My Craft Armoire

We recently moved Nate in to sleep in Ellie's room. That created an "empty" room that used to be the nursery. Problem is that he won't always be in Ellie's room and someday I may need to use three bedrooms again for my kids instead of two, so I didn't want to convert the room into a room I couldn't do without. (Because that would give Joe a reason to want to move and the last thing we need to do now is move yet again in our neighborhood). So, I have a craft/art room now!

We also recently got a flat screen TV. Joe wanted one that was a little bigger than our TV armoire could hold, so we had an extra armoire around. We tried it in our bedroom for a while thinking we might start watching TV in there, but we just don't. So, instead of attempting to sell the armoire on craigslist where everyone else is trying to get rid of their armoires, I made it into a craft armoire. It is made from really nice hardwood, and I am a wood snob so I was excited to get to use it.

Here it is closed in the old nursery. It is nice because I can hide all of my project mess from view.
This is the before shot. I forgot to take a picture before I added the wire rack to the back of the open area, but you can see how it was empty for a TV before.

Here is the after. I don't use my sewing machine a ton so I didn't need it to pull out, I may change my mind about that and install a pull out shelf. If I have a big sewing project, I have a portable table I can set up next to it.
I made extra room by using the little wood shelves from IKEA. The wire holder behind the sewing machine holds scissors, my photos that I am working on for scrapbooking, tape, some thread, glue and other odds and ends craft supplies that I regularly use. My cricut is easily accesible to pull down and plug into the outlet that is part of the armoire. When I am done, it can be tucked away up top and I have room to work on something else.

On one of the shelves that had previously been used to hold videos, I found a drawer organizer and it works as if there was a drawer there. I can put my thread, my stapler and my 3 hole punch there.

I use a rubbermaid container to store my scrapbook paper, but if I want to look through it, I can pull out the shelf and easily find what I need.

The nice thing about this project is that I had all of the supplies already there. I had been using the IKEA shelves but they were just sitting on a table and the paper container was usually on the floor. Now the mess is contained, but if I am in the middle of a project I can shut the armoire doors and come back to the project when I get a chance.