Workspace Wednesday | Barbara Picinich

Hi everyone, I’m excited to take you on a little tour of my work/craft space. My space hasn’t always looked like this and thankfully I have a handy husband who helped transform the space into something that was exactly what I needed it to be. The space is on the second floor of our home, and is open to the entryway below. This is great because I can still hear everything that is going on downstairs but I’m far enough away from the main living space that my mess is hidden, bonus!

The space isn’t super wide as you can see but it’s big enough to hold what I need and because it’s on the small side I can’t let it get too out of control and it keeps me from hording too much stuff. The best decision I ever made was ripping up the carpet and having my husband lay the tile. It’s so much easier to clean and my chair rolls around so much better.

The other great change was the bookshelf/counter space that he built for me. The storage is amazing and the large work surface on top is a total bonus. I tend to do all of my work on the computer seated but the assembly and other stuff happens standing up. I really like that I’m able to move around a lot when I’m working.

The storage on the shelves has been found mostly in the dollar spot at Target, the white wire mesh baskets are my favorite and they seem to come and go a few times throughout the year so keep and eye out for them. They fit perfectly on the depth of my shelves and they seem to be the right size to hold everything from washi tape, 6x6 pads and alphas. My Raskog cart sits right outside the space and I moved all of my 12x12 paper to the top shelf, I like having it at arm’s reach but it’s out of the main space so it’s not taking up a ton of space.

The top surface has plenty of space for my stash of embellishments, my Tonic paper trimmer, a few containers from Land of Nod to hold Project Life cards and the tools that I reach for all the time.

Since I’m right handed my most used items are to my right for easy reach. That spinning rack is such a space saver, I really love it because it holds a ton of stuff in a really small vertical area.

One of my favorite features of the shelf unit is the little pull out tray my husband built for my Cameo. It was important to me that it be ready to go at all times because I don’t preplan or precut anything so I knew that if it wasn’t ready to go at a moment’s notice I wouldn’t use it. We planned for it to go in this exact spot because it was right next to my computer which meant it could always be plugged in and ready to go. I just pull out the tray, turn it on, load my mat and cut.

I also love to listen to music while I work so that little blue tooth speaker combined with iTunes radio is a match made in heaven.

It’s nice that when I need to do my computer work or want to sit I also have plenty of room for that too. I tend to leave my projects here so the space on the counter is purely for assembly and detail work. My Project Life album sits here as I assemble it and add things to each pocket. There is also room here for my daughter to sit and work with me when she wants to.

At the beginning of the year I decided to really purge and eliminate a lot of clutter from my space. You may not see it here but wow, can this space get messy. Having my craft mess meant that any other clutter on the walls and on the shelves was really making me feel overwhelmed. I removed everything from the space and only put back what I really wanted or needed to have here. I especially focused on the shelves over my printer and added the white storage bins from IKEA to contain and hide things I really didn’t need to see. Keeping my desk space as clean and uncluttered works best for me and only the essentials came back. And yes I guess a collections of disco balls are an essential.

I also totally changed out the art I had hanging here and decided to use the bull dog clips hung on tiny nails so that I could change it up or add to it as I wanted to. Many of the things here are pieces from kits I have hoarded because I loved them, quotes I found on Pinterest that I turned into art myself, images that mean something to me or words that keep me going and inspired.

Thanks for taking my little tour, if you have any questions on anything you see please let me know.