Hello friends!

Today we’re taking a peek into my imagination station! I’ll give you a little bit of its history and show you how I completely revamped the look, feel and function by honing in on a tight color palette and removing visual clutter.

First off, let me just say that I KNOW how blessed I am to have a dedicated play room! As a young married and then a mother, my crafting was always tucked into bins and boxes and brought out to the kitchen table as time allowed. Having a dedicated room to craft in, write in and generally dream in is delightful!

The Before

When we moved in to this house in July 2022, I knew that this corner bedroom would be my space and I wanted to celebrate. I created an extremely colorful collage of a room. I installed yardage of Waverly Candid Moments on one wall like wallpaper. It looked great- really festive and fun. On top, I hung a large mirror with an ornate frame that I had painted with pink chalk paint. I used the mirror like a bulletin board with lots of photos and inspiring images. At the window, I hung a rainbow of paper Chinese lanterns at different lengths. To that I had a garland of pom pom trim, gold glitter stars and a pennant garland. It was a lot!

I had always wanted cube storage and this was my first time buying any. I had an idea to fill the cubes with boxes covered in a rainbow of different fabrics. I was excited to have a visual collage of beautiful fabrics to look at when working in here. I did a major cleanup and purge of craft supplies and materials to get everything to fit in the cubes and in the room’s closet.

And at first, I loved it! It was so fun and colorful. It was a party!

What I Learned

And then some interesting things happened. First, I found that I wasn’t tidying up as I worked on projects. It felt difficult to delineate the deliberately chaotic away from the project mess. I also found myself feeling that I could not stretch out for projects. I had packed the tiny room so full, it was hard to work in. Then my son moved out and I started decorating the guest room. I made a very serene neutral room and discovered that I wanted to work in there! I liked the lack of visual stimulation- it calmed me and made me feel like I could think out and execute bigger projects.

Changing the Layout

With this new information, I made some changes. I changed the room layout first and instead of floating in the room, I put my work table against the wall and my dresser/cutting table on my right. I put my file cabinet to my left and my craft cart is next to that so it’s accessible when I need it. I now had my tools close at hand and I had floor space! The floor space made a huge difference in the way I felt about the room.

I also nabbed a little bookcase from another part of the house and I use it for my sewing patterns and magazines.

Reducing Visual Clutter

One wall of my craft room is a living collage of artwork and dolls and collected treasures and I didn’t want to lose that, but I did clean it up a bit. The other wall, where I had the busy fabric and the mirror, I removed the fabric, the mirror, the wall hooks and pockets. Currently I have my beloved Kelly Rae Roberts angel print and a beautiful old platter. Soon there will be a pink wicker cupboard above my printer for more supplies. I don’t plan on adding much more than that. The platter might be replaced by something else, but we’ll see.

Implementing the Cottagecore Aesthetic

I unified the furniture in the room with fresh paint. I love the chalk paints from Chalk Mountain. I buy mine on Amazon and I used Mellow White for the furniture. After the furniture, I transformed many, many items with more chalk paint. I used Sapphire (that’s the darker blue) and Sea Glass. I did not seal the furniture and accessories with wax this time. Because this is such a hard working room, I used this matte varnish.

Aside from paint, the biggest improvement came from making the curtain panels that cover my cube storage. Part of being a craft hoarder means that I have a lot of stuff waiting in the wings for creative reuse. I had the cafe curtain rods and a pack of self-adhesive hooks to hang the curtains on AND I had this perfect fabric in my stash. It came from the thrift store years ago. I’ve always loved the look of it, and it provides the MOST calming effect in this room.

As you know, I pride myself on reusing, reducing and recycling as much as possible. After all, it’s kind of the whole premise behind this blog! However, even I am not immune to the lure of Temu in my Pinterest feed. I purchased the window curtain panels from Temu and I do like them, but I’m not sure they’re exactly the right choice for the room. I think I have a little buyer’s remorse there. I think I’d be happier with plain white muslin or more of my beloved blue gingham liked I used for my scalloped tray.

I definitely have more reorganizing to do in this room, but overall, I’m so pleased with how paint and fabric transformed this space. I start every day in this room doing my morning practice and a large portion of my weekend too working on projects and writing this blog. I feel calm and centered here which is good because I have a lot of ongoing projects. You’ll be seeing and hearing about them soon so stay tuned! If you’ve made it to the end of this long, long post, “bless you”! I’d love to hear what you think of this space and I hope you’ll tell me a little about your creative space.

Till next time, take care!