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My first shipping station (2013) – Small home-based office

I've been working on organizing my shipping station for a while now, so I figured it's time to share some of the progress! The first project I did was the frame to organize orders, washi tape, bakers twine, and other goodies. Ken helped me by making a custom table for me to organize my paper, shipping rolls, and mailers.

DIY shipping station

The new table was designed to go side by side with an old dresser we had in our bedroom but that didn't fit anymore, so now with both of them my work surface is bigger and I have space to set one of my printers and use the rest as my wrapping desk.

UPDATE:  You can now see how my updated shipping station looks like in 2020. Check out this post about my Shipping Station set up tips: How I use my home studio to ship orders.

Along with the frame I also made a cardboard organizing box for my work area, I painted it green to go with the boxes I made for the bottom area, you can check out the tutorial for those here.

scale for shipping station

I used a wood dowel that I painted white to organize my spools or baker's twine and a small Kraft wrapping paper roll. I used a wire mesh behind the frame, and with the same mesh and cage wire clips.

I made make small containers sized to fit all the small items I wanted to organize in the frame. Since the edges of my boxes were pretty rough, I added pink yarn around the top edges of the containers.

small station

RELATED:  You can see what my whole office looks like in this post: Studio tour: The HowJoyful office and to check the sewing room go to the second part: The HowJoyful Sewing room.

scale for shipping station

I also made covers for both printers and added white shelving paper on the top of the dresser and shipping storage table. You can see some additional pictures of how the station is shaping up.

I'm pretty happy considering I spent $20 on the material for the frame and $20 for the material for the table, all the rest were things I had around the house, paint included. So a shipping station for $40 I think it's a pretty good deal =]

printer cover

The printer I purchased to sell prints on Etsy is this Epson Workforce, and I also selected this Epson archival paper,  the quality is SO GOOD! Especially compared to other alternatives to print high-quality archival paper.

desk organizer

Printer and stand

I love how much Twine this roll has, and it's super economical, so I recommend it to anyone looking for some red bakers twine.

Box storage

order clip

This is also my favorite packing tape now ( I changed brands after this pictures) because it's thick enough for big boxes and cheaper than the Scotch ones. I also purchased this dispenser and spray-painted it so it fits the office better ( I keep washi tape in the additional slot, I LOVE it!)

full view shipping station

desk ans scale

color

I also purchased this Pantone Guide when I started offering prints in my shop, it's so easy to find the colors I love and get the HEX colors to use them, such a handy tool when you are doing color matching!

order clip

to-do sign
Here you can see how the dresser and my new table looked like before painting. Paint makes everything so much better right!?

before shipping station

I hope you are all having a lovely day! I'm excited to keep showing the rest of the projects I'm working on right now, hopefully, I'll finish this studio soon!
XOXO

Nicole

Tuesday 17th of June 2014

I just love your shipping station, its a really great set up! I know this post is over a year old but do you have the plans, a sketch, or even just some detailed measurements for the green organizer (next to the scale?) I know its made of cardboard like your other boxes but I'd love to get a bit more info so I can make my own! Thank you!

Sparks From Trivia

Tuesday 28th of May 2013

I love this colours together :)

Zoe

Friday 24th of May 2013

I love how you have designed it, it is organised and still looks great!

Laura Jane @ Super Sweet Life

Monday 20th of May 2013

I LOVE it! So fun and organized! Packaging orders is my least favorite part of running my shop, but I think this might actually make it fun.

Jess G

Friday 17th of May 2013

Wow - that is really amazing! I am also a fan of how painting different pieces of furniture the same color gives them all a cohesive look. And the picture frame is probably my favorite piece!

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