Drum Roll Please...Introducing MY CRAFTROOM!!!

Yes it finally happened, it's all done!  I'm so excited.  Mostly the delay hinged on my stitching chair.  You all know how important this seat is to our stitching.  So why the delay?  I have a chair and ottoman in my family room that I love.  Super comfy, arms at just the right height and the right scale for my craftroom too.  We (myself and my interior designer friend, Sharon, check out her website/blog) chose fabric and ordered it FEBRUARY 19th!!!  Long story short, the company who was supposed to make the chair up told us "pick up on Monday" (May), "there's a problem with the fabric" (June) etc.  It came down to the fact that they were lying and now my friend no longer uses them as a supplier.  Sucks to be them!

For before pictures look here and here.

View from the doorway:

Two weeks ago I walked into The Brick (Canadian furniture store) with my DD, did a sweep of the store and just as I was about to walk out I spotted this chair (below) from their Loft collection, it was perfect and the ottoman was 1/2 price when purchasing a chair.  Score! 

The frames/shadow boxes have scrapbooking paper in them in black, white and pink and tons of different patterns.  I went to Home Depot to get picture hanging supplies and the guy helping me practically cried he was laughing so hard when I described the job I had for hubby.  Therefore, I reconsidered and decided to do it myself.  I Googled "hanging pictures gallery style" and got great tips.  I traced every frame on craftpaper and cut them out, numbered them, layed out their corresponding frame in a pattern on the floor, taped a straight line across the wall, stuck the paper frames on the wall (bless you, green painter tape!), and started hanging.  I even used a level!  Oh, and bless 3M Picture Hanging Strips too!  I used them where ever I could.  The actual hanging of the frames probably took 2 hours and I only have a minimal amount of "extra holes." 

My desk.  It measures about 5 x10 and is from Ikea.  I knew I wanted tons of storage to fit underneath and the Helmer and Alex drawer units fit the bill!  (Desk design was by my friend, I just specified the drawer units I wanted.)

I really wanted a bar height "island" to work at.  Sharon figured out the bar table and stools from Ikea .  This way the kids can join me, though I thought long and hard before assembling the second stool, LOL.  I have a very hard time thinking "outside of the box" and would never have come up with this.  Thanks Sharon!  I already had the bookshelves (Ikea again), just added the doors.

Sewing corner.  Hubby hung these shelves for me! ;-)  And put my desk together, Thanks babe!  See my trusty Bernina (it's circa 1960's) sitting there?  My gramma gave it (along with her great-grandmothers fabric scissors) to me when she went into a nursing home.  It means a lot to me.  She helped me make burping cloths, receiving blankets, etc when I was expecting DD on that very machine.

I was going to make my own bulletin & chalkboard then I figured out home much it would cost to buy cork, chalkboard paint, frames, etc.  I lucked upon this huge one at Home Sense (like Home Goods) and snapped it up.  Actually, like my usual, I thought "Self, this would be PERFECT! You should get it!" I replied "Great idea."  Then talked myself out of it and emailed Sharon for some design hand-holding.  Guess what she told me...?  For being such a decisive person, when it comes to my house, I suck!

My stitching buddy, Oscar.  He was tired from sleeping all night.  And all morning...

It's been a long time coming but so worth it.  I officially used it for the first time yesterday.  I sat a the bar table with my stitching and a cup of tea for 1 1/2 hours.  It was awesome!

Thanks to my dad for the use of his truck for the trips to Ikea, Sharon for all your expertise (she also found about 90% of the knick knacks for me) and hubby for all your help hanging shelves, putting my desk together and accompanying me to Ikea!

Let me know what YOU think!