I have an armoire in a corner that I use as an office and to store some of my craft supplies – a recent addition to our house that I don’t know how I lived without, since it enables me to store so much stuff, and gives me a workspace for my computer.

After seeing some very cool DIY projects on other blogs about how people made great craft organizers for their homes, I’ve been thinking about how I can better utilize my space.

Here’s what my office looks like with the doors closed:

Leah's Office (doors closed)

The bottom half is storage – there is a shelf about halfway up, so it’s a great place for larger boxes of things, books, and a filebox. No pictures of that space, yet, because I haven’t quite decided what I want to do with it.

So here’s the functional part of my studio/office, with the doors open:

Leah's office (doors open)

One side houses my computer, router, etc., and the other side has a cube shaped organizer with pens, small notepads, scissors, packing tape, and other useful items I use most often so they are always within reach. There is a power strip in back, which I use as a charging station for cell phones and things, and a letter file for things I haven’t filed yet (which is getting really full….I hate filing…..).

There is also a shallow shelf underneath for printer paper, business cards, and other office-type stuff I use for my jewelry business.

Yesterday, I started working on what to do with all the unused space above – I installed cork tiles on the side walls, so I can start pinning up photos, quotes, pretty notecards, and anything else I want to look at while I work.

These boards can also be hidden, by sliding the doors back inside the armoire:

Leah's Office (doors covering cork boards)

The doors are solid wood, about 1/2 inch thick, so they can handle having some hardware installed on them. I’d like to use that space for some kind of hanging organizer for a few of my craft tools and supplies. One thing I’ve seen that I really like are dowels that you can slide rolls of things onto – rolls of wire, ribbon, tape, etc. – so I definitely want at least one dowel, and probably lots of hooks.

Unfortunately, the back is very thin wood, maybe 1/8″ thick, so I don’t think I can do anything to it without damaging it, but I’m thinking about hanging something like a clothesline across it, using hooks in the back of the side walls, so that I can at least make it visually appealing by hanging up some of my favorite photos and other lightweight items.

Today I am hoping to go to the hardware store for some hooks so I can start setting it all up, and either the craft store or drug store for some pretty thumb tacks to use on my new cork boards.