Drum roll please.... wait! Before I do the big reveal, I must make sure you know what a great husband I have. He loves me so much that he agreed to remodel my scrapbook room / office / guestroom. Before the room was dark and had a hunting/fishing theme. (By the way, neither of us hunt or fish.) It was the only room in the house that we hadn't re-done in the 11 years that we have lived here. I wish I could find the "before" pictures but judging from the "during" pictures (below). It has come a long way!
Honestly, all I asked for was more light and to take down the wallpaper and paint it pink. Here he was doing electrical. He went way above and beyond what I expected!
And now....
C'est si bon! (That's French for "It's so good!)
My room has a shabby chic / vintage / French theme. We did nearly all the work ourselves and it cost about $1000 --including the built-in cabinet and desk (off of craigslist). We re-purposed many items, including the sign I made below. It was the side of an old dresser.
The room is also very space efficient. In the picture above, you can see a fold down table tucked behind the door. The room has 2 entrances so I just lock the door and I can leave projects up on the table away from little hands.
Below is my main work area. It is a 10 foot long desk with under-cabinet lighting. The cabinets above store my tools within easy reach. See those large boxes on top of the cabinets? I store the kids' artwork in them. We are always short on storage in our house so I needed to integrate a lot of other stuff in the room too.
I store embellishments and stickers in the binders.
Adhesives, inks, some stamps, embossing powders, etc... all labeled neatly (a little obsessive, eh?)
There are 3 ways I store ribbon now. The
pretty way: (I love the old blue jars from my parent's cellar)
The
practical way:
And the
useful, not-so-pretty, but shoved in a cabinet way:
6 big drawers for storage of bulky stuff like punches. 2 of the drawers are file cabinet drawers for bills, taxes, and not so fun paper.
This is some of the fun paper:
The shelves are full of pretty storage bowls and fun ephemera and embellishments that I don't want to forget to use.
Are you wondering what is behind that big curtain? Nope it's not a window. It used to be a closet but now, it is a bed. Brentt built a Murphy bed and it is a queen size bed that folds down for company. Remember- this room is not just for my crafts.
There is also a small cabinet inside the closet for storage.
The large 2 door cabinet below is on wheels and is moved when the bed comes down. The table under the window is also movable when company comes. When we do not have visitors, that table makes an excellent sewing station since there is an outlet so close.
The book shelf behind this other door was just plain ugly but I needed it for storage. It was one of those pieces of furniture we bought in college and is still lingering in the house. So, I decoupaged the sides with paper from an old book and made a pretty sign for it.
Also, we cannot forget my "room-mate", our cat Lizard. Her food is in this room too--right under the chipboard storage. Nice and low so our chubby cat doesn't have to jump for it.
C'est magnifique, n'est ce pas? Thank you so much for all your hardwork Brentt!
I've already started messing it up with new projects. Visit again soon to see what I have made.
Cheers!
Christy
If you knew Brentt and I before we had kids, you would know how much we loved going to France to vacation. I speak French so it was a place that we got to know deeper than the average tourist. Someday we will return again. Remodeling my scrapbook room (see the previous post) brought back some memories of Paris. Of course, I was dying to mess up my new room and here is one of my first projects. 
It is a 9 by 12 inch canvas with a lot of texture and techniques. The background is crackle painted and dry brushed with silver paint. I love to marry sparkly bling with an antiqued look. The keys above are a sweet souvenir from Paris from my dear friend Cydne. 
I couldn't find a flower that coordinated well with the lace and the rest of the canvas so I made one from a doily and some old paper ones I found in my stash. 
It will make some great artwork in my new scrap room. Thanks for checking in!
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