  That’s the minimum.  However, once I started thinking about organizing the closet, I threw in a few other purposes as well:  gift wrap station and home decor storage.  I know what you’re thinking, “That’s a lot to ask for from a meager closet!”  Luckily, the closet was a good size to begin with…you could probably consider it a small walk-in closet…but it needed organized storage to bring it to full working potential.  Immediately, I designated each wall of the closet to a particular task(s).  When I did that, it occurred to me that the closet door would have to be removed in order to use the right-hand wall.  (See how the closet door opens into the closet in the first picture?)  So, that was the first thing I did.  I emptied the entire closet, unscrewed the door at its hinges and then painted the walls Benjamin Moore’s Wild Aster.  (To save money, I took my Benjamin Moore paint swatch to Lowe’s and had them color match it.)

Then I set to work carrying up all my scrapbooking, sewing, cardmaking, gift wrapping and home decor supplies from the basement.  That’s 2 flights of stairs each trip, people!  And it took a million trips!  And, no, Handy Hubby had no part in it.  At one point the room looked like this…

That wasn’t even half of what I carried.  I tediously went through each and every plastic bin and drawer in an effort to re-organize and downsize my creative arsenal.  In the end, I had 6 empty storage bins and was finally ready to fill the closet.  I reused my hard-working (yet slightly eyesore-ish) stackable plastic drawers for the scrapbooking and cardmaking supplies.  I purchased a heavy duty 4-tier metal shelf from Lowe’s along with 3 metal storage bins and 2 cabinet organizing racks for home decor storage and a gift wrapping station .  Here’s what my multi-purpose craft closet looks like now…

Let’s take a tour, shall we?  Counter-clockwise (because I’m a lefty and we lefties like to do things bass ackwards), here we go.  I hung the cabinet racks (originally meant to screw onto the inside of kitchen cabinet doors to hold spices, foil, wax paper, etc.) on the right-hand wall to serve as my gift wrapping station.  (I was inspired by a recent Young House Love post.) 

I pulled each individual ribbon through the rack to keep any tangling at bay.

The wrapping paper is held in place with 2 hooks and a piece of ribbon.  No more fumbling around in my dark, dingy, unfinished basement to wrap a birthday gift. (Don’t I need to get some cute wrapping paper?!  No wonder the presents I gift are hideous!)

The back wall of the craft closet is home to my plastic drawers full of scrapbook paper, stamps, ink pads, custom cutters/hole punchers and other cardmaking doo-dads. 

I added cheap (but fun!) artwork above the stacked drawers by way of spray painting 3 Goodwill frames gloss white then adding scrap fabric behind the glass.  A trio of IKEA cork trivets holds business cards of my favorite Etsy sellers.

Yes!  Artwork in a closet is totally acceptable.

Just above the artwork is the original closet wire rack.  It holds a few baskets of home decor items not being used at the moment.

Yep.  That’s a lil’ basket-in-basket action goin’ on.

For more fun (really? are you having fun yet?), I hung a capiz wind chime from the wire rack.

IKEA wooden hangers hung in the corner provide a spot for guests to hang their clothes if needed.

Below the hangers is one of the metal bins I purchased from Lowe’s.  It holds oversized items that won’t fit in the plastic drawers.  A bolt of fabric and a roll of grasscloth round out the corner.

The third (and final) wall of my craft closet is where the industrial metal shelving lives.  This baby is tough!  Each shelf can hold 350 pounds individually…I could hold tons of fabric for ransom!! 

I slid a bunch of flattened shirt boxes under the bottom shelf.

I found these circular magnets at IKEA to label each shelf.  I simply used a dry erase marker to designate the contents.  If I ever need to change it up, the marker just wipes right off!  The bottom shelf holds my sewing machine and sewer’s basket.

Next up are my paints and fabrics.

The top 2 shelves are devoted to home decor items. 

I used some fabric scraps to cushion breakables set inside one another.

