What no craft room?

[Roseberry Crafts]

Curious to know a bit more about this Flickr thing that everyone keeps mentioning, I thought I'd have a look. Not knowing where to start I simply typed crafts into the search box and was immediately faced with image after image of beautifully decorated, fantastically organised and well equipped work rooms.
I have no such luxury. There are six of us in an average 3 bed semi and therefore no spare rooms. The dining room, having the table in it, is where I set my (very old, VERY HEAVY) sewing machine up. But, as soon as it's meal time I have to shift everything out of the way and then before I get it all out again I have to make sure there are no blobs of sauce, juice etc left anywhere that may find there way onto my fabrics. The computer is also in this room as there is no where else for it to go, so it really is a squish!
I'm sure this is one of the reasons I don't seem to actually get much stuff made. The constant packing up and getting it all out again is such a pain!

I just wondered if anyone else out there (particularily those of you who sell a lot) has to put up with this sort of setup and if so how do you cope?

[Sprinkles]

There are 3 of us in a 2 bed terrace. I work in the living room on the coffee table, or on the kitchen table which is small and round.

Like you every meal time i have to move everything off, make sure there are no bits of wire around that might get into some-ones soup! Then move it all back onto the table until the next clearing away session! Hence, why i now bagsey the coffee table!

I keep all my stuff under the stairs in the dinning room squished up against the side board. Looks very messy.

We just don't have a spare rooms either :(
There is just stuff everywhere, pots with the odd dead bead found under the sofa, half finished creations that i cant be bothered with being interrupted, and having to relocate.

And as 2 out of the 3 of us work from home, you can imaging the mess!

[beadsbydesign]

I have a huge workroom... (well ok it's not really huge!) There are 5 of us in the three bedroomed house. During the day and evening our dining area is my work room. At one end there are floor to ceiling utility shelving with hundreds and thousands of beads and the walls have commercial buckets on with the findings in.
At the other end I have floor to ceiling utility shelves with the tiaras and finished jewellery on.
tall cupboards with the hats , bags, fabrica, paints, bits and bobs, ard pare etc.
I have a big farmhouse table where I teach. However, when the kids are around it resembles more of a doss house with all there mates perched on the edge of the table playing on the x box.
normally when clients walk in they go "oh wow" I think peole find it hard to imagine how much stuff is crammed in here.

[Neesey]

:oYou bet I do!!!!!!! Grrrrrrr We live in a chelet (lodge,double wide,Park Home) whatever its called here lolol.Anyway its like 2 static caravans put together. Which is better than the other parks we were in becouse we had to live in a caravan. Anyway it is just 2 of us so the table is my workshop. When I am doing my collages theres glue,varnish and scraps of paper everywhere.I have even found paper stuck to the dogs.:o Try to get glue out of a Pom's coat Grrrrrr. When I have my sewing machine up there are scraps of fabric and thread everywhere. We just eat on trays in front of the telly.This week I was making plant pots out of news paper for the greenhouse made 300 so far which I have already filled with seedlings, Painting some 3 toy boxes,and making drapes for someone who has a caravan here. The bad thing is I am kinda a neat freek :o. I don't have to move everything except when I change what I am doing but its about to really do my head in.

[ilovecrafts]

I'm ashmed to say that although I have plenty of space, i still havent got a proper craft room set up! I'm now on my 3rd different room to use, and none has ever really become a proper craft room !(yet)
In spite of all the space I still end up using the kitchen table or elsewhere for the majority of the stuf I do.
To be fair though, it is a very old house, which still needs plenty of renovating, and the first room downstairs, was just too old, no natural light, and the ceiling beams just too dirty, the 2nd too small, so couldn't actually get in there, and the current one has a leaky roof, although we
do get very little rain, so not too major a deal!

Neesy, how do you make plant pots out of newspaper? sounds interesting. I have loads of old newspaper, and daughter wants to start growing stuff, so could be useful to know.

[Focus on Life]

I dont have nearly so much stuff as most of you guys so I dont have a craft room. But I love nice boxes and, before I started crafting, I wouldnt have had a clue what to put in em!

