Welcome To My Basement Scraproom!

                                   
Hi Bloggers!

Welcome to the 5th annual "Where Blogger's Create" blog hop hosted by the fantastic and talented Karen Valentine!   She can be found over at My Desert Cottage.  I am so excited to share with you my scraproom, aka my "Happy Place"!   When we bought this house a year and a half ago, I didn't know where I was going to put my scrap room until my husband decided that he would build some shelving units, put up some sheeting to cover the exposed joists and help me set up the furniture.  

Now, this room isn't by any means gorgeous.  It's not a professional studio either.  It's not a perfectly painted, matching room that was once a guest room or a child's room.  My room is in the basement.  And I don't mind one tiny bit.  I have more room down here than I ever did in my previous home.   I've decorated my space with lots of yard sale and thrift store finds as well as re-using items from around the house.  I love repurposing something and using it in unique ways.  I consider my creative space a "budget-friendly/thrifty/shabby chic" kind of room.

We had a white carpet left from my daughter's room when she moved out so I put that down to cover up most of the ugly red and gray cement floor.  My work table is a plastic table that folds in half that I bought at Walmart.  I dressed it up by using up some fabric that I've been hoarding for the last 27 years!  I'm not kidding.

I attached the skirt around the edge of the table using Velcro strips and covered the raw stitched edges with fabric ribbon.  These items have been sitting in a plastic tub for years and I finally had the opportunity to use them.  What luck! 

More about the table later.  Let's start with entering the basement to my happy place:

When you open the door to the basement, this is what you'll see. Straight ahead is
an old chair that I covered with a pillow sham purchased at a yard sale.  Not sure if I'll keep it on the chair or not.  The chair sits at a desk that my father made and was a Christmas gift to me when I was 9 years old.  It holds punches and other assorted items that I couldn't find a 'home' for.   To the right is the corner to my table.

If you look at the picture above and see where that small table is against the half 'wall' with a shoe holder?  Okay, well that's where I'm standing looking at the room from this angle:

Above is another shelving unit my husband made which is over to the left when you come into the basement.  I just added an old shower curtain and tied it to the rod with ribbons.  This hides the stuff I don't use that often as well as storage items.  You can

see what I mean below:

This is what you don't see in the room because it's on a unit facing our oil burner.  These shelves hold page kits and mini album kits that my daughter and I have bought over the years at the Creating Keepsakes Conventions.  Yes, we have enough here to keep us busy for a long, long time!

Below is a picture of the small table I bought at a yard sale which I covered with a window valance (really!) and added a round table cloth on top of it.  The tin vase I bought at a thrift store and it holds accordion flowers that I recently made for my daughter's bridal shower.

I cut a shoe holder in half and mounted it to this 'wall'.  The pockets hold glue guns, a drill, and my heat guns.  Hanging to the left is an apron that I got at a Tim Holtz class last year at the Absolutely Everything store in Topsfield, Mass.  It's signed by Tim himself!  The "wall" is actually a piece of foam board that I nailed to the wood frame of the shelving unit (not seen) and is covered in contact paper. 

 

The next photo shows a narrow walkway between my childhood desk and the shelving units.  Actually the Sterilite containers that I used to have separated sitting on shelves in my old room are now stacked one on top of the other in 4 columns.  I have a lot of containers!  They fit perfect between the two shelving units. 

 

But, directly to the left are these shelves holding several photo boxes full of, ...you guessed it!   Photos!  I have the boxes labeled by the years the photos were taken.  Here and there I've added some old cameras.  On the very bottom, sitting on the floor are some bags---these hold a ton of scraps that I really need to go through.  I have the scraps stored by color in large 2 gallon baggies.  

 

This is the top of that same unit (above).  I have clear containers holding a wide variety of flowers which I'm in the process of storing by color.  Another shelf holds my scrapbook albums, some of which are still empty and waiting to be filled with layouts.

Below is another picture of my childhood desk.  On the corner sits an old strainer holding some altered file folders that I recently received in a swap. 

                            Here's a close-up of the strainer and the file folders:

Next to the desk is my work table.  On this table sits another two tier shelf.  This small wooden crate box is on the side of that and holds various ephemera.  The stand above that is a jewelry hanger, but I'm using it to display my favorite ephemera.

 

The next picture is standing at the back wall and looking down to where I was 'standing' earlier taking the pictures. 

 

These are the four columns of Sterilite containers mentioned above.  I covered the fronts of each container with scrap paper then added labels which are actually tags from Michael's found in the dollar bin.  I used three colors throughout the room:  blues, sage green and pinks. 

This unit holds a variety of boxes and containers.  The 3 large white boxes in the center hold my daughter's chipboard.  Between the two of us, we have sooooo much stuff, I'm not sure if we'll use it all.  The decorative boxes on the third shelf were bought at yard sales.  These boxes hold assorted lace trim.  The basket hold small rolls of ribbon.  And, way over to the right are three altered boxes--two of which are cigar boxes and one is a wooden purse.  These were all swap items. 

