We turned our front sitting room into an elegant and stylish office and craft space with loads of vintage style and storage! I'm sharing all my organizing ideas.

You know that sigh of relief when a difficult task is complete? That feeling of accomplishment that makes you sit up a little straighter...and brings a big 'ole smile to your face? I'm feeling happy today because my office/craft space is finally finished!

This room is technically and officially a dining room. However, it's so small that unless you're a family of gnomes, I'm not sure any dining can take place in here.

My new office is just off the kitchen, and gets wonderful light. I was wanting a more grown-up office space to craft and blog in (you can see my old craft area here ).

Creating a home office/craft room

Selling the two slip-covered chairs on Craigslist afforded me the money I needed to purchase the new-to-me desk (also on Craigslist). You might remember a post I wrote on affordable desks . I needed something small in this space, and really loved the look of the turquoise one. I was thrilled to find this one as is! No painting necessary!!

So let's take a look at what's going on in this room, shall we?

Welcome to my home office! This is where I blog, read, craft and generally like to hang out!


While the space is tiny you can see that I managed to fit a lot of stuff in here. And that is after I went through and purged my supplies!

The painted hutch is a beautiful way to hide away craft and painting products. I have my paints in here, as well as other craft supplies. You can go here to see how I organized my craft supplies by color inside the hutch as well as around the room.


I've tried to incorporate farmhouse charm into this space as much as possible, without spending a lot of money, so I've re-used things I already had.

The panel behind my chair is a piece from our antique piano that I saved. The piano no longer worked and we gave it away to someone who was going to make it into a desk. He didn't need that decorative piece, so I propped it up against the wall and I like how it fills the dead space behind the chair!

The other big workhorse in this room is this pine bookshelf. I found it at IKEA many years ago and love the farmhouse feel it has.

The shelves hold more craft supplies, again organized by color. I used baskets with chalkboard labels to make it easy for me to find what I need. I reused a pair of wood crates that were pink toy storage in a former life. You can see how they were updated here.


I had difficulty finding the right place to put my turquoise desk. Behind the chair are a pair of french doors, and the wall to the right is open to the kitchen. The main issue was that I didn't want to be looking into the house while I sat at the desk. I knew that I would be distracted and unable to work if I put the desk that way.

I liked the desk in front of the window but found I had difficulty seeing my computer screen because of the light, so it had to be moved.

I ended up floating the desk, not in the very middle of the room, but a little to the left closer to the window. Although it's probably not fung shui appropriate, I like it where it is. I have ample light without it being too bright to blog, and I'm able to view both my supplies and my DIY memo board. where I list all my upcoming posts, products to buy, and other reminders.



Here's a peek behind my desk. This wall holds my antique window, and I hung some sheer curtains over the french doors to give some privacy.

You can see how nicely my area rug stays put on top of the carpeting, without buckling or shifting. That's thanks to this incredible and inexpensive product that I found on Amazon!


A comfy chair was a must and this one from IKEA (the Jenny Lund) is small enough that it doesn't stick out too far. It's a great place to relax, read some of my favorite decor books and plan my next project!


This vintage chandelier was a score on either Craigslist or Ebay several years ago.

I love the sparkly touch of glamour it adds to the space, giving it a feminine touch.


My desk may be small, but it has great storage. I was using it for a couple weeks before realizing that the center is also a drawer! Yep, duh! It's large and almost doubles the capacity of what I can store inside!

You can see that I'm using a triple-tier basket to hold my large collection of ribbons (at least some of them!).


The kitchen is right next door, which is very handy for snacking, lol! I need to be careful about that though; I recently spilled some coffee across my laptop...thankfully it still works! At least it wasn't Coke Zero with cherries!! It would have probably eaten right through my hard drive!!


I'm happy to have another room makeover complete! I wish I could tell you that I can now relax and enjoy spending time crafting and blogging in a dedicated office space...but I'm a DIY-er, so there's always another project!

Here's a list of all the projects I completed for this office reveal. You can click on each one for more details and a tutorial!

DIY Projects in Office/Craft Space

• Vintage spice rack for button storage
•   Updating an antique window
•   DIY dry-erase, magnetic memo board from an old picture
• Organizing craft supplies by color
•   Wood slice clock
• How to keep area rugs from buckling
• Wood crate update

I hope these ideas are helpful if you're looking to carve out a home office or craft space (or both) in your own home! An under-utlitized room is a great way to create a space that will function how you need it to.

bringing beauty to the ordinary,