Designing scrap room - flooring/colour questions

Hubby and I just purchased a new house, and one of the key things we were looking for was a scrap room for me (yay!). This is a space that needs new flooring and painting for sure, as well as a new overhead light, and I have plans to install a lot of shelving. It's the first thing we're doing in the house since the rest is move in ready.

I'm still trying to decide on a paint colour and would love to hear how you decided. Did you go with a favourite colour or neutral so it didn't impact scrap papers? Match some of your gear?

I'm really stumped on flooring. There is (old, ugly) carpet in the room now. Because the room is in the basement and doesn't get a lot of light, it might be warm underfoot to have carpet - but then DH pointed out that it might be easier to just sweep up laminate to get rid of bits of paper, spilled embossing powder, etc. What kind of flooring would you recommend?

So excited to be able to move out of a spare room and into my own space!

Hi. How great that you'll have a space of your own. In the house that I moved from, I had a room in the basement also. It did have 2 nice windows so it had a fair amt. of light, but I would pick a lighter color green than what I had on the walls. And would not choose carpet; the laminate sounds like a more practical choice. Easier to find dropped items, and easier to clean. Hope you find just what you want. Maria

Congrats on your new scrap room
I had carpet at my old scrap room which I loved because I have several back issues & standing on hard floor can cause pain It was cushy too I got commercial so I dropped stuff on it all the time ink pads, glitter.. full stamps,..you name it It was easy to clean I go for a color you love for the walls my old one was bright yellow Here the walls are beige & I want to make it shabby so I am going to paint parts of walls soft pinks, soft greens, . Here my floor is wood floor which is not bad on my back now. Lots of my stuff is pinks of some sort.. bins, roller totes, pink totes, fiskars fuschia trimmer, most of my scrap tools are pink & the art bin cases too & tool boxes too my big shot is, my planner,
I never match to the papers because that would be too hard to do for me

Oh Jenn, how exciting to be getting your own scrap room, and to be able to decorate from scratch.
You will have so much fun, I am sure.
I didn't have a choice with regards to painting, our whole house is harbour mist grey walls and white trim (which I do love) and except for the bedrooms, our floors are all tiles, so no choice there either!
I added my colours with my storage boxes which are black ones and green ones and a splash of hot pink in flowers, frames, little baskets/bowls, canvas on the wall, cushion etc.
But I must say though, I am glad to have the tile floors in here..... easy to clean up. I am not a fan of carpet at all.
If we could afford it we would replace the tiles and carpet and lay down wood floor boards throughout the whole house.

Ooooh congrats on the new house and scrapbook room!

Carpet isn't actually that bad in a scrapbook room as long as you have a good vacuum. I've had loose glitter, embossing powder, small paper scraps, and all kinds of things fall on my carpet. My vacuum takes it all right up.

I have a question for you seasoned scrapers who have their own rooms. My questions: what do you do with more sizzling dies than I know what to do with, probably about thirty Cricut cartridges, and other gadgets too. I just don't know what to do with sizzling dies more than anything else. How do I store them? The sizing towers that I had take up way too much space. When I finally got my own room, I had to get rid of those towers. I believe they are in my basement. P,ease help!

My favorite color is red. I painted the lower half of the room red and the upper half cream. The furniture is black and teal. The rest of my house is neutrals (and some red and teals). The floor is a lovely bamboo (medium dark brown) and the rug is a combination of all of the colors. If I didn't have so much ********, us stuff on my walls, I would love to put up a huge map with pictures on it of all of the trips we have taken as a family. I had a friend who look thick ribbon and made her upper walls look like a pin board and put tons of photos on it. It was adorable.

Lucy, I put my Cricut cartridges into the plastic containers (look like Iris containers) made for them (have them at Michaels, HL, and probably here too). They hold 16 a piece and I have about 135 cartridges.

My scraproom is painted toasted almond (a light beige) with mountain pine laminate flooring. For color I bought prints from Menards with blue-grey and brown tones with a touch of gold. I have several chocolate brown floating shelves that hold my "pretties" (an old mason jar that hold marbles from when I was a kid, another that holds buttons from my grandmother, a piece of coral my daughter brought back from Florida and a small stone camel my son brought back from Kuwait). I put a small rug underneath my chair to keep my feet warm.

I do not like carpet for my scraproom because I spill stuff and am too lazy to stop what I am doing and scrub the carpet right away if I were to spill paint or drop an ink pad on it, or use the vacuum in a timely manner when I spill glitter or embossing powder. In my opinion, laminate or wood floors are the best choices.

For paint, it really depends on what you need to be creative. If you need clean and calm, go for a neutral color. If not, go for something that excites you and makes you smile every time you go in there. I was lucky enough to get my daughter's room when she moved out, and didn't have to paint.

Look at the scraprooms in the gallery before making a decision.

Here's mine: Scraproom 9-29-13 By Rosita

Congrats Jenn! It will be wonderful having your own room to decorate and create in

For flooring, I think it depends what kind of crafter you are. Do you just do papercrafting or do you also do mixed media/work with any paints or anything liquid/ sewing? (example: If you are sewing in there and you have carpet... good luck finding a dropped sewing needle!)

