The bad economy has many of us looking towards home improvement instead of new homes. The kids are back in school (here at least). If that has you thinking maybe now would be a good time to tackle a scrapbook or craft room re-decoration project, Canvas Home Basics has a tool that will make it a bit easier for you.
OK, maybe I’m a bit obsessive-compulsive when I rearrange my furniture. I like to draw a (to scale) map of the room, create little paper cutouts (also to scale) of the furniture and then rearrange the room on paper until I have it just right. Then I only have to move the furniture once, and I can experiment with many different arrangements. I’ve always used my scrapbook supplies for this before – a 12 x 12 piece of cardstock as the room map and scraps of paper for the furniture. Rudimentary but it worked, even if it did require lots of calculations to create the pieces to scale and the results were a bit, well, wonky. I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve done this with my office/scraproom furniture. I move things in there all the time it seems (and those of you who’ve read here for awhile have gotten to read all about it!)
But now, I’ve discovered a product by Canvas Corp. called Room Spacing Kits that are available at Joann’s ETC stores and through Canvas Corp’s own website called Homespacing.com. These kits are going to make it so much easier to create my scale layouts – in fact, to create a whole design board for the room like an interior designer would.
The kits are available in 7 different variations for all the most commonly redecorated areas of your house (living room, bedroom, children’s room, office/studio, family living, outdoor living and dining/entertaining). The kits retail for $7.99. For doing over your scraproom, the most relevant kit is the office/studio one.
The Office/Studio Room Spacing Kit contains 2 sheets of graph paper and a ruler marked to the same scale as the graph paper (1/4″ scale). This makes drawing your room’s scale layout way easier than a plain piece of paper and ruler! (The graph paper is also available in a 25 sheet bulk package that includes the scale ruler.)
Once you’ve drawn your room to scale, you need to furnish it. The office/studio kit contains two (identical) white sheets of stickers for common pieces of office furniture. There is also a half-sheet of full-color accessories (plants, etc) to use. (Warning: If your furniture doesn’t match the common sizes that are provided, you may have to either cut down a piece to create your own piece or use a piece of paper to make that piece.)
The blank furniture stickers can be colored in using a variety of methods. I tried coloring some pieces using a brown watercolor crayon to create a honey oak appearance and the results were very nice. The stickers are re-positionable for moving around and experimenting with furniture placement. They aren’t perfectly die-cut so you may want to trim off the white edges for a more polished appearance to your room’s layout.
Once you have your layout done, if you want to really get serious about designing your room it takes a design board. The Room Spacing Kits include a sheet of design (mat) board and two sheets of cardstock to mount your room layout and other design elements on: pictures of furniture, carpet/paint/fabric samples, etc. There is also a sheet of stickers for labeling those elements and putting a title on your board.
If you don’t know quite how to draw the room layout or create the board, the kit comes with a fold-out flyer with step-by-step instructions and examples of completed design boards.
Ok…now for the giveaway!
Canvas Home Basics has generously donated nine of these kits for Scrapbook Update’s readers to try out. There are two ways to win one.
First, post a comment on this entry between now and 11:59pm EST Friday, Sept. 12th. to be entered in a random drawing for three of the kits.
Second, post a picture of your scrapbook area to the new Scrapbook Update Scraproom Gallery on Flickr! Six random winners will be chosen from the postings made there before 11:59pm EST Friday, Sept. 12th. And there is special incentive to enter by posting your picture in the gallery – one of the six Flickr winners will also win one of Canvas Home Basics’ Design Project Organizer Binders (worth $39.99) to store their design board and all their design inspiration and work materials in.
(If you aren’t familiar with the Flickr photo-sharing service, it is free to use and if you have a Yahoo! account you are actually already signed up for it. Visit the Scrapbook Update scraproom gallery and share your room and check out everyone else’s!)
Update: The winners of the giveaway have now been posted!
I so need to organize my scrap area. I have taken over an area of my kids playroom and my area looks worse than theirs!
Hi Nancy – Please enter me in your giveway for one of the kits. I don’t currently have a scrapbook space, but need one desperately, so this would come in so handy! Thanks for the chance to win!
Sue in Alexandria VA
How timely! I’m up to my elbows this morning cleaning up my scrappy space to start another project. I’m mubbling to myself about how badly I need to redesign/reorganize this space! Oh! I need one of those kits soooooo badly!
Hi!
I would love to win a kit:)
We are building a new home, and seriously need some ideas and tips:)
Mari from Norway
What a great kit! So creative and user-friendly. As we are redecorating, this would come in handy.
This might actually get me organized! And there’s no way I’m posting photos on Flickr since my scrap area consists of the hallway, kitchen table, and part of the living room (blush).
Sounds like a fun kit to have. I think this is something that I could use. Pick me!!
Looks like a good idea to me and something new to try.
Will you send this prize overseas? If so, I’d love to be considered
I need serious help. My DH made me put everything away yesterday so it’s all stacked in boxes and containers. I own an on-line scrapbook store, and the boxes of goodies are overwhelming! Calgon, take me away!
- Jan
http://www.rwctc.com
scrapwithjan.blogspot.com
I need serious help. My DH made me put everything away yesterday so it’s all stacked in boxes and containers. I own an on-line scrapbook store, and the boxes of goodies are overwhelming! Calgon, take me away!
- Jan
http://www.rwctc.com
scrapwithjan.blogspot.com
Moved again … need help! Please choose me!
This would save so much time. I always draw the room layout to scale when I am re-arranging my scrap room. It helps me visualize better how it will look.
This kit is a fantastic idea! My scraproom is also a computer room that I share with my two kids and so I have lots of “adjusting” to do as we just all moved the stuff in together a couple of months ago. I definitely need some planning help before I buy more things from Ikea OR start moving the TON of scrapbook stuff around. Round one didn’t go as well as planned (LOL!).Thanks for such a great post (as always)! Joy
I certainly could use some help in getting my creative space organized, wouldn’t this be a fabulous way to work toward that goal – thank you. Cindy
What a energy efficient way to re-organize a craft room. The thought of moving even crafting supplies makes me cringe. I would need quite a few bowls of Wheaties to move stuff around until I found the right design.
I would love to win one of the kits. My scraproom has taken over and I am constantly reorganizing looking for a more efficient way to see all my things and actually use them. Thank you for having this contest, I sure could use some help in making organizing decisions.
I would Sooo love to win. Thanks for the chance. I love organizing!!
I’m just getting started, and mostly doing cards, but I know from readng some blogs that organization is a major factor. So it would be great to win some assistance!
I’d love this!! I used to hand-draw my room on graph paper so that everything would fit the way I wanted. I used to change my room a few times a month before I had kids
These kits would save so much time and I can get back to changing my room around again!!
I would love to win…It would force me to do something I’ve wanted to do for awhile now!
Boy, do I need to get organized! I am overwhelmed and don’t know where to turn. I think this would help me.
I would love to win this kit! Being organized would help so much!
Oh, I would so love to win one of these kits! I am ALWAYS looking for a new and better way to organize my scrapbook room.
I would be so grateful to have one of your kits!