DIY craft table

Heya!! Hope you had a lovely weekend! I had a great one – got plenty of stuff done and then today spent the day with my sis and family as we shopped for her wedding dress (my wedding gift to her). We found it and it’s just beautiful! She’s beautiful in it. I was doing OK till she put the veil on, but then it was pretty hopeless. ;)

I put together a project this weekend that I’m pretty smitten with. It came out just like in my head, which is always nice. Love when that happens.

As I mentioned last week, we’ve had some activity going on in the basement lately, which I’ll show you soon. Over the past few weeks I’ve been doing my best to do another purge and reorganize what I keep down there, as far as decorative items and crafts.

I want them all out of sight when things are said and done. This project was a big step in that direction.  :)

It started with this photo of Brook’s craft table I showed you here:

If I remember right, her hubby made this one. And it rocks.

I wanted to try to do something similar but not have to actually build it. Well, not build it with major power tools anyway. Just minor power tools. ;)

At first I was going to use bookcases to make the table, but I ended up with these cube shelves I see everywhere:

I got mine at Lowe’s but I have seen them at Target, Meijer, Walmart too maybe? They were on sale at Lowe’s, I think for $39. Much cheaper than any bookcases I’ve seen!

Because the backing that came with them didn’t cover the entire back, and because I can’t help but pretty things up a bit, I had a beadboard panel cut down:

And then I nailed them into the backs of the cube thingamabobs.

I knew exactly what I was going to use for the top – I kept our old laminate island countertop after I replaced it with the butcher block. It’s been sitting in the garage forever and I have always felt like I’d be able to use it for something, and this was it! I LOVE using what I have!

WHOO!!

I dragged the incredibly insanely unbelievably heavy counter downstairs to put it on top of the cubes:

Oh em gee, that sucker was crazy heavy! And I’m crazy for shuffling it down the stairs by myself, but that is how I roll. 

I screwed long screws through the top of the cube shelves and into the bottom of the counter to make sure it wasn’t going anywhere. (I used six screws on each side.)

The cubes were just a skosh wider than the island top, but I was fine with that:

I found the little canvas drawers at Meijer for $6 each, which is the cheapest I’ve found:

I didn’t get enough for every shelf, just because it was going to get a tad expensive for both sides, and because I thought it would be nice to display some of my decorative items I use most often.

Pretty much every bit that used to sit on these shelves:

Is now in these bins:

PLUS some! And I am giddy about it!!

I actually have empty shelves on the other side of the desk, so there’s a ton of storage space still left. Ya. hoo.

This spot in the basement will (hopefully) be a small kitchenette some day, so this craft desk will work as a table as well:

(I still need to paint the back of those beadboard panels.)

Originally I was going to put my old craft table in another room down here, but that’s changed for a few reasons. One of the biggest is that when I really thought about it, I didn’t want to be in a teeny room away from everybody when working on crafty projects.

This way I can be out where I can watch TV be with the family while I craft:

The chairs are actually from our kitchen island, I just brought them down here to see how the size and height works. When it’s in the budget, I plan to head to Garden Ridge to get a couple more for this spot.

I love that the table is SO large and we can use it for anything – eating, crafting, puzzles, games, whatever! The old craft table was great, but it was HUGE. This still has plenty of surface area, and the storage is the cherry on top!

I may look into stools instead of chairs, so we can potentially fit a couple more people at the table as well:

But for now, I luuuuuuurve it. ;)

My hope is that when we start the electrical in the basement, we can rough in a spot for a pretty little chandelier that will hang over the table. FUN!

The total cost was $100 to build the whole thing – the two cube shelves were $80 and the beadboard backing was $20. (And I have a bunch leftover!) If you don’t have a island counter top laying around (but really, who doesn’t??), you could have a piece of wood cut to size and then round off the corners and paint it. Or maybe some butcher block from IKEA?

It only took a few hours total – to put the shelves together, nail the beadboard to the back and secure the island counter to the top:

And we’ve got a custom craft table with TONS of storage:

Ohhhh, I love storage. It makes me SO HAPPY.

And there you go. Now I promise not to show the cement walls again for…well, at least a few days. ;)

Come on back tomorrow for the next Show Us Your House party! This month we’re showing off closets – so any pantries, linen closets, master closets, closets-turned-other-things. It will go up Monday evening!!