If you’re ready to turn a spare room, or your kid’s old bedroom into a crafting room that inspires creativity and is comfortable, we can help. Comfort isn't just because you go there to relax, the average American who enjoys crafting as a hobby spends roughly 146 minutes (close to 2.5 hours) actively working on crafts in the space.
It comes down to choosing the right transforming furniture that maximizes both surface and floor space so as your crafting style changes, your room can meet your current and future needs.
When choosing furniture for craft rooms, focus on practical components like:
- Storage - Storing and organizing supplies, finished projects, and in-process work keeps space open and protects your work if kids, pets, or spouses decide to come in. Same with protecting supplies that need to avoid dust or UV light like epoxy which can yellow and delicate inks whose pigments break down.
- Collapsible Furniture - Modular furniture like extending tables, desks that fold into a cabinet with open storage bins, and flat folding chairs that are comfortable for extended periods of time allow you to keep floor space open, provide multiple sizes of work spaces, and can turn your hobby into a business or room into a streaming studio if you decide to go to the next level.
- Durability - Work stations must be able to withstand cuts, stains, and burns so the materials must stand up to the types of crafting you do. Melamine for example can be better than natural wood for crafts that work with paints and dyes as its non-porous nature helps repel stains and liquids where wood soaks them in and absorbs the colors.
- Easy to Clean - It isn’t only the surface that needs to be resistant to adhesives and easy to wipe glitter and sequins from, it’s the legs of the tables, nooks of drawers and cabinets, and the furniture's ability to withstand harsh chemicals used to remove stuck on materials like epoxy. Make sure the nooks and crannies are easy to dust so your projects and supplies don’t get contaminated by natural or crafting supply dust like glitter.
Now that you know what to look for, here’s how to find the right furniture that provides a perfect aesthetic for creativity and allows the space for practical usage in your craft room.
Tables
The average height of an adult male in the US is 5’9” and a woman in the US is 5’3.5”, so in order to prevent slouching, you’ll need the right height for each person that uses the room. According to the Cleveland Clinic, slouching can lead to neck and shoulder pains, digestive issues, and other health problems, so they recommend keeping your arms and shoulders at a 90 degree angle while sitting and working.
But not all crafts are for sitting. Sculpting, stained glass, and sometimes painting require standing, which is why your crafting tables both for standing and sitting matter in height, length, and distance.
When standing, the top of the table should be somewhere between your belly button and chest so that your arms can bend a little bit and you can reach supplies without slouching over. At this height you can likely reach across the table without having to stretch across which could cause you to accidentally smudge your projects.
If you are 5’8” (68 inches tall), your belly button is likely around 34” high (your mid-way point), so look for “counter height” tables when picking your standing crafting surface as these are roughly 36” inches in height. For seating, kitchen and dining tables are roughly 28” - 30” tall, so pick a chair that is high enough to keep your arms at a right angle when seated. This one is more trial and error, but you can use your kitchen and dinging table sets to find the right balance.
Space wise go with what can maximize surface area for all your crafting needs now and five years from now. Transformer tables with multiple settings can keep floor space open if you decide to try sculpting assemblages as your crafting skills get more advanced, and smaller spaces for creating paper cards or even doing a jigsaw puzzle while you search for creativity.
For single crafting activities, a 48” wide table with a 30” depth should provide ample space. If you’re working on multiple crafts, either a long 72”x36” or a shorter 60” wide table should work. To futureproof your crafting space so you can clear floor space for large projects like sculpting, and expand surface areas for group crafts like sewing quilts, extending tables like a console to dining table will be your best bet. They work with the space vs you having to make the space work for your crafting.
If you have to choose one table, a 36” tall table may be better as you can always get a higher chair for seated crafting, and change your position up. In addition to lower back pain, prolonged slouching and sitting has been associated with increased exhaustion, hypertension, and decreased satisfaction. Your crafting room is supposed to improve your mood and provide a release of stress, not create it.
In terms of durability, search for scratch-resistant surfaces like laminate or melamine if you’re cutting, sewing, or detailing. Melamine, in particular, is easy to clean and has naturally occurring stain resistant properties. Laminate is another great option when it comes to scratch resistance, as the Overlay layer acts as a hard protective film that defends against scratches, dings, and abrasions. That's why laminate may be best if you’re working with razor blades and sharp objects.
Avoid wooden surfaces for abrasive activities like cutting, sewing, or metal crafts, as well as glass surfaces that scratch easily and show every smudge.
