Magazine files: A Paris-inspired craft room

Who hasn't traveled someplace magical only to come home wishing to have stayed forever? For Laura Blackwell, it was her love of Paris that inspired her to fashion a craft room that reminded her of a French atelier.




Laura's gorgeous craft room was featured in Mary Engelbreit's Home Companion's April/May 2008 issue, which I recently unearthed from my mountainous heap of older but inspiring magazines.

In the photo above, burlap curtains adorned with black velvet ball fringe add just the right touch of elegance to a room that also features a dash of vintage and a few adornments Laura brought back from her frequent trips to Paris.




Pamela uses the room for sewing on her mother's old Singer, painting and wrapping gifts. This is one of the best-looking chalkboards I've seen, with a vintage frame adding some personality.




A bottle drying rack displays Pamela's large collection of ribbons and a collection of trophy cups hold some supplies though most supplies in this room, a former bedroom with no closets, are hidden inside stacked containers behind the linen curtains. No frumpy-looking cabinets to spoil the look here! Pamela says she got the idea from a favorite shoe boutique in Paris.




This magazine spread caught my eye because I've always been inspired by creative workspaces and I, too, love France.

Unfortunately, the last issue of Mary Engelbreit's Home Companion magazine was its December/January 2009 issue, one of the many casualties in magazine publishing due to a loss of advertising revenue. I discovered the magazine too late, after finding a few issues in a big crate of magazines I received a while back courtesy of a fellow member in my local Freecycle group. Now, I find myself clipping practically the whole magazine, with its inspiring house and workspace tours and artist profiles, among other things.

A quick peek at a new blog written by Mary Engelbreit shows she and her company have not lost hope that the magazine could one day be published again. If you are also inspired by creative workspaces, I suggest you take a look at a Tumblr group I discovered hopping around the Internet last night. It's called workspaces.