Where Kim K. creates...my craft room tour

Are you ready for lots of pictures? This will be a long post of photos and explanations. As promised, I spent Saturday afternoon cleaning and organizing my special room in preparation for a mini photoshoot. I hope you enjoy the tour of my craft room and favorite collections. I'm not lying when I say it's my favorite room in my entire house. Between you and me, I can't believe how many items I've added to the room since I took pictures last spring. Allegan Antique market and Changing Thymes in Grandville must really like my business...hee hee!

When we were designing my craft room (which used to be a former guest room) I spent hours pouring through the blog "where woman create". Another one of my craft room inspirations was Jenny B from allsorts. She's a children's illustrator and her studio is just delightful. She has many of the same items that I collect...paper lanterns, vintage hankies, dollhouses..etc. You can find more pictures of her studio, here.

Because my craft room only has 1 window and it's located in our finished basement, I chose yellow for a light-sunny atmosphere. The other color palates in my room include melon and green apple. I started collecting Chinese checkerboards as a way to compliment my paper lanterns and the outfits that we purchased for Emma and Josie when we were in China.

Speaking of checkerboards, I managed to find another checkerboard over the weekend at my favorite Mission Thrift store. It was .50 cents and I just love the graphics on the box.

The suitcase is filled with sheet music and extra scrapbooking paper. Next to the suitcase is my turntable and radio. The girls and I just love playing records while we're hanging out in my craft room. If you look carefully, you'll also notice the paper kite hanging from the ceiling.

The paper kite was purchased in Beijing and it wasn't the easiest thing to transport home but the graphics and detail are just gorgeous.

Next to the kite, is my owl clock and my window. I'm using vintage hankies as a curtain valance.

I have a few collections sitting in my window sill. The wooden bunny toy was given to me last year for my birthday (thanks, Chris).

The yellow house on the end was designed by my mother. She's certainly my biggest inspiration when it comes to crafting. She's so talented. Nothing is beyond her ability. Her oil paintings are amazing and don't even get my started bragging on her miniatures and her quilts. We grew up doing lots and lots of craft projects and I hope my girls enjoy doing them as much as I did. Love ya, Mom!

Directly in front of the window is my counter/cabinet.

The cabinet originally was in my grandparents clothing store so it has a special place in my heart. Chris painted it to coordinate with my craft room colors and we added a laminate top large enough to accommodate stools.

On one end of the counter is a roll for paper and the other end has a series of buckets for easy reach for the girls. The paper roll and buckets both came from Ikea.

I added the lace around the buckets because I didn't want them scratching up the side of the counter. Next to the counter are my two hutches. I have two Fern Bisel Peat drawings and framed on the wall. The quilt hanging next to my chair was created by my mother.

The new white hutch is filled with my Christmas crafting supplies. I love getting busy with glue and glitter so that I can create cardboard houses and Christmas bottle brush trees.

Some of my houses are vintage finds that just needed a little tender-loving care to get them looking festive again.

Lodged between my two hutches is a comfy chair, a cozy quilt and my new lamp. My lamp was a recent find in Traverse city at a new antique mall (thanks for the tip, Lee).

In theory, I'd love to sit there and read, but it hasn't happened yet. My cat, Penny tends to enjoy the chair more than I do.

The dollhouse on the floor was a steal from the Allegan Antique market.

The dollhouse interior is completely bare, but at Christmas the exterior gets decorated and sits on my sunroom shelf. I just love the red and green graphics. Next to my white hutch and chair is my melon painted hutch.

It's filled with all kinds of crafting supplies.

Next to my hutch is a bunch of toys. It's one of my favorite corners in my room. You just can't help but smile when you see all the fun playthings.


The final wall of the craft room features a bookcase filled with every single Mary Engelbreit Home Companion in publication (can you tell how much I still miss that magazine??) and my favorite craft books.

On top of the bookshelf is a doll dresser, an owl teapot and a few other favorite goodies.

The shelf above the bookcase is filled with items that I had on display in Emma's baby nursery. They include my baby dishes, my silver cup and rattle and a few porcelain baby shoes.

Next to the shelf is my kitty collection.

I have several other vintage children's records hanging on the bulkhead.

Next to the bookcase is the infamous closet.

This is what I spent 3 hours organizing on Saturday.

It's the girls craft supplies and they were a HUGE mess. I can now proudly say that everything is in its proper bin. Not sure how long it will last, but it looks pretty darn good right now.

As you can see I love fun containers and I love to have them on display whenever possible.

I also tend to pull out seasonal items to have on display depending on the holiday that I'm crafting for.

So my tour concludes. This room is where the magic begins and where I stay until the wee hours of the night. Thanks so much for stopping by. I can hardly wait to get this room messy again.

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Be sure to check out other great craft rooms!