The New Scrap Room

Well, here it is, my own little spot of scrapbooking and organisation heaven. I'd been drooling over other peoples scrap spaces for months, and finally decided to bite the bullet and invest in some Expedit bookcases from Ikea. I downloaded the planner, measured my new room, played around with furniture locations and then Matt and I set off for Ikea - a four hour round trip, plus shopping and packing time! But so worth it.

The first photo is of my workspace. I keep my paper trimmer, tool caddy, and a basket with my punches (my current favourite tool) so they're all handy. The original plan was to buy an Expedit desk as well, which attaches to the bookcases. But as we wandering around Ikea, I found this awesome table in the bargain corner and...

it has an extension leaf! Two actually, so the other end next to the window extends as well. Room for a few around this table - anyone want to come out to the country and scrap?!

I've got all my books and magazines on one case (excuse the appalling photo, the light in the room is perfect for scrapping, but the camera doesn't like the glare)

And I keep most of my embellishments on this one - buttons, chipboard, ribbon etc. They're just in cheap storage containers from the auto shop. I keep my smaller embellishments in those plastic slide lock boxes that are only $2 at the cheapie shops. My stamps and flowers are in the pink binders, and I just use snap lock pockets that are designed to go into those binders. Way way cheaper than any scrapbook brand stamp storage, and just as effective. Think I might go out an buy some green folders instead though, and at a $1.50 each, I can afford to! I've got assorted ephemera in the big white boxes (only $3 each, again at a cheapie shop) It's all those bits and pieces that I might use on a layout one day - ticket stubs, wedding invites, brochures etc.

Last but not least, the mother of all bookcases, the large Expedit. 25 cubes in all. I foolishly thought originally that I'd be able to fit all my stash onto this one on its own. I guess I probably could have, but the room might not have looked quite so purty :-) All my patterned paper and cardstock are in my Kmart storage folders, and then kept in the baskets. Unfortunately I discovered that the folders don't quite fit into the cubes, so I had to go back to my old system of keeping stuff in the baskets. I keep all my kits, mini albums and other bits and pieces (extra adhesive, envelopes, product that's still packaged etc) in the baskets, cause I really need visually cleanliness to be able to create. All my wood mounted stamps are in two wire rack shelves for easy access. My photos are stored in some more cheap, big white boxes, and in some categorised albums - my version of Stacy Julian's Library of Memories system. There are a few empty cubes, where I hope to display either some favourite photos, or frame some favourite layouts and rotate them. And the cats love jumping onto the top of the bookcase, so I'm not game to put anything up there for fear it'll just get knocked over!

There are still a few things to be done. I scrap standing up, so I'd like to get some extension bits made for the feet of the table to raise it up about 15-20 cm. And although the windows are gorgeous and have this cool dappled frosted texture, I need to get some white blinds to block out light when I'm not using the room. Once again, they'll be Super Amart cheapies! The room has no overhead lighting, so I've rigged up a clip-on lamp to one bookcase and shine it up to the ceiling, which seems to work really well. Other than that, the other future ideas are non-essential but could be fun, maybe some sheer green curtains to trim the windows, and some green bits and pieces to brighten the place up and tone down the pink stuff.

Favourite things about this space? Aside from the cubes - I love having a clearly defined space for everything - some of my fave things are the room itself. There's cute white french doors that lead into our bedroom, and I love the windows (much more inspiring that the three nasty aluminium framed monsters in the old scrapbook room!) I also love the ceiling and walls - all VJ, and the ceiling is sloped because the room used to be a verandah way back when. The room's nice and comfortably warm in winter all through the day, and fairly cool in summer with the windows open for ventilation. There's even a trre outside the window that has gorgeous pink flowers through most of the summer. My scrap space is only half of the room, and we've used the big bookcase as a room divider, so the other half will become a guest lounge room.

Anyway, this is probably the last time this space will look quite so pristine, but I will try to keep it tidy!

Edited January 2010 - I've converted to being a seated scrapper, so the idea of adding extension blocks is now redundant, and I've discovered that I can reach all the bits and pieces I need when I sit at the far side of the table. A few extra trips to Ikea have been made in the last six months, and I've picked up two upholstered Nils chairs from the bargain corner for half price, one with arms, the other without. The latest addition has been some lovely olive green covers for the chairs. Stamp storage has been moved to two black plastic drawer set (you guessed it, cheapies from Big W!) and that keeps some stamping tools out of the way as well. I find it's easier to get at the stamps this way. I'm planning a blog post soon with more details on storage, especially photos of my clear stamp system - sooo much cheaper than using a branded scrapbook company's storage!