Below is a white book case that once belonged to my daughter.  The smaller Sterilite containers fit perfectly on these shelves almost as if the bookcase was designed for them.  These containers hold a wide variety of embellishments, tags, diecuts, envelopes, cards, etc and are sorted by theme. Some of the boxes aren't labeled yet.

 

 

I love to have items in my room that have some sentimental value to me.  This little shelf unit was bought at a thrift store and holds my favorite stamps.  The house in front I bought at a yard sale and actually opens for storage but right now it's empty.

This little cabinet was bought at a yard sale (did I tell you how much I LOVE yard sales?!)  and on top sits two of my favorite (and many) teddy bears. 

              And here's the inside of that cabinet:  A collection of little teddy bears!

 

This picture is another tall bookcase that once belonged to my daughter and now I use it for storing jars of buttons, jars of other embellies.  All the containers were purchased at yard sales over the years.  I also LOVE birdhouses and have them scattered around my room.  And, yes, most were bought at yard sales and thrift stores.

 The next picture shows the back wall and the window which looks to the backyard.

The window is covered with a set of old curtains I once had hanging in my kitchen in our first house 20 years ago!!  I hung a eucalyptus swap over it to 'dress it up' a bit.  The table is a plastic folding table covered in a sheet.  The sheet hides items underneath.  I have an 'inspiration board beneath the window, a paint spinner and a handmade "Clip It Up" holding a variety of stickers.   Check out the close up pics for more details.

 

Below is a mini beach chair holding a Red Sox ball from a game I went to a few years ago.  I love the Red Sox!  In front is a ceramic dog that a friend of mine made me when I was 11 years old.

  There 's a small 'dresser' style jewelry box (bought at a thrift store) that displays small items received from various swaps over the years.  The altered Altoid tin in the front is a tribute to Tim Holtz. 

 

This is the view on the other side of the room (behind that wall is the stairway coming down to the basement).  The paneled walls are old and will eventually be replaced with sheetrock. 

 More bookcases and 3 paper racks.  To the right of the photo is the door (white) that I came in from.

Below shows the 2 tier shelf unit that holds containers of  my tools, glue runners, sponge daubers, markers and a lot of other miscellaneous stuff.  On top of the shelf is a metal spinner (right) that hold my Ranger ink pads, tapes, and Ranger alcohol inks.

 My daughter bought these little turtles made from shells for Christmas one year--there's a turtle for each member of the family.  Below is a box of cards that I've saved over the years from girls who have sent me swap items.  The box is overflowing.
                              

This is the project we made last year at Tim Holtz's class.  It was a great class and not that difficult to do.  It sits proudly on my work table.

                         The top of my desk.  Nice and clean, but not for long!

           The view standing by the wall of bookcases looking to my desk:

 

 

 

This little black table that once belonged to my daughter, sits between the smaller folding table and a set of book cases.  This table holds my machines such as the Cricut, the Cuttlebug (not shown as their upstairs being used), my sewing machine, extra cutters and my Cinch machine.  Two cloth dolls rest on the machines.

These two 'bookcases' are actually the two ends of an entertainment center that we had in the old house.  We didn't have any use for the 'center' so we got rid of that and I kept these to store my magazines, books, manuals, blank art books, and photo albums.  The three drawer Sterilite container holds chipboard albums, tp rolls and assorted sizes of cardboard.

This small white bookcase holds a ton of mini albums that I've made or were made for me from various swaps over the years. 

This brown bookcase holds more mini albums and paper packs.  The bottom shelf stores page protectors, 12x12 chipboard, photo paper and well, a lot of other paper related 'stuff'!

Below is a wall hanging that I made years ago.  It's photos of my great-grandmother, my grandfather and grandmother as children and as adults. 

                                    Other items hanging on the paneled wall.

Ink storage.  I bought this wooden item from a thrift store a long time ago and used it to store my inks.  I have more inks, which are stored in a box.

These are my paper racks.  The two white ones I bought from a store for $25.00.  The black one was bought at Walmart.  All this and I still need more racks!

 This is what sits on the left of my desk:  There's an old wooden tray table that has an altered cigar box, a vintage sewing box and a jewelry box.  The green doll is actually a "Wishnik" doll that I've had since I was a young child.  I also altered some tin cans and put them on a lazy susan.  These cans hold rulers, scissors, paintbrushes, etc.

 Here's a better look at the boxes:  The vintage sewing box holds trim that I love to look at and didn't want to put away.  The jewelry box holds faux pearls, gem flowers.

 

 The picture below shows the ceiling covered in sheeting which enhances the lighting and the assorted birdhouses and cages.

This is the Sterilite container that is in front of my work table.  It is full of chipboard mini albums (blank).  They are stuffed to the brim!

                                  This vintage suitcase holds assorted stencils.

Well, that's it!  I hope you enjoyed the tour.  Sorry about the quality of some of the photos.  I took these at night to be ready to post today.  I'm now  off to visit some other wonderful creative spaces.