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Moving house means only one thing- a new craft room! I often mention that my house has been taken over by yarn in the almost 5 years I’ve been crocheting, but since I started knitting, things have only gotten worse! Or is that… better? Either way, having a spare bedroom I can turn into a fibrous sanctuary is top of my list (for obvious reasons) and my brain can’t stop thinking about what I’ll have in my dream craft room and what it’ll look like…
Moving house has felt like carrying a boulder on my shoulders at the best of times. As I type, I’m surrounded by moving boxes and my bed is now a mattress on the floor. It’s not pretty, and it’s not comfy. But more importantly, it hasn’t been exactly great for my mental health either. Just as a PS- today is the first time I’ve gotten properly dressed in about a week…
Genuinely the only thing that’s been keeping me sane at this point is the dream of my craft room. I’ve always had this weird thing about a room telling me how it would like to be decorated (weird, I know) but the small little nook that will be my spare bedroom, has been calling out for a lick of navy paint to make an intimate crafting hideaway.
My mother would always warn me about going too dark with paint colours. It was always, “how about white with just a hint of that colour?” Well, a hint was never good enough for me, and when she suggested I go a very faint light pink in my bathroom, I rebelled and bought a pink SO pink it was reminiscent of a tart’s boudoir when I was finished.
And I had NO regrets. Absolutely none.
In fact, I don’t even feel a little bad for the young guy who’s bought my house – even though I know my bright pink bathroom and pink shed will be the first things to be painted over.
So navy in my new craft room. In fact, I might break it up a little with 2 walls of white, maybe… I haven’t decided yet, but I’m kind of excited to be a yarn-dwelling vampire in my dark navy room. As opposed to the lockdown yarn-dwelling vampire I’ve been the last 8 months, just surrounded by white walls instead…
So if I go with white walls, I’m going to break things up with yarn “art” – aka. yarn on display. Dual-purpose yarn! Embracing my hoarding and putting it on display for all. So with that, I will need…
#1 – Peg Board by Peg & Board
Functional yet fashionable. I have so many gorgeous hand-dyed skeins, that even I forget what I sometimes have. It’ll be nice to hang them up in prime position for the world (me) to admire in my yarn cave. YARN CAVE – oh my God, I just thought of that! Yarn Cave it is!
Find your dream pegboard here.
Want hand-dyed yarn to hang off of it? Check out my list of favourite UK dyers here.
#2 – Yarn Art Prints by Lana Bou
Now with great yarn, comes great responsibility. That is, collecting every single little bit of yarn-related paraphernalia that is humanly possible. I can’t tell you how many yarn-related postcards, art, stickers, etc. I have collected in a very short time. I’m thinking I’ll have one gallery wall (I use the term ‘gallery’ very loosely, and its probably just going to be a mish-mash of frames hanging haphazardly at all angles) where I can display everything so its a total feast for the eyes (read: a kaleidoscope of migraine-inducing colour and motivational phrases encouraging me to buy even more yarn).
Get your own selection of funky yarn art here.
I’ve bought myself an unloved bureau (thanks eBay!) which I plan on maybe also painting navy – too much navy yet? and upcycling with some nice patterned wallpaper and gold leaf. It’s got a fold-down leaf so would be the perfect place for my sewing machine to live as it folds away and hides all the mess I usually make when sewing. Problem is, with all these different crafts going on, I’m going to need some ‘attractive’ storage, and given that every man and his dog seem to have an IKEA Kallax, I’m thinking I’m going to artistically re-colour some generic storage boxes…
#3 – Contact Paper by Costa Cover
This stuff really is the stuff of dreams. You can make any old thing look brand new with just a bit of peel-and-stick. I love this chevron pattern, if anything it adds a bit more migraine-inducing eye-candy to what I believe will be a completely crazy dream craft room! The perfect disguise, for even the ugliest of storage boxes!
Find your favourite peel-and-stick here.