My scraproom came with carpet but we immediately tore it out and put bamboo flooring in because I knew I didn't want carpet. I have had carpet before and it was so hard to keep clean and find small things like gems and brads. Plus I also use paints and I didn't want to worry about that. Also, I have a rolling chair and I couldn't really roll around on the carpet. So we put the bamboo flooring in and I LOVE it. It's so practical and I keep a broom and dust pan in there (of course I had to find one that matched my room decor) and it's so easy to just sweep up all my little scraps. I will say this though... I drop stuff all the time (especially scissors and metal rulers) and I have several dings in my floor. I didn't spend a ton of money on top of the line flooring because I knew I'd be hard on it, so I don't mind the dings. I went with a good middle of the road that I knew would hold up well enough, but cheap enough that an occasional ding here and there don't bother me. There's also a spot that gets most traffic that is showing signs of wear. But again, I don't care because that's what it's there for and I've never once wished I had carpet.

My room is on the 2nd floor, but if I had a basement craft room, I'd actually probably opt for stained concrete. Something that would still look very pretty but would stand up to the wear and tear.

Here's a good pic of the flooring I have. We got it at Home Depot and hubs laid it himself in a weekend.


Vae's Lab
By Vae

That's a really good point Vae - I do sew and cross stitch, and hunting for a needle on hardwood can be hard! While painting isn't really my thing, I do enjoy playing with ink. I keep flip flopping back and forth but I'm thinking laminate flooring is the way to go.

We were in to see the house again this afternoon and show our son, since he hadn't been to our other viewings. I'm just itching to rip out the ugly, ugly hot pink carpet. I've never seen quite this colour before - it's a cross between Pepto pink with rose swirls. Hideous. Walls are currently white (because what else could you PUT with that carpet????) so a total blank slate for me to paint. I picked up a bunch of paint colour cards in a bunch of colours - green, pink, blue, neutrals - and I'm going to take them into my current room to see if anything inspires me.

Also decided to take the doors off the closet and install extra shelving there. You can never have too many shelves, right?

I also flip-flop back and forth, but I'm always cold, even in the summer. I think I've decided on a flat carpet, not indoor-outdoor, but a nice non-plush that my chair will roll on and when I fall out I won't get so banged up :>) I keep a grabber-stick by me since I'm always dropping stuff. It has a magnet on the end and quickly finds pins, needles, paper clips, brads and lots of other stuff that I didn't even know I had dropped :>) If I didn't have the cold-problem, I'd go with laminate, but even then I'd worry about sitting down in a rolling chair. I've been known to have it roll out from under me while I'm sitting down when on a "slick" floor. So, let me rephrase my answer...If I weren't so cold nor such a klutz, I'd go with laminate.

Smooth flooring is definitely more practical. ..my basement Playroom has carpet on the floors n its warm to the touch but hard to keep clean. I'm also in NY, so warm is a priority for 7 or 8 months of the year in a basement! The walls are creamy white but I cant really see them...one wall is mirrored, one has the tv, the rest is shelving. You asked about lighting...I have 7 or 8 recessed lights all around the room. This keeps it nice n bright bc there is no natural light, but I recently added an Ott desk lamp to my table, mostly to erase any shadows from the two lights on either side of my work table. A comfortable rolling chair is a must...you will be sitting for long periods n you might as well be comfy AND mobile!!

How exciting to have your own scrapbooking room. I would definitely put laminate flooring. As for the wall color, I would leave it white (to reflect the light) and add color with storage boxes or containers.

Don't forget to post a picture of the room for us so see. Good luck.

Congrats on your new house and Scraproom. I just added photos of my room to the gallery. It is wonderful having a whole room after having only a corner for 7+ years I have laminate now for the flooring and it's great for easy cleaning but I do want to add a rug. I am a stand up scrapper and hard floors are tough on my joints. I had carpet in our other house and never found it to be a big issue to keep it clean, it was much easier for long periods of standing too

I think I'm going to put in laminate. I have a big area rug in our living room now that won't work in the new house, so I'm going to use it in the scrap room. Best of both worlds?

I think I'm going to paint the walls a soft rose colour to match the rug. I'm going to hang up a couple prints and make it my own little sanctuary.

Thanks ladies, for all your help! We're super excited. Of course I've packed up half the scrap room, so very little creating in my future until after May 14! The rest will go in a box after I make DS's birthday invites and a wedding card this week.

We're in the middle remodeling a room in the basement and decided to go with a vinyl flooring that looks and installs like laminate. We were concerned about adding any type of wood or laminate in the basement in case of any dampness. This was perfect for what we needed it for (a home gym). But the greedy side of me really wishes it could be my new scraproom.

Jenn if you do end up with laminate or hardwood - I strongly suggest investing in good subflooring. When my hubby put laminate in the basement, I strongly objected - it was cold and there was not enough sunlight to warm it up, and I really really don't like cold. he ordered subflooring with plastic grooves on the bottom - don't know what it's called, but the plastic grooves hold air and it adds extra layer between the concrete and the floor ( plus protection from leaks). We've had the floor laminated about 5 years ago - no it's not as warm as the carpet but it's warm enough for me to walk barefooted without complaint. good luck on your remodel!!

It's all fun & games, until someone loses an eyelet.
Rugs & carpets is not a good idea.
Let scraps of paper litter the floor, along with some glitter, loose fibers and other stuff that manages to occupy the lower strata. Coat it all with a sealant. Then every couple of months, don't sweep, just apply another coat of sealant.

Just wanted to add - I think the subfloor Olesya is talking about is called Dri-core. When we were thinking about renovating the basement in our other house (before we sold it), we were going to use that or this other one called Tyroc. Both are highly recommended for basement subfloors and will help keep your flooring (laminate or hardwood) dry.