Many of my followers ask me how I have my wreath business setup in my home. Well here it is, welcome to my wreath shop! It’s not pretty and I’m sure it won’t be breaking any Pinterest repining records but it is functional. I have my shop setup in my two car garage. I have to share the garage with yard tools and my husband’s Disc Jockey equipment but I’m fine with that; I just feel very blessed to be able to work from home. I guess I could take the time to paint the walls, put in flooring, etc. but honestly, I don’t need a fancy space to be creative and no one sees this space but me. One day maybe I can spruce up the place but for now, I’m just happy that I swept the floor.
It is wonderful to work from home and to be here for the kids when they get home from school. However, I sometimes have a hard time transitioning from work to family life and I usually work longer than I should. Plus it is much easier putting off housework to go make pretty wreaths. LOL My workshop has no heat or AC, the garage door is insulated but not the exterior wall. But that’s okay, I use heaters and fans to help control the temperature. One day I hope to have insulation added to that wall.
Here is a walking tour video I made showing you the different zones of my wreath shop:
I clean the work area 3-4 times a year, typically when I transition from season to season or when it gets so cluttered that I can’t safely walk around. You can see more pictures of my workshop below including some additional notes.
Below is where I stock my shipping boxes. I list where I purchase my boxes locally and places online in my ebook link here www.learndecomeshwreaths.com.
This is the area where I take my pictures. I use three shadow boxes to light the area and I use a piece of insulation to help reflect the light back up. I talk about how to edit photos in my ebook forum, www.learndecomeshwreaths.com I hang some of my premade wreaths on pegs from the ceiling. Hubs created a long hook for me so I don’t have to climb a ladder when I need to get one down.
This is my work easel and table where I hot glue. You can find instructions for making a table top version of a wreath easel link here. I keep containers full of seasonal flowers that I change out as the season does. Most of these spring flowers came from Michael’s or Carolina Pottery. Under this table I store 10” mesh and grapevine wreaths.
I’m supper excited about my storage drawers from Walmart! On the end by the garage door of this photo, I stacked two drawer units on top of each other. The plastic open shelving unit is where I store my current season ribbon (4th of July or St. Patrick’s Day) and is from The Container Store. The black rotating shelf organizer is from Harbor Freight Tools. You can see another video of this on my SouthernCharmWreaths Instagram page here.
Another picture of organizing my ribbon by color in drawers. I love these drawers because they can be pulled completely out so I can take the whole drawer with me to the work table.
I use an elevated card table with a utility mat on top of it for cutting ribbon and making the mesh wreath bases. The utility mat is green and I can use my rotary cutter on it without it damaging the table. I also have a brown piece of cardboard under the mat. I like to write down my wreath recipes in ink pen here, that way if I need to work on a wreath I haven’t made in a while, I just lift up the mat and find the recipe. A wreath recipe is just like a cooking recipe, it has measurements of ribbon and mesh, number of ornaments, placement of elements, and pricing. I give out a lot of my wreath recipes for free to my ebook customers here. I also use the step ladder as a form of shelving to hold my partially used mesh rolls. This helps me to remember to use these first instead of opening a new roll.
I have another table on the other side of the card table where I lay out all of the seasonal signs, ornaments, flowers etc. that I want to use. I work better when everything is out in front of me and I don’t have to search. Many times as I am working on one wreath on the card table, I’m glancing over to the supply table to see what I have and contemplating my next wreath…always thinking ahead. I have a box of burlap mesh and paper mesh on the end of the table, under the blue wreath. Under the supply table I store evergreen wreath bases and boxes of out of season supplies. On the end of the table by the garage door I store long stemmed flowers in plastic garbage cans.
Well, that concludes the tour of my wreath shop! I hope I was able to give you some tips for organizing your own craft room space. Let me know if you can think of a better way to organize mine as I’m open for any and ALL suggestions.
Happy Wreathing,
Julie