Craft Room Inspiration

So we have given our 60 day notice at our apartment complex. We don't know where exactly we will live come June (scary!) but we have a few options ahead of us and aren't too worried that we won't find something. Since we knew from the beginning that we only planned to stay at this apartment for a year, I have held off on all nesting and decorating projects. We plan for this next move to be a relatively permanent one, so I look forward to finally settling in somewhere.
A big item on my nesting list, is creating my office/craft room. I've shown you all what my office currently looks like. And while it's been great in our current living situation, I hope to move it out of the guest bedroom. Ideally we want to set up a den which will house my office and craft corner and a TV and couch for Luke. I'm not the type of person who just sits and watches TV or plays video games. I like to be doing something creative, but that usually means I'm in a different room from Luke. That's been no fun so my computer is currently stationed on our coffee table so I can multi-task but be in the same room as Luke. If we had a den, we could design a pretty space that accomplishes this but everything has it's own space.
A requirement for this space would be a craft table. For the last year, I have had no large table surface to work on craft or sewing projects. Therefore, there has been minimal craft and sewing projects. I have had my eye on a few table options and these are the styles I love...

1. Lulubeka 2. design darling 3. Photo Problem

While I love the simple upcycled look of the sawhorse desks, I adore the organizational factor in the first desk. After doing some research I found plans for both options. I can either build my own wooden sawhorses (if I can't find some at a yard sale or on craigslist) and screw a MDF board on top or I can make a gorgeous storage craft table from Ana White's plans.

{Ana White}

Since I will be using this table for all sorts of arts and craft projects including those that involve xacto knives and strait pins. I wanted a table top surface that would be protected from the damage of these utensils. I vaguely remember reading somewhere about a pad of some sort of material that this crafter would cover her table top with. Once it got worn out she would just tear the top layer off and there would be a fresh sheet below it. If anyone knows what I'm talking about, I would love to hear what it's called.

In the meantime, I have scoured the internet looking for a suitable craft tabletop protector. Not Martha had a great article on using cork and kraft paper for cutting tables. I was able to find some rolls of cork at Amazon, Office Depot, and The Container Store, but all three options would come out to about $40 to cover the whole table. The advantage of the cork is that you can pin patterns directly to the table top so that they don't shift while cutting. The disadvantage is that Xacto marks will tear it up faster than a self-healing option.

Since the self-healing cutting mats aren't in my budget at that size, I looked for an alternative. For around $50 I could cover the whole table surface with a vinyl drafting board cover. This is a viable option, but it's not super budget friendly :-/

The cheapest option I found, was recycling an old piece of linoleum. While not the most ideal choice, it would protect the table surface from scratches.

Of course, I could always opt against having a protective layer, especially if I'm just using an MDF table top that I could always replace later. And I'll probably always use a pattern cutting board when working with fabric which is far more economical at $7.

I'm not 100% sure what I'll decide to do but I'll keep you all posted once I start working on the room.