The nice thing about kids leaving the nest is that it leaves a lot more room for the people still at home. Since India and York flew the coop, we’ve had a lot of shuffling and redecorating of rooms. Let’s just say I find myself at Home Depot just about every day for one project or another.

The ultra good news is that we ended up with a spare bedroom (well, kind of. Ada and Arabella are still horrified to be sharing a room but that’s good for sisters, right?). Since my craft stuff is located in several locations throughout the house, Mister suggested that I take the bedroom off the kitchen and turn it into my craft room. While this was a generous suggestion, it is really in everyone’s best interests because they’re tired of cleaning sewing/jewelrymaking/papercrafting stuff off the table every day. And I hate having to clean up my projects when the kids get home from school because I know that if I leave things out, they’ll get spilled on or lost or messed up.

So I’ve been formulating plans for my idea craft room for a few weeks. I’ve found lots of great ideas online but most people have one hobby that they mainly do: scrapbooking or sewing or making jewelry, and their craft rooms reflect that. I do some of everything. And I’m getting into making lotions and beauty products a lot more and I really would love a sink in my craft room too. We shall see about that . . .

But the main thing is that I’ve gotten to decided exactly what I want without having to consult anyone and it is a dream come true. Although Mister lets me pretty much have free reign, decorating-wise, I do have to consider his feelings and pick things that he’ll at least sort of like. But this craft room is all about me. And I wanted my craft room to be cheerful! So I’m going with a nice sunny yellow with a few green accents here and there.

I tried to find some wallpaper I liked but no dice. And with textured walls a stencil simply won’t work. So they vision in my head ultimately ended up having to be free-handed. I traced the basic shape with a pencil so everything would look pretty uniform. And then I spent several days painting ovals. It was as boring as it sounds. (Yay for audiobooks to keep me company!)

For the floor I ordered several VCT (Vinyl Composite Tiles) from Armstrong. They’re considered “commercial”. They sent lots of free 6×6 samples and I narrowed it down to “Lemon Yellow” and “White Out”. Laying vinyl tiles wasn’t hard but there is a learning curve. And also, you have to coat your entire floor with the stickiest glue that has ever been created by man. I had it all over my hands, feet, shoes and clothes. I couldn’t get undressed to take a shower because all my clothes were sticking to my hands and feet. Finally I’d get one pasts leg off and then the bathmat would be stuck to my foot. I’d try to pull it off and it would be stuck to my hand. It was ridiculous and I felt like a cartoon character. I pretty much had to wipe myself and bathroom floors down with mineral spirits.

I can’t move my stuff back into the craft room until Sunday to give the floors a chance to cure. Which means there are huge baskets and crates of fabric and crafting miscellany exploding all over the kitchen/eating area. My family loves it.

So here’s a sneak peek of my craft room, pre-furniture (which I am asking for for Christmas so it’s going to be a while before the big reveal).