Doris Sander's Creative Space

We thought it would be fun to share our creative spaces with you all this year, so you can look forward to a design team member sharing a peek into her studio each month.  Doris Sander is kicking off the series for this month . . .

This is my work in progress studio.  We moved to our little house in the country a year ago October, and for the very first time I was able to have my own craft room.  I want to paint the walls white and replace the carpet with wood floors and brightly colored rugs, but the furniture arrangement i love.  I have two big worktables running galley style down the room and the arrangement is so productive.  I mostly work on the left side, but often keep project life open on the right and my son likes to do his homework and crafting down at the end there.  It's also perfect for hosting my own mini crops.  We comfortably seat four and with a card table, we can squeeze in a couple more. 

The other thing I love about these tables is that their workhorses.  The one on the left is a vintage library table (the shelf that runs along top came with it) and the one on the right is our old dining room table.  Both have a few ink/paint stains, and I'm totally okay with that (now the little hole my son carved in one with my exacto knife is a different story).

The first shelf you see here is actually my son's old changing table.  How's that for re purposing?  It's kind of sweet thinking about his fresh diapers and little onesies nestled in those baskets.  The wire basket on the top shelf was a shopping basket from my old LSS.  I guess I enjoy having functional memories surrounding me as much as I do having memories recorded in my scrapbooking albums.

When I first started scrapbooking, I had an uncontrollable obsession with ribbon and trim.  I haven't used it much lately, but I think it adds a fun colorful vibe to my crafting area.  Half the jars are old pickle jars my mom found for me and the others I nabbed in the housewares section at Target.  The other great Target find is those trays on the top shelf.  I use them to contain works in progress (for example, the first one currently holds new stuff, the second is Christmas, the third is my current kit, and the fourth is a merger of the October and August kits that I'd still like to get a little mileage out of). 

This corner was a hot mess, but I cleaned it up for the photo and I'm very glad that I did.  It was the catchall corner, but now it feels more functional and will hopefully never again become quite the mess that it was.  There are lots of tools and basic supplies back here as well as paperwork type items.    The main improvement that I made in the clean up was to put a narrow vintage wooden tool drawer along the wall (you can barely see the front peeking out in front of my computer) to hold notebooks, memorabilia, and such.

This shelf holds embellishments and such in a variety of containers.  I didn't have a clear idea of what I wanted my scrap space to look like when I first started collecting storage containers, but I guess I had a subconscious sense of style.  I tend to gravitate towards glass, stainless steel, baskets, and natural wood.  I think I like the neutrals (and mostly open storage) because it provides a nice backdrop for my colorful scrapping supplies.

I'd also like to point out even more sweet vintage memories like the button jars from my grandma on the top shelf, the hatbox (holding the re purposed Prima jars) that was an Easter basket for me once in my teen years, and the old rickety child's table and chair (holds my cameo) that Santa brought when I was six or seven.

And more vertical storage holding smaller embellishments, ink pads, and colorful, fun, technique stuffs.

I hope you've enjoyed my tour!  It has sure been fun conducting it.  This is just a brief overview (although I feel like I've written a novel!).  If you notice something specific that you'd like to hear more about, please leave me a comment.  I'll be checking those over the next week or so and would be more than happy to answer any questions that you might have.  Thanks for dropping by!  :)