Office/Craft Room, Inspiration & Organisation Tips!

I'm sure most of you have made your way here from my Office/Craft Room Tour video! (If you haven't then you can check out the video at the end of this blogpost).

I hope you enjoyed having a nosey around my craft space. That video has been a long time coming, so I'm really glad I've finally been able to give you all a proper look around.

In this blogpost I thought I would share some tips and ideas on how to make your creative space as inspiring and organised as possible. Please note, that I'm not saying this is the only way to do it, this is purely some things I've learnt along the way, whilst I've been 'building' my creative space over the past almost two years. 

Even if you have a small desk in the corner of a room, you should be able to take something from what I'm about to share with you!

Tip 1. Creating consistency, through the chaos of colour

As you can tell, I'm someone who loves colour. 

I'm massively inspired by colours, probably above everything else. The problem with that is, if I fill my room with tons of different colours, it become's overwhelming for me (something I found out when I covered my entire bedroom wall in 'stuff' when I was 16. There were photos, magazine pages, stickers, artwork etc. I felt overwhelmed just lying in my bed). My mood & motivation can be directly impacted by the environment I'm in. 

My way around this was to make sure pretty much all the main storage systems I had in my office, were white.

It meant that things were kept bright in the room, and gave a feeling of consistency, through all of the colour. White might not be your thing, but if like me you want all that colour, but don't want to feel overwhelmed. Try to create some sort of consistency through the furniture, or storage you are using.

Tip 2. Practical storage & Using your supplies, as decor.

Something I was thoroughly looking forward to doing from the minute I found out I'd have this office space when we moved, was building a washi shelf. I've stored my washi in so many different ways over the years, in small drawers, big drawers, reel's, pots, and baskets. But there was a recurring theme with all of this storage, and that was that they just weren't all accessible. I wasn't able to see what I had all at the same time, and this meant I would end up only using the same handful of washi tape's, anytime I went to craft. 

So I knew I wanted to make some sort of shelving unit for them, this way I could get to any one of them, at any time and know exactly which tapes I had. This mindset has been consistent throughout this whole process of finding new storage for all of my craft my supplies.

The bonus of having this washi shelf, is that it also works out as some really fun wall decor. Having them in rainbow order means that I basically have a giant piece of rainbow art in the centre of my office at all times. 

Now I'm not saying you have to go out and build a giant washi shelf in order to turn your supplies into decor. Some other examples I have would be, displaying some of my pen sets in little buckets. Or in my video I showed the pile of rainbow cardstock I had sat on my shelf, instead of storing it hidden away, I made space for it. Also Having all my paperclips in a glass jar would be another example, so they become a fun piece of stationery themed decor, but I'm still able to use them as and when I need. 

Basically, when you are organising supplies, don't hide everything inside boxes. If they are satisfying to look at, try and find a way to not just store them, but display them!

Tip 3. Buying 'pointless' things, is sometimes okay!

Now I'm not saying got out and buy anything and everything you see that you just 'need'. But I am saying, if you are in a shop and you see something that you are incredibly drawn to (i.e fills your brain with inspiration & heart with joy) whether it's a bit of wall art, a frame, a vase, a mug, a cushion or even just a pretty box. Don't always listen to the part of the brain that tells you 'do you really need that though? what will you use it for?'. 

(Sometimes that 'part of my brain' is actually my boyfriend's voice, but like my brain, I don't always listen to him either).

A good example of this mindset was purchasing this cushion. I didn't need a cushion, I probably wouldn't use it regularly, but I just LOVED it. The colours inspired me, it was a wonderful balance of colour, shapes and patterns. I just wanted it.

Do you know what? I don't regret buying it one bit, and appreciate it every time I walk into my office.

It's good to tell that practical part of the brain to be quiet every now and again.

Tip 4. What's in front of you, is important.

This is something that's always changing for me, and so it should to be honest. The stuff right in front of me, is the part of my office that I look at the most, so naturally I will get bored of things on there quicker than other parts of my space. A lot of the time I just rearrange things, rather than replace everything. But sometimes a quick shuffle of stuff makes all the difference. 

Regardless of where your desk is, there will always be a space in front of you, to make into something fun & inspiring to look at. If you can't stick lots of little things to your wall, then I'd recommend a cork board of some sort. My peg & cork boards are actually attached to my wall with the command strips, so no drilling was required (mainly because this wall has such old plaster underneath, I know as soon as we drill into it, chunks will likely come off). 

Having some of your go to/favourite journals, planners or books in front of you is definitely worth doing, rather than having them all on a shelf elsewhere. It's another reason I love having charms on the spines, so they can sit there looking all pretty in front of me.

