I am sooo excited and happy to have this renovation completed. My wonderful husband had some extra time off over the holidays and he was able to put the finishing touches on my sewing table and ironing board. If it hadn't been so cold here in November/December, he would have finished sooner, but it's just been too cold to paint. A few nights above freezing plus a new shop heater finally saw it done.
The total makeover took around 8 months, cost a good deal more than the initial budget and is SO worth it! I LOVE my sewing space. I'm in it every chance I get, even when I'm not sewing. I've showed bits and pieces of it along the way, but I thought I'd give you the grand tour now that it's finished. Here's an overview of the room from the door. It's a pretty large room at 15.5' x 28'.
Before I go any further, let me remind you what it looked like before the renovation...
Huge change, isn't it?
As you come into the room, on the left are bookcases (which I got at Target) where I store my large pieces of fabric and a lot of my precuts. It also hold my sewing library. I gave away a bunch of fabric and books when I started the renovation wanting to keep only what I think I can use. There's still a lot of it though!
Continuing on to the right is my quilting frame. I used to squeeze behind a couch to use it before, so I love having all the open space now. (I really must get busy quilting that quilt though!)
Along the back of the room is tons of storage and the built in window seat. The pets enjoy getting up there and napping or looking out the window and the countertops have already come in handy for laying things out.
I put up this curtain rod that has clips so I can easily change out the quilt. The space is the perfect size to hang Schnibbles quilts (or quilts less than 36" in width.) I've so enjoyed participating in Sinta's and Sherri's Schnibbles' parades when I've been able and this is a great place to display those quilts.
I'm in my sewing room before dawn every morning and this is the view I have when the sun comes up. Many days there are deer or squirrels out there as well.
Considering how utterly cluttered my old room felt, I've gone to great lengths to make this room feel the opposite. That means keeping the countertops relatively empty. The only things on this one are a couple of bundles I won from Carrie and my ruler rack.
Continuing around we come to my ironing board and cutting table - both of which my husband built. The top of my ironing board is 2' x 6' and the cutting table is 4' x 6'. That's plenty of space for any project I'm working on. I put my most often used quilting/sewing notions in these 3 drawers. My sewing table is across from the cutting table and my chair is on wheels, so I can simple roll on over for anything I need!
Finally, we have the last corner of the room. It has my new sewing table and a bunch more storage. The sewing table is also 4' x 6' so I can have multiple machines out or some friends over to sew!
It took me a long time to organize the cabinets/drawers and figure out how I wanted to arrange things (but I get a kick out of that kind of stuff, so it was fun for me.) Everything has a place now and hopefully I'll remember where that is! For example, all of my charm packs have found a home in one of the cabinet drawers.
All of the random fat quarters or smaller cuts of fabric are organized in baskets and sorted by color in one of the cabinets. It makes it really easy to find what I need.
There's a drawer that holds the instruction manuals and hoops for my embroidery machine.
And the cabinet below it holds all the other thread, stabilizers and notions needed for embroidery as well.
Another drawer holds fusible webbing and similar items. I found the drawer organizers at Target. They were extremely useful for holding all of the small items that would otherwise get lost in there.
Those are just a few of the many drawers and cabinets. I always love seeing how other people have organized their things so I wanted to share a few of mine. I also have each UFO tucked away in a separate basket and stored in the cabinets. I'm really going to try and empty a few of those baskets this year!
It's such a pleasant space to be in now that it will be interesting to see what I create in there during the next year. However much or little that turns out to be, I'm sure I'm just going to enjoy spending my time in there.
I hope you enjoyed the tour!
“Always
be full of joy in the Lord. I say it again—rejoice!”
Philippians
4:4 (NLT)
