ORNATE STORAGE UNIT

 

Last week, I started (yet again) attempting to purge some items from my craft room.  My goal was to create a neat and tidy sewing station/corner.  Anyone who knows me would think I'm lying about a sewing station, but it's true . . . I'm adding sewing/quilting to the other hobbies/crafts that are housed in my room.  I'm not sure yet how many hobbies are too many for one room, but I'll let you know when I decide.  Anyway . . . I had armed myself with a large trash bag and was mentally pumped to go into my room and start filling the bag with items that have not been reached for, thought about, or used for years.  Before the bottom of the bag had even been covered, I pulled out this brand new, unwrapped Kaisercraft kit and tossed it in the bag:

But then I thought that I should at least cut off the plastic wrap and just see if I might could use it to hold some items for my new sewing station.  And that's how I lost the first 1.5 days of my craft room purge.  Let me tell you . . . this kit was pretty much a flat package with no directions or suggestions.  That alone almost prompted me to throw it away, but I'm so glad I didn't!  I began to assemble the drawers and then chose papers to cover them.  Calculate for yourself how long it takes to choose papers and embellishments, and don't forget to imagine what a big mess that process creates! [my eyes are rolling] I still need to cover the inside of the drawers--if I decide that they should be covered.  Following are close-ups of the drawers:

The square drawers are 3-1/2" wide and 3-1/2" deep.  Nice, huh?

You should try to read some of the text on the "secretary" paper in these photos.  I found it amusing.

The two widest drawers are almost 12" wide and 2-3/4" deep!

See the little bundle of fabric?  How cute is that?  It and the spool of thread are from a Jolee's collection, I think.

Yes, I added small brads to the tires on that vintage chipboard car.

The drawers in the above photo are each 2" x 3-3/4".

All of the papers and most of the embellishments are from October Afternoon collections that I have had for several years.  I purchased them with a project in mind (creating a family recipe book--mostly my mother's recipes), but I never made time for that project.  The collections featured on my storage unit are Farmhouse, Modern Homemaker, and 9 to 5.  

In case you don't know, I was a secretary/administrative assistant before I stopped working (many  years ago) to stay home with my young son.  I 💕 vintage office and homemaker themes!  One of these days, I hope to own a vintage manual typewriter.  Heck, I'd like to have one of the first electric typewriters I ever used!

This is what the unit looked like when I thought I was finished, but then I went back and added some romantic rose trim by the top shelf and a dainty lace edge at the bottom (see first and last photos).  The photos that I took (at night) make the green paint look quite hideous, but it's really not as slimy-limey in real life.

I am so excited about this "new" storage unit and am so glad that I decided to give it a chance.  The drawers are quite spacious, and I know that they will be handy in my sewing corner.  

I realized once I put the unit together that I had omitted painting the ends of the connecting pieces.  As of this writing, I haven't securely assembled the unit and could paint those areas.  I'm thinking about covering them instead as I don't really want to make another paint mess.  It's a really cool storage unit, though, and I'm going to love using it!