Hello there! It’s Meghann Andrew, and I’m excited to give you a peek into my creative space today! This room is just big enough for what I need, and has a large window to allow lots of natural light into my space. I prefer to keep my creative area quite light and bright, so I opted to keep the magnolia-colored walls and beige carpet.
This is the view that you see when you walk into my space. All of my furniture is against the walls of the room, keeping the middle open for my daughter to play, or for my office assistant, a big English Golden Retriever, to nap in the afternoons while I am working.
On the left side of the doorway, my Expedit shelving unit takes up most of the wall. This is where my main supply storage is located, and houses anything from monthly kits to patterned paper scraps, stamps and my “vintage” American Crafts collections. I try to keep this unit well organized, and each square holds items in a certain category.
To the right of this is the only piece of furniture that I have in my office that isn’t white: my late grandmother’s sewing table. Although the broken hydraulics inside the unit prevent me from keeping her sewing machine inside, I use the inner shelves to store pocket page sleeves, and at the top, monthly kits and an organized current scrapbooking collection. On the wall above, I have a wire wall frame that holds cherished photos and handmade cards that I’ve received.
My standing desk is where most of my crafting takes place. I prefer to stand when I’m scrapbooking, and having this tall table right next to natural light from my window is ideal. All of my most used tools are right on my desktop, and I always have my process video camera set up and ready to go on its downward-facing tripod. On the wall, an Ikea Fintorp hanging wall unit holds additional tools and mixed media supplies, as well as my washi tape stash. The large shelf above houses my handmade cards, organized by subject in tins and a black antique lunchbox.
My long sitting desk is perfect for editing photos on the large monitor that hooks up to my MacBook, and for planning my next layout. This is my favorite part of my office, as the wall above houses a gallery of photos and artwork favorite places I’ve visited and a saying that I love, “It’s not what the world holds for you, it’s what you bring to it.”
On the wall to the right of my desk is my wall organizer unit. This holds all of my ink pads, embossing powder and glitter, as well as small things like mini staples—all in a cute little row of teal ceramic bowls.
Below the shelving unit is my Ikea Alex drawer unit that is reserved specifically for the latest American Crafts product. Each drawer houses one or two current collections. I LOVE opening these drawers, as the creative possibilities inside them are endless!
On the top of the unit, I keep my die-cutting machine handy and ready to plug straight into my laptop.
I have a small closet in the room, which we’ve built shelves in to store my scrapbook albums, but the doors have also been retrofitted for organization! We adhered two slats of wood with 3M strips to either side of the door, then added metal brackets to hold dowel rods which house all of my bakers twine and ribbon—most of my stash being from American Crafts of course! The bottom dowel even holds a paper towel roll and my cleaning supplies for quick cleanup.
I’ve learned quite a few things over the years of working in my creative space:
- Always organize for the way that you work. I organize my supplies first by manufacturer, then by color. This allows me to grab exactly what I need quickly.
- Keep like-minded things together, like an entire collection, or all of your wafer thin dies in the same place. This helps you work faster and locate what you need.
- Organization does not have to be expensive! With just a few dollars, I created the perfect solution for storing all of my ribbon spools on the back of my closet door. Don’t overlook the simple solutions!
Thanks for taking a look in my space, and happy creating in your own!