My Stamp Room - Before & After

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I managed to persuade my DH that moving my stamp room from the 4th bedroom to the formal lounge was a good idea (I can be very persuasive LOL).  The boys had been using the formal lounge as their games room, ie Playstation, etc and a place to store their junk.  My argument to swap rooms played on the fact that I'd be doing everyone a favour to take over the big room so that the boys had a smaller room to mess up.  Well, blow me down, but that argument worked!

Our 4th bedroom is downstairs with the living areas, but is only 3.5m square (about 11.5' to my imperial readers).  The formal lounge is considerably bigger at 6.0m x 4.1m (20' x 13.5').  Unfortunately not all the furniture from the lounge was going to fit in the new games room so the 3-seater couch remains in the lounge.  As well, there's a pile of "stuff" in one corner that we still need to find a home for and boxes and boxes of Lego that need putting in the attic for the grandkids we'll hopefully have one day in the very distant future!

So here are some before photos:

This first photo is the view from the doorway.  My desk is in the center of the room so that my son can sit on the other side and stamp which, now that he's 10, happens less frequently.  You'll see under my desk that I have to keep my rubbish tin up out of the puppy's way.  Ask me how I learned that little lesson LOL.

This photo is to the left of my desk and is of the credenza which matches the rimu desk I scored from work many years ago.  This is where I store my Big Shot dies and machine as well as my current inkpads.  Underneath are all my ribbon holders and a few drawers for envelopes and catalogues.

These 8-cubby bookcases are great for storing my stamp sets and other miscellaneous stuff.  I had 4 of them in the room.  I used to have 5 but put about 150 stamp sets into storage containers so moved out one of the bookcases.  It might need to find its way to my new room very shortly to store new stamps...

This photo is to show my old style punch storage.  My darling DH made these holders for me, using some metal strips (exactly like a metal ruler), long screws and some rubber lugs to keep them out from the ends of the bookcase.  I have these on the ends of two bookcases.

This is just a close-up photo of my desk - pretty clean and tidy for once.

A front-on view of my Big Shot area.  At the moment I only have one of the Big Shot storage boxes, so I took the dividers out and use the base on its side for my Bigz dies and the lid with one of the dividers in it for my embossing folders, framelits etc.  As an aside, the artwork on the wall in this photo is something I found on Pinterest and made using foamboard and Night and Day DSP.

Excuse the mess on either side of these 12x12 paper holders.  They were in the closet.  These are great for storing my DSP and the protective covers keep them shaded from the light.  Unfortunately you can't move them with all the paper in - so I had to painstakingly unload each shelf before I could move the units into my new room.  The paper didn't go back in the same order, so a job I need to do is sort out all my DSP again.  Oh joy!

So that's my old room.  Now here are some photos of my new room.

This is the view behind my desk looking towards the white double doors.  On the other side of the doors is the kitchen/dining/family room, so I can open the doors while I'm stamping and still know what the rest of the family is up to.  I had to keep the desk in the center of the room because William still insists on his side of the desk for stamping - even though he rarely uses it now.  But I have more space around the desk which makes moving around much easier.  Our Bichon puppy, Dexter, managed to get his bum in this picture!

Behind my desk I have my A4 cardstock in the red filing cabinet; my 12x12 in the 2 paper holders I showed you before and to the left of that is another 2 drawer filing cabinet I use for extra cardstock, plus my receipts, etc.  The top of that has become my storage place for my Tonic cutter and Simply Scored. I've also spread out my Big Shot stuff a bit and am using the top of the red filing cabinet for my Big Shot machine.

Behind this row of storage are the remains of the old "lounge".  Some of the stuff I need to find another home for and some will stay here.  It's probably about 1/3 of the whole room.

On the left of the desk is my credenza, with all the same stuff in and on it as the other room, excluding the Big Shot.  Behind the credenza are 4 huge plastic tubs with my rarely used stamp sets.  All my non-Stampin' Up stamps are still stored in the cupboard under the stairs.  I would like to move them into this room, but not sure where to put them, as I have hundreds of them (yes, I'm a collector LOL).

A view of 3 of my 4 bookcases.  I still need to work out how best to position things for ease of use, but that will come with time and use.  I don't make 3-D items very often because I find I don't know what to do with them when I do make them, so the few things I've made are on top of one of the bookcases.  Extra wheel storage boxes are on another.

Another view of my punch storage.

So that's it.  My new room.  It's a bit hard to get the space difference in perspective but trust me, I have way more space, so I'm a happy stamper!

Thanks for getting this far!

Cheers

Karren