#4 – Navy Velvet Chair by Rosie Rose Chichester
Now let’s be honest- if there’s one thing lockdown has taught me, its that I really like sitting on my butt. So my dream craft room MUST have somewhere comfortable where I can pamper my behind. As Michael McIntyre has made reference to – velvet is the one fabric that just wants to be touched. A luxury, velvet chair definitely belongs in my yarn cave.
Get your own throne here.
I’m also planning on having a sofa bed in the craft room, as its not very often I have people stay over so it doesn’t warrant having a dedicated spare bedroom. Instead, having a little nook means people can stay over and I can still visually appear to be anti-social with a covert fold-away bed. But anyway…
#5 – Book Display by Dear Nest Finds
Another thing that’s been added to Aly’s Crafting Paraphernalia collection is the sheer number of crafting books and magazines. I can’t look away when I find a cute pattern, and collect a lot of things for inspiration for designs (that I never get around to making because well, time and too many designs flying around my head!). Again, I plan on using these as ‘art’ so that I don’t forget about them… out of sight after all, means out of mind.
I love this display in particular as it also gives me some space below to display my project bags- which, lets be honest, are always full of WIPs.
Find your own display here.
#6 – Desk Lamp, Phone Charger and Storage
I think this is the trifecta I’ve been waiting for all my life. If you ask my best friend, he’ll tell you I’m absolutely useless at charging any of my electronics. To the point where I use my electric toothbrush manually, my phone always dies at inopportune moments, and I repeatedly punch the TV remote to get it to work rather than recharging it…
Also, I’m always losing my scissors, hooks and pens, so having this next to me is (hopefully) a sure-fire way of keeping everything zen and organised. Marie Kondo – eat your heart out!
Find this holy trinity of storage here.
Looking for cute notions to store in this? Let me be your enabler – check out this post.
Now let’s be honest here. If you’ve been reading this post, I’ve probably come across as an obsessive hoarder type. While you’re certainly not wrong, to the outside world I look semi-sane maybe 70% of the time. So I definitely need to camouflage my hoarder-tendencies.
#7 – Storage Ottoman
Not only is this navy (yay navy!) but it’s also compact, the perfect size for me to rest my tired legs on, and has an extra bit of clever storage inside for the yarn I’m saving for a rainy day.
PS – I live in the UK, it always rains.
Get your own ottoman here.
#8 – Yarn Art Wreath by Bool Interiors
Now while I’ve got prints, and shelves and peg board hanging off the walls off of my (for now) imaginary dream craft room, I think I’ll need a wreath to adorn the front of the door. I was thinking about a plaque, but I don’t want it to be too ‘child-like’. This is definitely a grown up alternative, and from the outside, it’ll look like its the door to a peaceful sanctuary, rather than a giant yarn-barf inducing disaster zone.
Get a wreath here.
#9 – Hands-Free Tablet Stand
Okay, while laziness has only overcome 90% of my body over the Covid-period, if you’re anything like me, balancing your project as well as the pattern, can lead to a sort of crochet-yoga that ultimately leaves you with lost scissors, hooks and sanity. While I don’t advocate for using this in bed (although I totally would!) this little gadget clips onto anything so you can keep track of your pattern without losing too much focus.
Its also pretty neat if you get phonecalls, video calls or whatever and want to keep knitting/crocheting while you chat- amazing for virtual knit and natters. Multi-tasking at its finest!
Get your robo arm here.
#10 – More Yarn…
Just kidding…
#10 – Hanging Organiser
Keep your crochet hooks, knitting needles, scissors and everything else you need close to hand. I’m thinking this will be the perfect place to keep scissors from stabbing my guests (if I like them!) when they stay over and I have to shift all my crochet crap off the sofa bed.
I like the fact its hanging too – so it adds to the eccentric art gallery vibe this list seems to be pointing me in the direction of.
Be organised AF here.
While I can’t promise that absolutely everything from this list will appear in my yarn cave, I can tell you that it is going to be an eccentric amalgamation of all things yarny – it is my dream craft room after all! I’ll post about my move and my home décor changes as I get settled. I plan on taking on Marie Kondo and being organised AF.
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