Stamping Space

We had some friends over this weekend for a fabulous evening of fajitas. I got to thinking I should share a few photos of my stamp room before real life set in and it got destroyed while everything was still ‘company ready’.  I always enjoy seeing how other addicts, like myself, deal with all the tools and clutter. My stamp room/office/wii room is right off of the back entry to our home and open to our kitchen and eat-in area. Multi-purpose is an understatement.

There are no doors to shut this room off from public view, so about 6 months ago, I got serious about hiding the clutter and having a room that would look presentable when we have friends and family over. This first photo (above) is what you would see if you stopped by to visit and came to my back door. We have a wrap around driveway, and back door friends are the best.

My mom found this kitchen island for me with great storage on clearance at a furniture store back in January. These open shelves house my die machines. There is cabinet storage on the sides of the island. It’s easy enough to use the counter top of the island for working and then slide the tools back to their shelves when not in use.

What I really loved about this island was the pull-out table top at the opposite end of the open shelves. This allows me to keep my laptop in this room. That means that most of my  clutter stays contained in one room vs. here and the dining room or family room. My family appreciates that. 🙂

These two black cabinet were ‘rescued’ from an office that my mom worked in several years ago. The drawers are great for tools I don’t need every day, misc. stamps sorted by manufacturer, general pen & pencils drawers, notebooks that need to be altered, envelopes, extra adhesives, packing tape, etc. I wish I were more organized because many of these drawers are actually empty. 🙂

So, this leads me to these three curtained doors. I think this solution would work for many of you who do not have a dedicated  room to call your own. Behind each of these three curtains is a closet that runs the length of the wall. The closet it 30″ deep. The far left side has a built in computer desk that my girls use and the far right curtain hides floor to ceiling shelves for general household storage. (I’m not going to show you those messes organized areas – they’re boring!)

The wall that creates this closet is not a support wall, and it would be a fairly easy, inexpensive renovation if you can afford to give up the actual room space. You could put doors on the open spaces, but the previous owners didn’t want to give up the floor space that the doors would require and neither did I. It’s easy enough to open the curtains when I want to use my desk and close them when I want to conceal my mess.

What’s behind curtain #2! My stamp desk! My dad built the desk for me shortly after we moved in from remnant MDF board, and I hung the shelving. This isn’t one of those matchy-matchy Martha Stewart spaces, but it works for me.  I keep my 12×12 and 6×6 papers in rubbermade type totes on the floor. It’s easy for me to reach under there and grab what I need. My Sew-mini stays on the floor, to the right, and the stack drawers on the floor to the left hold punches, acrylic blocks, stamp sets that are stored in CD cases and rolled ribbon.

So there you have it – the good, the bad and the ugly. 🙂 That’s how I use my space with options to keep it contained and cleaned up.  Maybe one or two of the items will give you an idea to incorporate into your own room.