Tuesday, February 5, 2013

Sewing Space Redo, Trying to Work With What I Got!


As I mentioned, I am really motivated (finally) to get all of my sewing space out of the main part of our house, and into one room, that being our master bedroom.  It's 14 by 16 feet, so it's a bit of a challenge (our kids' rooms are both 10 by 10).  This is where my sewing machine has been for the last year, since I moved it out of the dining room ;-).  That door is the bathroom, and the window is centered on the 14 foot wall, so this little 5 x 5 ft corner is what I have to work with.

Yes, we plan to repaint this Spring. This is a Western town, and the previous owners had the whole house decor based on this (sigh).  If you think the paint job is bad, check out the top of the room.
Yep, that's a wall paper border that is going to be a
to remove!  We plan to paint it a much lighter color, which will reflect the light that comes in from the small North facing window, and will also make it look bigger.  We would love to get rid of the carpet too, but that's not in the budget (yet).

We've had this glass metal desk from "Staples" for many years, and love it, as it takes apart and stores (and moves) easily, but the curved corner takes up a lot of wasted space.  I decided to take the desk apart, and also remove the keyboard tray.
The original plan was to place the now 2 separate desks next to each other, and put one up on risers to make it higher for a cutting table.  As you can see though, I didn't really measure it all first (blush).  The tables are too small for the cutting mats. Dang!
Since I have the roll out cutting table, I then decided to bring it into the room to use as well.
This arrangement works, but I realized that the wall would get pretty beat up putting the table away each time.
I think this is what I'm going to go with.  I like the space to the left of the machine to put a quilt on while I quilt it and the cutting table is easy to access.  Unfortunately, our house has floor vents for the AC and heat, and the only one for our room is right under the window, so I can't really extend anything much further.

I hope to get some adjustable shelves or cabinets up on the wall, and maybe work out some storage for under the desk, or maybe not, as it's nice to be able to clean under there easily.

I also had (what I think is) a great idea to install or place a lamp under the glass table to use as my new light box!!

Having a smaller house is challenging, but in some way it's very freeing.  Moving cross country with a weight limit has also motivated us to really think hard about what things we need and don't need.  We also use less energy, there's less space to keep clean.  I just need to start learning more about how to use the space more efficiently.  We just recently got, for the first time, the "Home and Garden" channel on our TV package.  I've been really enjoying some of those shows!  They're full of great ideas! If anyone has a good book, magazine, or website resource they'd recommend, I'd love to hear about that too! 




7 comments:

  1. Great idea on the light under the glass table! Glad you're able to get a more comfortable arrangement.

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  2. Awesome Becky. : ) My favorite design discovery was an old door in the basement of our house. It makes for a HUGE table space. You can stick low bookshelves or cupboards underneath for even more storage too.
    Cleaning and reorganizing is always such a chore!!! lol Think of that next time you sit down to bind a quilt. Hand stitching is way less stress that redecorating. : )

    ~Monika

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  3. I think you're doing very well with what you have, Becky! I am blessed to have an entire room (about 10 x 10) for my "sewdio". I wondered if turning your cutting table the other way would help a bit. You could store something (like a stand of rulers or a basket of quilting utensils or your sewing box) in that bit in the center and just put out one end of the table when you needed it. If you need both ends, you can still wheel it out and set it up. (I have one of those exact tables and this is what I did with mine for a while prior to moving to my present home.)

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  4. Looks like you are making some progress. It's always difficult to 'make do' with furniture for sewing. New paint will go a long way to making the room a bit less like a barn!

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    1. Since we are in the process of building our new home in Wenatchee our TV always seems to be on HGTV. Check out houzz.com I've found more ideas there....also, search craft rooms on both houzz & Pinterest. They are wonderful resources for great ideas.

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  5. Love the fabrics for your recycle bin. That glass table will be FABULOUS for quilt overflow! Nice and slidy to let it all move for you. Maybe the border will surprise you - 5 out of 6 of the borders we took down when we moved just pulled right off with not much left behind to wet down and scrape off.

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  6. Be careful...HGTV makes it all look to easy to do and inexpensive. Buyer beware. Make sure your husband watches too, so you're both on the same page. I really like lot of do-it-your-self bloggers. Follow pinterest too. I love to rearrange, and have found a coat of paint first makes the whole place look better immediately. Have fun! I'm recovering from his surgery, so I can dream and plan without having to committ! LOL

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