From Spare Room to Everyday Hobby Room

Your spare room can become a pretty and practical spot for wrapping, scrapping, and sewing. Stock cabinets, pegboard, and smart storage strategies make it work.
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The Ultimate Hobby Room

After a few cosmetic updates (engineered hardwood floor, paneled ceiling, and recessed lighting), this room is transformed into the perfect craft room. With the addition of three base cabinets and an island from a home center, tons of storage was added. At a few hundred dollars each, the cabinets offer generous storage and sturdy work surfaces. They don't have to be bolted to the wall, so they can be used elsewhere in the future. To make the most of the space it's divided into three sections: the wrap zone, scrap zone, and sew zone.

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Wrap Zone: All the Trimmings

The countertop is a roomy, comfortable surface for wrapping, and the wall of pegboard above it puts all the supplies in one place.

Easy Access Ribbon

The wall is covered by a 4-x-8-foot sheet of pegboard which neatly displays the supplies. The ribbon unrolls easily when it's threaded onto picture wire wound around a pair of screws drilled through the pegboard and into the wall.

Stash the Wraps

An elastic band designed for pegboards holds rolls of wrapping paper.

Ditch the Door

Leaving the door off one cabinet allows for a pullout work surface. Sliding baskets store bows and gift bags.

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Wrap Zone: All About the Pegboard

A 4-x-8-foot sheet of pegboard is ultra efficient for keeping craft materials tidy and within reach. Plus the pegboard hooks can be rearranged at will. Painting the pegboard the same color as the wall (in semigloss oil-base paint for durability) makes it all but disappear. To build the pegboard out from the wall so the hooks can function, a framework of 3/4-inch furring strips (available at home centers) is screwed to the wall, with a vertical support strip every two feet. The pegboard is then screwed to the framework.

Special Storage

A metal mailbox, spray-painted blue, is a clever spot to store greeting cards. It hangs via holes in the back. Decorative papers, rolled in kraft paper, fit in the newspaper hooks.

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Scrap Zone: A Spot for All Your Tools

For keeping track of scrapbooking's many supplies and tools, it's pegboard to the rescue again. Hanging everything -- packages of stickers, rub-ons, trims, scissors, punches, and ruler -- together at eye level lets you see what you have to work with and when to restock. A box with tabbed dividers holds decorative papers filed by color.

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Scrap Zone: Organized Drawers

An in-drawer spice rack organizes craft paints, stamps, and paper punches.

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Scrap Zone: Easy Covered Cans

Paper-covered soup cans hold markers, pencils, and brushes. Punch a hole in the back of the can to hang.

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Sew Zone: A Inspirational Spot

This kitchen island cabinet is a mobile workhorse, thanks to its casters. To add some inspiration to the sew zone, hot-glue a magnet board to the inside edge of an open-back picture frame.

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Sew Zone: Sew Many Colors

Magnetic spice tins and a thread organizer from a fabric store keep buttons and spools organized and handy.

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Sew Zone: Handy Drawers

Sliding shelves make getting items from the back easier. Some newer cabinets come with sliders, and older ones often can be retrofitted with them. Before ordering cabinets, measure the largest, heaviest piece of equipment you will use and make sure it will fit on one of the bottom shelves.

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The Work Space

A work table with a substantial top, adjustable-height legs, and casters accommodates projects large and small.

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