Our Secret Craft Storage

This week's incredible reader space post put me into a crafty mood!  What can I say, I love me some color!



In fact, now that school is out for the summer, the boys and I just went and restocked our craft supply bin.  And then I realized I haven't shared our craft supply bin with you.  The horror! 

I do my best to keep my crafts separate from the boy's crafts.  They aren't as gentle with the paints and markers and itty bitty pieces, so I let them have fun with their own items while I go on working with mine.

So while my craft supplies will ultimately be stored in the future studio space, the boy's crafting items are being stored and concealed in a super convenient and easy to access place.

No, I am not switching gears, those woven storage ottomans are the homes to all of the crafting goodness.  Who would have guessed?  Not many, which is why I adore them as a solution.  In fact, we just popped the ottomans in front of our living room sofa as a potential design remix "coffee table" solution, however, you have most likely spied them around our abode in many other posts as well {we have had those babies for years, you can find them here}.

Anyway, as we know, it's not about what is on the outside....

But what is on the inside that counts!

I found this Snapware storage bin to be the PERFECT fit!

By using a bin like this, we can just grab it out of the ottoman and take it right on over to the kitchen table to create and draw and paint.

So far, it has made great craft storage, since it can stack and clip together, and you can select how you wish to divide out the individual bins:

In one bin, I keep many of our coloring items; paints, crayons and markers:

In another, the smaller craft and supply items:

And in the last {which I ran out of dividers for}, larger items such as drawing pads, construction paper, pipe cleaners and a case of oil crayons:

And when we are all done, it clips back together nice and neat!

We are really limited on closet space, and since we almost always craft right at the kitchen table, using the storage ottomans has really been the easiest and most convenient solution.  We also use our art caddy, which I now keep on a shelf in the lower level playroom to promote impromptu creativity.

So now you know about my secret storage place.  What is yours?