My Crafting Conundrum

I love to craft. For me it's a great way to relax, unwind, and get rid of stress. Sadly, I haven't been doing much crafting lately. Really, it's been several years since I've spent any significant amount of crafting and several months since I've done ANY crafting at all. Which means I should really give up my title as being the "Craft Queen" (a title bestowed on me by a friend).

It's not that I haven't wanted to craft, or that I haven't had any ideas (because OH the IDEAS!). I think the biggest reason I haven't been crafting is because my current crafting area (and the majority of my crafting supplies) is located in the basement. When we first moved into our current abode, I thought this would be a great place for my crafting area. It was quiet, I could keep the cats away from my projects, and there was plenty of space.

However, even with those great things going for the area, it hasn't turned out to be a great place for me to actually craft in. The area isn't a "finished" area so it can get quite dusty, it's rather dark with bad lighting (a drawback on two levels: poor working light and not conducive to creativity), and bad air flow (which is how I almost killed myself & the cats one day). The biggest drawback though, is that it's all the way down in the basement. This wasn't an issue when we first set up the area, but since then I was diagnosed with spondylitis which can leave me quite worn out at times and can make it difficult for me to go up and down stairs (a problem if I need/want things from the first or second floor and I'm in the basement).

Because of these drawbacks, and because he knows how happy crafting makes me, TheHusband has been suggesting/urging that we figure out way for me to be able to do my crafting upstairs (the second floor). He suggested that we try to figure out a way to use the spare bedroom as both a guest room and a crafting area for me. Hmmm, this is going to be a challenge. It's a small room, that has been acting as a catch all area recently (since we don't get many overnight visitors) and the cats like to hang out in there because there's a nice window for them to sit in.

My soon to be new crafting area.

As you can see in the picture above, the room is small (I was standing in the opposite corner of the room when I took the picture). My first idea was to put a largish cabinet (that we've had for several years) into the corner nook next to the existing closet. I had grand plans for adding a slide out shelf so I could pull it out to work, and push it back inside and close the doors to keeps the cats away from my master pieces. While the cabinet would have fit nicely into the area, my plan was thwarted because of how the doors are attached to the cabinet the sliding shelf would not be possible. CURSES!

Now I'm on to plan two. We are going to clean out the closet (which is full of odds and ends) so we can put some shelving in there (allowing me to store works in progress and other craft supplies) and put a small work table in the corner nook next to the closet where I'll actually work on things. This will leave the rest of the room open for setting up the air mattress, it's actually quite comfy, when we have guests.

I think the biggest challenge will be after I get the area set up, and will consist of training the cats that they can't be in my space while I'm working on a project. HA HA HA, as if you could train a cat to not attempt to be the center of attention. Wish me luck!