DIY Craft Corner

8 Materials
$30
2 Days
Medium
Hello there! Last month Hometalk asked me if I would like to collaborate with Graham & Brown and try out one of their paints, so I figured this was the perfect opportunity to make my little basement craft corner pretty! I chose Graham & Brown's Durable Matt Emulsion finish in the color Warm Moon. The paint went on super smooth and is thicker than a standard latex paint - more comparable to the consistency of a chalk paint, so the coverage was really great! It's not chalk paint though and does not dry chalky!
Our laundry room in our basement is long and butts up to my wood shop, so the little corner right outside my wood shop is what I use for my craft space. As you can see, it was just a blank concrete wall and an orange-y stained wood wall - not very inviting!
I decided I didn't want to commit to painting all the concrete walls just yet, so I went for a backsplash look and stenciled the wall. If you've never stenciled before, my biggest tip is to use a stencil brush and dab the paint on rather than brush. It's also helpful to make sure you don't have too much paint on your brush, by using a shallow surface to dip your brush in (I used my paint can lid) and then dab off any extra on a paper plate or piece of cardboard.
If you're like me and don't want to spend $15 - $20 on a stencil, you can make your own like I did! I just ran an empty laminating pouch through my laminator and then used my Silhouette Cameo to cut out my design.
Once my stencil wall was done, I knew I had to tackle that orange wall! I didn't even have to prime the wall and was able to get full coverage with just two coats of paint.
With everything else painted and looking pretty, the purple and orange insulation at the ceiling was driving me crazy! To cover it up, I ripped some 1/4" plywood to the correct height with my table saw and then used my miter saw to cut them at the proper width. As you can see, I debated on painting them white, but ending up just going with the wood look. I secured them to the insulation with 2" brad nails from my nail gun.
So much better!
For my craft table, I wanted to use up scrap wood and try to declutter my shop a bit, so I built these table legs all from scraps! For the full table tutorial, check out this blog post or visit my Instagram.
I stained the table top with Minwax Special Walnut and used the Graham & Brown Warm Moon for the table legs, stencil backsplash, and wall.
For storage, I wanted shelves above my craft table. I didn’t want to drill in to the concrete though, so I decided to make studs by attaching 2” x 2”s to the ceiling boards with 2.5” screws.
Then I used my jigsaw to cut out some corbels for my shelf brackets. I used my Kreg Jig to make pocket holes and attached the corbels to my studs with 1.25” screws. I also added a little 2” x 2” between the studs for extra support.
For the top of my shelf, I used a 1” x 12” x 4’ and cut out notches where my studs and electrical outlet conduit will go with my jigsaw, so the shelf would sit flush against the wall.
So cute!!!
I filled all the pocket holes and painted the studs Benjamin Moore Revere Pewter to try and match the color of the concrete, and then painted the shelves and brackets the same Graham & Brown Warm Moon as the stencil.
Here's the finished product! I love this space so much now!!!
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  2 questions
  • Lilpixiestixxx Lilpixiestixxx on Jan 09, 2020

    My only question why not hang a ceiling over top since its such a small area keep dust from ruining all your pretty work?

  • Cheri Tanner Cheri Tanner on Jan 09, 2020

    Curious question...since you took the time to paint everything else, why didn't you paint the concrete wall, since its the main focal point before you stenciled? It would of given that space a clean and crisp look? BTW, your table is beautiful...great job!


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  • LibraryKAT LibraryKAT on Jan 14, 2020

    Nice job. You might consider painting the ceiling just in the craft corner. My neighbor did this, just painting wood, pipes etc all with white latex. Turned out nicely but the wood did soak up a lot of paint. It would make the space a bit brighter. Thanks for sharing. :-)

  • Jim Cox Jim Cox on Feb 17, 2020

    When using conduit, any future electrical work like this in the basement should involve a junction box in the ceiling with an accesible cover, and use THHN wire in the conduit down to your receptacle. I personally don't mind the NM (Romex) in conduit, but it will be a red flag for many inspectors when you sell the home. Your little corner looks great : )

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