I can go shopping in my own home now!  Whenever I feel the (ever-present) need to tweak the mantle or a tablescape, I can just run up to my craft closet and easily switch things out.  I’m also holding myself to a strict new rule: NO MORE GLASSWARE UNLESS IT FITS ON THE SHELF.  I think that means no new glassware.  Period.

Finally, I closed off the doorless closet with a printed fabric curtain hung from a tension rod.  A 3M hook and some ribbon act as a makeshift tie-back.

With the closet in order, I was able to organize my craft desk drawer too.  I repurposed boxes that once held thank-you notes.  (Now those cards live in my gift wrapping station.) 

My friends, you have seen every nook, niche and cranny of my craft closet…and then some.  It feels soooo good to have that space organized!  (Yes, I was the girl in elementary school who organized and re-organized her schoolbox over and over until each item fit perfectly.)  I still need to putty and paint the spots on the door frame where the closet door use to hang, but I met my self-proclaimed deadline.  I just may find our house guests up late at night making cards or sewing pillow covers!

Look what the UPS man brought me!

Wanna know what’s inside?  Well, first, let me explain myself.  You see, I’ve slowly been tweaking our TV wall in the family room.  Initially, I painted wide horizontal stripes.

Next, I added some black-and-white prints to each side of the flatscreen.

In a moment of creative bliss, I slipcovered two leather storage ottomans and filled ‘em with all our board games.  They fit perfectly beneath the framed prints.

Then I left it alone for a few months thinking the wall looked quite good.  But something was missing.  It was too straight and square with the linear stripes, the rectangular TV/console and the square frames/ottomans.  I kept thinking it needed some curves thrown in somewhere to soften all those harsh lines.  Maybe a clock, a starburst or… a MONOGRAM!  That was it!  At first, I thought I would paint one but on a whim I shopped around online for vinyl wall decals.  Amazingly, they were very affordable.  I decided the $$ would be worth the time and effort it would take me to DIY a monogram.  I knew I wanted something simple that had a diameter in the 22″-24″ range.  Plus, it needed to be quality white matte vinyl that was easy to install. 

I found all that and more at Dali Decals.  (See the direct link to the monogram I purchased here.)  With shipping/handling, taxes and the actual cost of the decal, I dropped less than $25 on this baby.  And it finally arrived!

Immediately, I set to stickin’ it up on the TV wall (while Layne was watching “Popeye”). 

The decal included easy-to-follow instructions.  First, I used a level, tape measure and pencil to mark out the top and bottom center points on the wall so I would know where to place the monogram.  Then, I pulled the blue paper backing away from the decal and transfer paper.

This revealed the sticky side (wall side) of the decal and transfer paper.  Using the aforementioned pencil marks as guides, I tacked the decal to the wall and stood back to eyeball it.  (Layne was now watching “Pink Panther.”  It really didn’t take me that long to measure.  Layne must have just caught the tail end of “Popeye.”)

Also included in the package was this nifty little smoothing device.  Yes, that’s its technical name. 

Starting in the middle and working my way out, I pulled it across the transfer paper to smooth out any and all air bubbles.  (A side note:  It’s difficult to take action shots of yourself!)

After I had squeezed out the wrinkles and bubbles, this decal was as smooth as a baby’s bottom.

Lastly, I pulled the transfer paper away from the wall, oh-so-sloooowly.   

Presto!  All that remained on the wall was the decal.  Here’s the new view from our couch…

The “M” monogram is so crisp and white.  I love it.  It adds some roundness to a lot of straight lines and picks up on the white ottomans.  I would have liked it a tad larger but 22″ must be some magic number in decal world… I couldn’t find anything I liked over 22″ under $50.  No hard feelings though.  This is my new crush.

So, for just $25 and 20 minutes, you can add a little oomph to any wall in your home.  Just think of all the places you could use wall decals:  nurseries, playrooms, bedrooms or even on mirrors!  And when you tire of them, simply peel ’em off to expose your undamaged wall.  I’ll be leaving mine up for a while though…