Build a Craft Table in the Closet (It's Cheap and Easy! Do It!)

This is a project for all you closet crafters...

Muahahaha! That was my attempt at a bad joke. It made me giggle.

Ok, so seriously, I don't have a huge house and I have to maximize space so my guest room doubles as a craft room. Since I have to put a bed in there, I don't really have enough space to set up a table in the room. Oh, what to do?!

The only logical thing to do: I took the closet. Guests don't need closets. Psh!

This is my first completely from scratch work project that my brain (and only my brain) has planned so I made it pretty simple so it would go easily!! Usually I consult "The Man" and he will draw up a plan for me and tell me what to buy, but I wanted to do this myself and impress him since I had so much fun impressing him with my build: Knock-off Pottery Barn Hyde Console Table.

So, for inspiration I've been looking at pictures on pinterest of people utilizing their closest as a desk space in their office or work room. I really want a place that I can dedicate to sewing, painting and crafting so I decided that I'd do the same in my guest room with a craft table.

What you need:

MDF or wood measured to fit your space
L-brackets for shelves that will go into the support beams of the house
Screws
Sand Paper
Oil-based primer
Paint
A creative way to prop up your board (see below)

I used a rather large piece of MDF: 24x70 for the base of my table. I really want it to look good so I sanded and sanded and sanded and sanded... did I mention I sanded? I learned from previous projects that its often nice to pay attention to the curves of the wood/MDF with the sander to soften them up just a bit.

Also, don't forget to wipe the board off after sanding. I forgot to do that once. ONCE. Trust me, you want to wipe the board.

And then I used an oil based primer in white to coat the table. This stuff is a biotch to get off if you get it on yourself, so be careful. The man tells me that you need some sort of special stuff that I don't have to get it off.

Yes, you want to be taking advice from someone who doesn't care about being covered in paint and not having the items necessary to remove it. It means I'm a rebel and it's totally cool. Right?

I'll assume you said yes.

I am not a neat painter. I get paint everywhere. I was covered in it and I couldn't get it off for days. Hence the sheet under the ghetto tupperware prop to TRY to protect my garage floor. HA!

So why oil-based primer? I read that it's really important to use oil-based primer because if water get in contact with MDF it will swell and that's probably not the look you're going for. I wasn't about to challenge the authority of Google so I bought the oil-based primer.

It takes about 24 hours for the primer to dry so its TORTURE!! After it dried I sanded some more. Blah!!

I decided to paint my table the same color as the trim in my house: Super White by Benjamin Moore. Why? Because I already had it. I wanted white and a semi-gloss. It works. It's free. I likey. The higher gloss you go the easier it is to clean, too, so I recommend at least a satin or higher.

Even after I primed it I had to paint two coats onto the board to get good coverage and then I spray painted it with shellac to seal it just in case.

After that the majority of the work was done!

Next I decided the height of the table and then "The Man" just couldn't stand that I was doing something manly without him so he helped me put the brackets on the wall and slide the MDF into place. We used four brackets and spaced them where there were support beams in the wall. That thing isn't going to budge.

Tada! All done!

I put my crafting supplies, art easel. sewing machine on the table, and silhouette portrait, then added some storage for more supplies. I spray painted a plain pegboard and the wire baskets to hold small supplies like paint, tape, scissors, and other things that I grab often. I found a storage container on clearance (yay!) for my yarn, small decorative piece, scrapbook art, and a few other crafty things. I love it and it fits perfectly under the table!

I repurposed a large basket (I found on clearance at pottery barn for $29) as storage for wrapping paper under the table. I found a set of canvas boxes on Amazon.com for super cheap to use as storage on the shelves and they hide most of my crafting supplies. I can even use them to store some of my smaller painting canvases, but the larger ones I have to put under the table.

I'm going to make little chalk signs to label them with their contents. I thought that might be more practical than using something permanent like vinyl because I change what I store in them so often. I also think cute little chalkboard signs would add a little character to the boxes, too. Plus, I'm a little obsessed over chalkboards. I made two for my house and a third for my bestie's house so I have plenty of chalkboard paint waiting to be used in my garage.

I also found some under the shelf wire baskets in the closet section at Home Depot. They are awesome. I put my vinyl and contact paper in one of them and some other supplies that I use often (glue, paints, small fabric, chalk) in the other.

The Man was so impressed by these little baskets he wanted some for his closet space. Haha! I'm a trend setter! :)

I also used a tension rod to hang up my ribbon in the corner. I love it! I just take what I need when I need it and I can see everything I have at a quick glance. No more looking through boxes! Yay!

Since the room is so small, we took down the original closet doors because since they were the folding out kind they just took up too much room.  I made curtains for the closet so we could close up the crafting area if we needed to use the space for a guest room. I re-used an old chair that I had gotten from Overstock.com for $30.

It still need a little bit of work, but it's getting there!