The economy’s in the tank. My business went with it … for various reasons, really. If you’re interested in reading about my tragic downfall, the crash and burn of the eshop is being documented on Indiepreneur.

Let’s be frank here. Now is NOT the time to be blowing money unnecessarily. As I planned the basement redo, I reevaluated every thing in my home. Was every piece of furniture functioning as well as I wanted it to?  Could some pieces be more efficiently re-purposed for my creative

space?

The dark green tall dresser has had a number of incarnations. It’s really a cheap (but surprising heavy) piece we picked up 14 years ago. (Man, I’m feeling old!)  Starting life as the lingerie chest it was meant to be and morphing into a linen closet for a time, it has housed craft items before, too.

Today it keeps rolls of delicate, gorgeous, vintage lace safe, neat and clean.  I’ve long had plans to decoupage the fronts of the drawers with vintage wallpaper … but haven’t gotta around to it yet. What!?  It’s only been 14 years. Give me a break! 

I got the little wooden chest (sitting on top of the dark green chest) at a garage sale for a buck. It was raw unfinished wood. A little black paint and cherub toile napkins ModPodged to the front and viola … a handy little piece that also has had many jobs in our home. Its last function was as a pencil/pen/marker/highlighter/writing instrument keeper in our home office.  But the drawers weren’t {cough} sanded very well, and they kind of stick.  Hubby hated it. The pens went flying more than once when he yanked out a drawer.

So, I decided the piece would be better used as a floss box. I’m even in the process of winding all my floss on little neatly numbered bobbins.  Ooooh, I’m so organized … almost anyway.  There’s a lot of floss to wind. Maybe I’ll make that my do-while-watching-TV-task after the almost-finished afghan is done.

To the left of the green chest is a small closet. Hubby put in one permanent shelf when we moved in to our tiny townhouse. It’s holding a couple of those plastic organizer bins there. The shelf was part of the old German shrank that fell apart during our last move. Reusing and re-purposing — that’s us baby!

To add storage to the lower part, I moved the closet cubes (the kind you get at Target … some assembly required) that held a portion of my yarn stash upstairs in the loft.  As you can see, the closet is the keeper of thready yarn — and all the adhesives any self-respecting crafty woman must own.

Covering the ugly, spider infested window well are those French curtains that used to hang in the bay window of our kitchen at the old house.

The wire gym rack was originally purchased for my booth at the antique mall, but it didn’t function well for that use. The wire shelves are uneven and merchandise teetered precariously.  Using it to hold my extensive collection of needlework magazines (vintage AND modern) works much better.

I love the graphic on the lace I used to drape the wire unit. However, I’ll be taking it off. It impedes access to the top shelves.

The square tins on top of the wire unit are re-purposed German cookie tins. Remember this one?  Well, these are a bit newer than my mom’s old sewing box.

They’re perfect for sewing notions. Putting them at this height is perfect for me. One swing of the hinged lids and I can see everything to find exactly what I’m looking for in an instant.  Love, love, LOVE those cookie tins!

The window ledge is deep enough to allow for a few smaller pieces of storage. The ceramic basket has long been a favorite of mine. It’s a lovely display of small bits of lace — some are thread crochet lace swatches made by me.

The tiny little house on the window ledge holds hand sewing needles and travel sewing kits. Again, quick to access for an emergency button or hem repair. It used to hold bulldog clips in the home office.

Still left to do is to hang my magnet boards on the walls. That’s it. There you have the grand tour of Creating a Creative Space.

I’d like to point out, again, that spray primer and spray paint were the only items purchased for this project.  The soft green color wall paint (that my photography doesn’t show very well) was left over from our old house.  All the furniture and storage pieces were re-purposed from other rooms in my house.

$25 and a lot of elbow grease later, I created my Zenful creative space.  Oooooommmmm.

{If you missed them, catch up with Part I and Part II of Creating a Creative Space. }