Sawhorse Craft Desk

I promise I won’t put up another post about my craft room/desk this week (I can’t promise there won’t be another one though!) I just got so many questions that I couldn’t put it all in one post. Today I am going to share how we built the desk. It went a little something like this… I told my dad what I wanted and he built it. Then I painted, sanded and stained everything. There was no way that I could afford to purchase something that would be as long as I wanted, and even if I did have the money I don’t think I would have been able to find exactly what I was envisioning.

The total cost of this desk (with wood, paint, stain, sanding pads) was somewhere between $70-$100 and it is twelve feet long.

He first built locking sawhorses. I don’t have the exact plans, but these pictures will give you an idea of how he built them. He has had a few requests to build more, so when he does I will get some step-by-step instructions. I tried finding some like these online but didn’t have any luck.

I wasn’t trying to spend loads of money, so I painted them with Wal-Mart’s ColorPlace brand in Teal Lake. A whole gallon cost me less than $10 and I have plenty leftover for touchups or other projects. After I got the sawhorses sanded and painted I did a little bit more sanding to add character.

The first time around this is what the desk looked like… (in our old house). The top is ply board which I sanded and stained. We had a small bead trim along the edge, but when we moved we had to take the trim off and I knew I wanted to add a thicker trim the next time around for a different look.

When we started setting things up in our new house (picture below) the desk was too long and had to be trimmed down a bit. I called my dad over and he cut the desk down to size and added on the new trim I purchased. Once he added on the new trim I gave everything a good sanding and re-stained it.

The piece of ply board that we trimmed off of the desk (since it was too long) fit perfectly as a ledge on the far sawhorse and is now the home to our printer to make more room on the desk.

Enjoy,

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My Craft Room Organization

By looking at the pictures there doesn’t seem to be many craft supplies. I have really been trying not to binge buy lately and when we moved I forced myself to get rid of things I had not used recently or didn’t really need. It hurt, but it had to happen! I was like a supply addict and my husband complained because everywhere you would turn I had some sort of supply or tool.

(To my complete surprise and total excitement) Donna from Funky Junk Interiors shared my craft room picture on her Facebook page last weekend, and here are some of the comments.

• So Pretty! So Neat! So Clean! So Organized!....Does someone even use this or is it just for show!?
• I LOVE this craft room. But I have way too much 'stuff' to make mine as clean and empty as this!

I had already planned to write a post about my organization, but those comments inspired me even more. Let me just say that the desk doesn’t ALWAYS look like this. I do my best to clean up the mess at the end of the night, but throughout the day while I am using it and filling shop orders it rarely looks like this.
Since I use this area to craft, blog, and fill shop orders it has many purposes. I use my mason jar storage for the hair ties I sell in my shop, and on top of the shelves are decoration items mixed with other supplies.

On the desk I have a bin with more labeled storage.


I have a framed magnet board below the shelves with more magnetic storage tins. I put my current roll of washi tape, scrapbook flowers, and small jewelry findings in them.

I keep all of my utensils in a lazy susan type holder that my mother-in-law gave me from Papered Chef.

Under my desk is a trunk I purchased when I moved into my first apartment at 18. It was one of my favorite pieces in that ugly, plain, boring apartment so I distinctly remember that it was from Target during their Global Bazaar. The top part holds my craft punches and the drawers hold all sorts of shop supplies, shipping supplies, and computer supplies.

On the opposite wall I have this desk which is full of storage solutions. I have my sewing scraps and thread hanging from a plant hanger in an old fruit basket thingy. My ready-to-ship items are on the pegboard along with a zebra print organizer which olds all of the orders that are ready to go to the post office. The desk drawers hold printer paper and business cards.


So now I know you are still wondering where everything is? See the entryway closet off to the right? Well this is Florida and we don’t have any winter coats or boots to store. This is my house and we have craft supplies to store.

It isn’t as pretty as I would like it to be yet… but it is on the list. Since there are doors that hide it - I admit that it is towards the bottom of the list though.


How do you store your junk craft supplies so they are pretty and organized?