If your craft room will be used for multiple types of crafts or double as a guest room, a console-to-dining table like our Junior Giant Counter Height option may be an unexpected win. It stores against the wall like a decorative console while you have guests staying with you, then expands into multiple sizes and formats that can meet all crafting needs.
Shelves
Shelves are an important piece of the storage puzzle, but the last thing you want are big, bulky shelves as the thicker the materials are, the less floor space you have and storage space for supplies and displaying finished pieces.
Adjustable shelves are better than set spacing like a bookcase as they let you customize for taller items like fabric bolts, yarn bins, or canvas boards. You may be into smaller scale projects now, but trends and passion projects come from nowhere, and you’ll want your future space to work for these new discoveries.
While open shelves are great for displaying finished and treated pieces, you risk exposing your craft items to UV light and dust that can be damaging and tedious to clean. To protect from UV light, if you want open shelves, go for display cases that have UV protective glass, or add glass doors with UV protective glass as one of your next projects.
If you don’t like glass, it is easy to add blackout curtains via a curtain rod on the top shelf that drapes down and slides across half of the shelving or two curtains for the asymmetrical balance to block UV light from your supplies when they’re closed or the room is not in use.
For a dramatic effect, style the curtains like a theatre curtain with a rope and tassel in the lower-mid section if that is your room aesthetic.
Storage Bins
Shelves and cabinets are vital for crafting rooms because supplies quickly take over and get lost if you don’t have assigned spaces. The way you organize each bin can also impact the efficiency of simple crafting tasks.
If you’re using milk crates (as many of us do), it is easy to stack them into a rectangle either two wide or three wide. But that limits the amount of top space you have as a display. A pyramid shape gives you more surface area on the tops while having the same exact amount of storage space in the middle. This is the same with storage cubbies and cubes.
Instead of stacking them, use your creativity to think of shapes that fit within your space and maximize surface area. You could use the different levels of the pyramid above for dipping and rinsing stations, or to display projects you’re proud of as inspiration. Depending on having wall studs, you may be able to float cubbies along the wall in unique patterns to inspire creativity, provide more floor space, and keep storage maximized.
There are ways to get creative with storage bins that may even spark your crafting creativity. Research shows that building 3D tactile shapes out of objects enhances visual-motor feedback that can help build problem solving and idea generating patterns, both of which are important for crafting.
Cabinets
One problem with traditional cabinets is that they hide tools, forcing you to rummage through drawers to find the ones you need. This can slow your flow, especially when you have the perfect idea or a project is drying and you need to have the right tool to finish before it sets. More important they can create hazards if you forget to retract a blade in a box cutter or store razors.
Clear or open cabinets that visually display objects and ideally have light in them make it easy to find the tools and supplies you need, when you need them. If you cannot clear cabinets, use a label maker to line what is in each to make it easier for you, friends who come over for a crafting session, or others that use the room know where everything is and where to put it back when they’re done using them.
By placing "sharp objects" on the door or drawer, you can also alert the person opening it to be careful.
Desks
Craft desks with built-in storage, drop leaves, or fold-out extensions are incredibly useful for a smaller room as the desk provides you with a workspace if you ever decide to sell crafts, or a camera display if you start a streaming show on social media.
Traditional office desks are large, bulky, and scratch easily. Not to mention expensive, and you’ll be putting it through the ringer with knives, paints, and adhesives. This is where melamine and laminate tops work.
There are also office desks that turn into storage cabinets that free up space while providing a shield from UV lights. Our Cove cabinet for example goes from a storage cabinet into a full desk, and makes a perfect surface for a webcam if you want to craft with friends online or have your social media fans follow along with you.
If you go full-time crafting and start selling online, Ludovico goes from a storage cabinet into a full office desk suite to give you maximum floor space when you’re crafting, and a full office set up when you’re working.
Wall mounted desks and shelves can be great alternatives to a traditional desk as they fold almost flush to the wall freeing up floor space when you don’t need a desk.
Chairs
Adjustable-height ergonomic chairs can be comfortable, but they take up a huge amount of space, which is why slimmer folding chairs are better for craft rooms.
Some folding chairs like our Nano Style offer a comfortable pad for when you’re sitting, and you can purchase a set with a hook to store them on the wall freeing up space for you to work when you need the floor clear. Because you can store four on the wall, there is seating for your crafting friends when they come over to work on a project with you.
Finding the right furniture for your crafting room is easy when you know the right height to buy so you can craft comfortably without slouching, have surfaces that protect your work and are hard to damage, and can protect your supplies from the environment and family members that sneak into your craft room.
