First, I designed this baby…
It was custom designed around all the crafts that I do presently with lots of storage and cubbies and places to hang things. It was 14’ of practical goodness that had me excited! But then the real world caught up with me and my space shrunk. I need to keep part of the non-fiction library in my space so what was my 14’-10” wall has decreased to a mere 6’-10”… So I have to work with that.
So I tried this:
It was cost effective, allowed me to take advantage of the vertical wall space and had lot of drawer units to hide my goodies in. But the downfall is twofold. First, the availability of the pieces isn’t great. When I inquired with the retailer, I was told they had 50 in stock. This was over six weeks ago and not only was I not prepared to purchase (as I wasn’t decided) but this store serves all point north of Red Deer, the Northwest Territories and all of Saskatchewan. So I’m not confident that when I go to buy that those 50 will still be there!
I also started thinking about the stability of the product – it is cost effective but at what cost? Furthermore, I’m likely to just have a bunch of drawers stuffed with items leading to jam-packed chaos. I also worry about dust.
Dust + fabric = too much work for me
So then I started looking around to see what else is out there for effective, contained storage that provides flexibility, growth, possible expansion and still fits my budget. I want it to have a flat surface so I can set things down or perhaps work on something at counter/standing height. Although colour isn’t a big concern for me, my sewing table and cutting table are white laminate with wood-like edging – at the other end of the basement I’ve got black/brown storage units so as long as it all works and provides balance (and of course, solves my problem). I’m also not keen on gobs of plastic storage bins. I have several large plastic totes for my crafts now and it solves nothing. It keeps my fabric clean but that’s it. Everything else is helter skelter and I can never find what I need, when I need it.
I began looking around for inspiration – Crafty Storage has some wonderful and fantastic links to other blogs where fellow crafters and artisans have changed their spaces into glorious places of creation. I found this place and this with several really cool ideas for storage. This would be totally awesome but I'd have to refinance my house to pay for it.
I ended up back at Ikea.ca to shop. It seems Ikea is very popular with many people. Probably because it is reasonable priced, of reasonable quality and it meets a certain aesthetic appeal. Now I've tried several combinations. Dressers and bookshelves, wardrobes and and side boards. The fact is I have a finite budget and anything I can put together is either too big or too expensive. I've found it all very disappointing and frustrating. I know what I want but I can't seem to find it! I think I may go back and try to custom design a smaller scale dream unit. Even if the materials cost me a few hundred at least I'll be specifically meeting the need I have.
I'd hoped to get to some green ideas this week but my storage dilemma has really been the focus of my week! We'll get back to that in a few weeks.
Next week, we'll be looking at colour in action when Paul from Clever by Design and I butt heads over paint, colour and the design ideas a graphic designer versus an interior designer!
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