Archives for July 2017

How to Install Giant Pegboard for Craft Room Organization: In this post, you’ll learn how to install an oversized pegboard organizer on your wall. This DIY pegboard display is perfect for craft room, office, or even kitchen organization.

Anything you could ever want, for any project, resides in Eileen’s craft room.

Ribbon, paint, pipe cleaners, card stock, felt, sewing materials, hot glue. Not to mention all of the kids crafts and holiday materials.

However, there was no room for any kind of craft room organization and storage. I usually found Eileen behind a mountain of fabric or sitting amidst a pile of felt scraps. The closet was packed with those plastic drawer organizers filled to the brim.

With hopes to organize, and perhaps even empty the closet, Eileen wanted to add storage to the walls. It was a great idea because there was tons of wall space that was barely being utilized.

She had her office desk and computer in that corner, so she envisioned being able to spin around in her chair and easily access any of her materials.

Her craft room organization and storage vision included a giant pegboard, shelving, and wall-mounted cubby storage. 

Creating Craft Room Organization and Storage

In designing a plan, Eileen was thinking that she would have oversized pegboard continue into the corner, using hooks and mini shelves to hang up craft supplies that she used a lot – scissors, tape, paints, brushes, etc.

Then, above that she would have two long shelves that would hold a bunch of fabric storage bins. She also has a large supply of those fabric storage bins, as they are all over our house. She keeps holiday decorations in them, learning activities for our son, party supplies, and a lot more. The more bins she could fit on these shelves, the better.

Last, and the part she was most excited about was the wall-mounted cubby storage. These would be little cubbies that could hold all kinds of things – bins of felt scraps, stacks of card stock, envelopes, and little bins of office supplies.

Time for me to get to work on a design for all of this craft room organization and storage.

Making a Design

I took Eileen’s ideas to the drawing pad and sketched out some 3D designs in TinkerCAD.  Here is what I came up with for her craft room organization and storage:

The black box is the filing cabinet. The aqua panels on the wall are the diy pegboard display. The semi transparent block in the center represents the dimensions of Eileen’s desk chair.

The craft room organization and storage project was going to be fairly easily to get done.  The pegboard and shelving was straight forward. The only slightly challenging piece was the cubby storage. I had never made cubbies before, but it didn’t seem too hard.

Must-See Before & After

Here are a few before pictures of the mess. The first one is of the corner that is now transformed. The second is a messy closet filled with plastic storage drawers filled with crafting materials (that were then emptied onto the storage cubbies, shelves, and pegboard.)

And, here was the final result.

The craft room organization and storage project truly turned a messy, wasted corner of space into a craft room dream.

All of this craft room organization and storage completely emptied 5 bins/dressers/plastic storage containers worth of materials. Crazy, right?!

 

Planning

To embark on this craft corner storage and organization project, I started off with a quick trip to Home Depot.

The craft room organization and storage DIY project was very modular.

There were three unique pieces (giant pegboard, shelving and cubbies) that could be worked on and installed independent of each other. In this post, I’ll cover how to install the giant pegboard. 

How to Install the Pegboard

I chose to work on the pegboard panels first. They were the simplest to get done.

The store-bought pegboard needs a backing frame to ensure there’s enough space for pegboard hooks to be inserted.

Most people usually use furring strips for the frame. Since I didn’t have any, I started by cutting some 1” backing strips from scrap wood with my table saw.

Here’s a picture of my self-made furring strips:

To assemble and join the strips into a frame, I used pocket holes. Here’s a picture showing my Kreg pocket hole jig in action:

Here’s the framing coming together.

When the pegboard frame was completed, I secured it to some wall studs using deck screws.

I later built another smaller frame on the right to make the pegboard paneling hug the corner.

It was now time to paint the pegboard. Eileen picked out a crafty color from Benjamin Moore. She and our son had a fun trip to the paint store, where our son picked out his favorite color paint chip and got to bring it home 🙂

Prior to rolling on the paint they picked, I laid out the pegboard on some 2x4s in the driveway. Then I rolled on two coats of paint.

The pegboard was ready to attach to the mounted frame. Here’s a picture showing the final result of the craft room pegboard:

To secure the giant pegboard to the frame, I used pocket hole screws. They were perfect because they had built in washers and would prevent the pegboard from ripping through the screw heads under load.

Here’s a picture showing one of the pocket hole screws:

The first part of the craft room organization and storage project was checked off my list.

Pegboard Organization Tips

Below is a picture of how Eileen organized it all. The craft room pegboard completely emptied out her plastic desk organizer and more.

On the pegboard, Eileen used a collection of various pegboard hooks that I had, as well as some awesome little plastic buckets from Dollar Tree (3 for a $1). I did order some fancy pegboard organizers from Amazon, but I kept them for my own pegboard since she was happy with her organizational system.

I have to admit – I have already benefited from the pegboard organization. When making a few measurements upstairs, I easily grabbed her measuring tape. The scissors are found easily without digging through a drawer – and I just used the fishing line to make a kite with our son – without having to ask for where they were or dig through storage containers.

Here is the final craft corner – with the pegboard, the DIY cubby shelf, and the wall shelves. 

 
Here’s another shot after some creative uses of pegboard hooks:

And most impressively…

With the amount of new storage created, Eileen was able to empty out tons of storage containers. She emptied three storage towers, one cart, and one dresser. She completed underestimated the amount of space all of the new craft room storage gave her.

Don’t forget to download our free plans for this craft room organization and storage project.

The new craft room storage made a huge impact in Eileen’s craft room and office. She emptied out so much space in the closet, which can now be a linen closet.

All of that wall space that was wasted before was now holding an incredible amount of craft and office supplies. Her craft room organization and storage problem was solved. And, all of her craft materials were easily accessible, rather than shoved in bins and bins in the closet.

Eileen’s craft room and office is her absolute favorite place in our home, as she has floor-to-ceiling bookshelves with a window seat on one side and a highly organized craft corner on the other side. It’s truly her dream room.

It was well worth the time and investment.