Creating the ultimate Scrapbook Room- flooring

What is the #1 things we over look when creating our scrapbooking space? Hands down it has to be the flooring! I don't know about you, but I'm a messy scrapper! Paper snip-it's all over the place and to be perfectly honest I drop things on the floor- more frequently then I'd like to admit. I do more than just scrapbook in my space, I sew, knit, crochet, do counted cross stitching, there's general paper crafting, painting of small to larger projects, there's also water color painting and a few other things. Needless to day the floor gets quite the work out!

I crack up when I see carpeting in 3 rooms- the kitchen, bathroom and a craft room. carpeting in any one of these rooms is a mistake! My friend Liz had carpeting in a house she and her husband rented when they were stationed in Oklahoma, the little base house we lived in before moving here (aka The Cottage) had carpeting in the kids bathroom- HUGE mistake! And when I used the formal living room as my scrapbooking area in our house in Virginia, it too had wall to wall carpeting. I found myself having to go into the kitchen and breakfast nook and do my stamping, inking and heat embossing.

When creating my latest scrapbook nook, I wanted a durable yet easy to clean up kind of flooring. My floor is a laminated wood flooring by Wilson Art, similar to Pergo - the only true difference it that it was less expensive :-) Since my room is on the ground floor, I wanted an insulated pad underneath of it- makes for a cushy walking surface and keeps out the cold. Clean up is a snap! If I drop and ink pad I get a baby wipe (which I keep on hand) and simply wipe up the ink! It's easy to keep clean, a quick swish of the broom or my floor vacuum and all of the paper snip-it's and blue tabs from my adhesive are quickly picked up. If I'm doing some heat embossing, I can get the blown off embossing powder off the floor with my swiffer duster or my swiffer wet mop quickly and easily. But don't think that you HAVE to get a laminated floor, there are many types of vinyl flooring or even tile flooring for that matter that are made to be long lasting to wear and tear, and to messy crafters such as myself this stuff is a blessing! LOL!

Can you imagine trying to get needles out of carpeting? I've dropped my container of sewing needles more than once on that floor! How about trying to pick up tiny eyelets and brads that have fallen on the carpet? Can you hum the tune to mission impossible? Or the worst- embossing powder and ink that's gotten on the carpet? Start crying now because because those things are almost impossible to get out!

Going with a nice washable flooring that has a good surface that's not textured is the way to go!