I have never shown my creative space online before, which has changed quite a few times in the ten years I've been a Stampin' Up! Demonstrator, so I thought it was time. It's still a work in progress, and in no means finished!
At the start, I operated out of a plastic box on the kitchen, then I moved into our study, then we had a renovation and the study became a child's bedroom, then I moved into the current space, which was formerly a downstairs playroom/rec room. As you can see it is a multipurpose space, with a kitchenette and a fridge, as well as a treadmill. As well as being a Stampin' Up! Demonstrator, I also work from home as an online lecturer and do webinars with students, so the space needs to be private and functional.
The view from my desk - mind the mess, I haven't tidied up from the last session. I get plenty of natural light here, which is lovely. I do need to invest in a new chair but that will wait a bit longer. The desk is a hand me down from an aunt that I've owned now for about 20 years, and it has a shelf as well as handy storage. My computer usually sits up top when I'm doing webinars for my lecturer work. I have some clear acrylic cubes that fit nicely under the shelf that hold things like adhesives, my basic kit, Stampin' Blends, pens, etc. I need to reorganise this section of my space to make it neater but that will happen eventually!
This is the view from the doorway into the room. You can see the kitchenette and our second fridge. Having a sink is handy for cleanup! The door leads to my eldest daughter's room and ensuite.
On the wall opposite the desk are two IKEA bookcases, where I store my work stuff as well as DSP, stamp sets etc and the drawers hide retired products as well as my punches and heat embossing powders. After ten years, I have a lot of craft stuff, much of which is retired. I do sell retired product at my catalogue launches with Bec and Steph, but sometimes I forget to bring along some of the products that are hidden from view.
This is next to the bookshelves, and the door is the cupboard under the stairs. I have grand ideas of getting a carpenter in to make that a more useful space, but at present it is full of general stuff like carpet cutoffs, wine, random craft stuff for my Silhouette machine, etc. It isn't used all the time, so the IKEA trolleys are in front of the door at the moment. The filing cabinet houses all my cardstock. The top of the filing cabinet is a mess because one of the cats knocked everything over and I haven't finished tidying it up.
This is the latest addition to the craft room - a couple of IKEA (sensing an IKEA theme?) kitchen islands with shelves. The beauty of this is that I have an area where I can stand (which I prefer when using the Big Shot or heat embossing, or using the paper trimmer), and it stores a lot of stuff that isn't obvious when I am doing webinars. I love that my ink pads, Big Shot, Silhouette, Minc, heat gun, Stamperatus and craft totes fit there, as well as a few document trays for paperwork, bills, etc.
You can see the treadmill between the kitchen islands and some glass sliding doors. Those doors let in a lot of light, but make the whole wall unusable for shelves, etc. At the moment there is some left over stuff there in front of the treadmill that I haven't decided what to do with yet (keep? throw? donate?). Keeping it real.
Closer view of the kitchenette. I have a cheap Aldi coffee pod machine there, and its a pretty useful, if unattractive, area. The grey footstool is for when I'm reading and want to put my feet up.
There you go! A tour of the engine room. My classes are usually held upstairs, on the dining room table. It's neater, and is right off the front door, so customers don't need to go through the whole house. With four kids, and three pets, that's a must.
