A New Craft Room

I do a lot of crafting.  Mostly I like to do fiber arts and paper crafting. But I am also fond of stained glass.

So one of the first projects we need to work on in our new home is making a craft room.  The room I chose was used as an exercise room by the previous owners.  Once their equipment was removed, it was an empty room with strange carpet. The carpet will have to wait, so we made a plan using cabinets on sale at Lowe's and got started.

   

The cabinets were easy to get.  We've installed a lot of them over the years, so that was pretty easy, too.

  

The counter tops have been an issue. Our last craft room was configured so that the finished edges of the counter tops were  the exposed edges.  The cut edges were against the wall and any minor imperfections in the cut were hidden against a wall.

  

Most of our tools are still buried in a storage unit and we can't build work benches until our new garage is finished. And we haven't even gotten the permit yet. Our choices are limited.  Cutting Formica counter tops with a built in backsplash and limited tools was not something I wanted to try.

   

In the end, we went with 3/4 inch plywood with a maple veneer.  Because this room is in the basement and doesn't have a window, I wanted a very light countertop. I chose to use some white wood stain to allow the grain to show through while keeping a light color.

   

I used the stain on the trim pieces.  Before I finished the tops, I used a bit of spackle to fill the slight gaps.  It might not be noticed by a casual observer, but I will be up close and I wanted a more finished look.  You can see the difference between the top and the bottom.

It took two coats of a polyurethane to protect the top and make it smooth for dealing with fabric.

Once that is dry, we will screw the tops down and start organizing.