So now my living room has nice little piles of decorative boxes around that contain all my crafting goodies - and when I'm ready to make something, its really easy just to take the lids off, plonk em all around me, then put all the lids back on again when I need to quickly tidy up

....not that I do much tidying up you understand! :)

Shaz x

[Redmaxi]

No craft room for me either! I tend to work on the floor as we live in a small flat with no room for a dining table let alone a craft room. We're moving to Holland this year to a three bedroomed house. Theres only us two and rather then bagging one of the bedrroms I'm going to use the loft. The lofts in Holland are already fitted with floorboards, electrics and ladders ............ I'm very excited about it! I have dreams about all the shelving, storage and table space I'm going to have lol

[CurlyFries]

I'm another one with no craft room because I live in a one-bedroom flat. I'm lucky that my sitting room is fairly long so I have the far end set up as a study area facing the rest of the room with my craft items behind me against the wall. However, when I want to actually make things I have to set up a table in the middle of the sitting room and then pack it all away again when I've finished - not good if I'm waiting for paint to dry or glue to set. My bedroom is also full of stacked boxes containing craft materials. Just as well I don't live with my boyfriend!


Emma

[wyattbean]

I do have a craft room but as I'm also trying to renovate an old house on a small income every room is a work in progress of some sort!!
no matter how tidy (erm!!) I am my excuse is the place still looks a mess as it is undecorated and with kids and a large dog...........well ther's just no hope!
Sue:)

[swirlyarts]

I'm very lucky in that I do have a craft room but it has sort of evolved from a small space to what is now Tara's room and then to one of the rooms up in the attic. It is normally very messy but I do have my sewing machine set up downstairs in the dining room which also doubles as a room to dump all the kids toys! I tend to grab a bag of stuff to bring downstairs while I listen to the radio and craft away - I'm still really bad at taking it all back upstairs again though!
There are photo's here of my craft room - just ignore the other photo's if you aren't interested in homemade soup!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/35516546@N00/sets/72157601394736239/

[Roseberry Crafts]

I do have a craft room but as I'm also trying to renovate an old house on a small income every room is a work in progress of some sort!!
no matter how tidy (erm!!) I am my excuse is the place still looks a mess as it is undecorated and with kids and a large dog...........well ther's just no hope!
Sue:)

My full sympathy! We also have a house that needs serious attention. Not one room is decorated, there are holes in walls and floors. Every room has been started but none of them finished, and my craft stuff just adds to the untidy appearance of the place. Hubby also seems to think that I should be decorating the house instead of sewing but as I keep trying to tell him, I need to make some money before I can visit the DIY shop (well that's my excuse anyway!)

[Focus on Life]

Just had a wander round your house Swirly! I do love those little boxes with comments inside, I think I saw them mentioned in Flickr, another funky thing to learn! :)

Shaz x

[Neesey]

I'm very lucky in that I do have a craft room but it has sort of evolved from a small space to what is now Tara's room and then to one of the rooms up in the attic. It is normally very messy but I do have my sewing machine set up downstairs in the dining room which also doubles as a room to dump all the kids toys! I tend to grab a bag of stuff to bring downstairs while I listen to the radio and craft away - I'm still really bad at taking it all back upstairs again though!
There are photo's here of my craft room - just ignore the other photo's if you aren't interested in homemade soup!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/35516546@N00/sets/72157601394736239/
LOVE BORIS!!!!!! :mf:

[Roseberry Crafts]

Swirly, I love that loo roll lady! My great grandmother always had one of those. When I went to visit she never had any toys for me to play with so I'd always end up playing with the loo roll cover! Makes me smile to remember that! :)

[LavenderHearts]

Swirlyarts - I love your pics! Do you keep chickens btw? You seem to love them! ;)

[swirlyarts]

Boris used to be a Bo (a spare one in case Anya ever lost him) so we decided to give him to Tara and him and Bo are cousins! Matt put the patches on so that we could tell them apart although Bo is starting to get lots more patches as he is gettin very worn and is getting holes. We've tried persuading Anya to leave him in bed but it's not working so far!! When she is 5!
I don't keep chickens because we don't have any room for them - maybe one day!

[Nijani]

Having read all the posts about craft rooms I would like to thank you all for making me realise how normal I am. All my crafting gear is in the dining room, and the chances of eating a meal off the table are very slim. I do manage to clear a space once a fortnight for the craft evening but it is a struggle.

I am also sharing with the pets food, 3 large book/dvd cases, moved out of the leaky room, and 3 large bags of clothes that are too small but that can be "used" rather than charitied....this theory may change if I don't get a head start on cutting them up over Easter!!

My ideal would be to have my knitting machines/sewing machines all permanently set up but for that I would have to take over the lounge and that would make me very unpopular. Especially when the footie is on!!