Tip 5. Give everything a home!

As I mentioned at the start, my mood & motivation to do things is quite directly connected to my surroundings. I find it so much easier to craft, when my desk is clear and things have been put away. So throughout the whole process of 'building' my office/craft space, my main focus was finding a place for everything. 

Everything needed a home. 

Ultimately once I'd achieved this, it made it so much easier to tidy things away! As time went on, funny enough I had less and less piles of 'ahhh I don't know where to put this?!' stuff just sat on my desk waiting for me to find it an unpractical home on my shelves.

If you take any tip away from this blogpost, take this one. It's made my whole crafting experience so much easier. I'm more motivated to craft, and I spend less time tidying up! Shopping for craft supplies is also a lot more practical process now, because I know which storage boxes are full and can't take anymore stuff, and also which ones still have space for new supplies. Of course I'm not perfect, and washi tape is where I seem to fall of the wagon every time. But hey! No crafter can go into a craft store and not come out with something right?

Tip 6. Think outside the box.

Don't always go for the first storage thing you see, or something from a basic office supplies store. 

Mugs are a brilliant way to store pens, or paint brushes, and they come in so many different styles.

Also as you saw in the video, I bought a make up storage system to store most of my art supplies in. A lot of my storage is actually advertised as storage for other things, like some of the IKEA tubs are from the kitchen section, and the purple divided boxes I store my shop stock in, are advertised to store socks & underwear in!

When I walk around shops, any type of box, tub, drawer etc. I see, I'm always thinking of how it could be used to store craft supplies. It's a bonus if you can find something (like this strawberry mug from Paperchase) that is both practical storage and brings a pop of colour to your space!

Tip 7. (Following on from the last tip) There will always be a more fun, quirky, more 'you' version out there, FIND IT!

Of course this doesn't apply to everything, like a printer, or certain craft tools like a heat gun etc. which tend to just be a standard shape/colour/style. But for many things in my office space I have searched and searched for things that appeal more to my style. For example the filing cabinet I showed in the video, I could have gone for a plain black one. But instead I waited a few more weeks, searched the internet to see what else was out there, and I ended up finding that orange beauty! Which was so much more 'me', and I just love having it sat next to my desk. I'll be hoenst, if I'd gone for a black one, I would have tried to hide it under my desk or something.

Recently I was sent some bits and pieces from Mustard, including this water bottle, which is a prime example of this tip. I got rid of my old water bottle and now have this funky one sat on my desk! Which is much more fun to look at, and fits in with my office so much better than the plain plastic one I had before!

Tip 8. Embrace your other hobbies, quirks & loves. 

You may have spotted a lot of Pokemon around my office space, along with a few other characters. 

I spent a lot of my teenage years feeling incredibly scared and uneasy about embracing what I loved. 

If it wasn't 'cool' at school, I didn't even question it. I didn't want to stand out, I just wanted to fit in.

But I struggled with that a lot, and of course in my early 20's I've come to learn that really... life's too short to worry about what other people think of your hobbies and interests. If it makes you happy, then you should embrace it. Simple as that.

I have a few different things in my office that remind me of my childhood, like the tamagotchi's that are hung up in front of my desk. There's so many lovely memories attached to things like these, why wouldn't I want them in my current happy space?!

Tip 9. Label, label, label!

For years I didn't label anything in my craft space. I knew where everything was, so why bother?

Well this might just be me, or others might be able to relate. But seeing as things were unlabelled, I was very slack with where I tidied things away to...

It was a process that went something like 'I've got this little pile of ephemera & scrap paper to tidy away... Okay well ephemera is basically paper, so I'll pop it all in this scrap paper box'... which resulted in my scrap paper box quickly becoming my 'scrap paper AND ephemera AND random stickers AND whatever else I didn't fancy tidying away properly' box...

If it's labelled I have no excuse to put things in the wrong place, and ultimately things stay organised for a lot longer. 

Last of all, Tip 10. Above everything else, make it your own.

I don't have a photo for this, but I think it's pretty self explanatory. Surround yourself with your favourite things! Express yourself through your creative space, and in turn it will help inspiration flow right back to you.

I hope this has helped some of you who are in the process of giving your creative space a little revamp, and also given you more of an in depth look at how I personally  'built' my creative space. I wanted to do this blogpost, because in the video I pretty much only went through what I had and how I stored it, there wasn't really any 'why's'.

If you missed the video then you can watch it here:

Thank you so much for reading!

- Daisy X