Sewing Room Re-Do

[elizabeth_mn]

I've been feeling a vague sense of ennui about the sewing room lately. It's feeling a bit overstuffed and cramped, and the organization isn't quite working any more. Mostly I can't put my finger on it, but I want something to change.

This dovetails neatly with my desire to have a better cutting setup. I still cut all my fabric on the floor, because it actually hurts my back less than stooping over a too-low table. But I can't keep doing that forever, so I'm trying to figure out how to squeeze a cutting table into my tiny, cramped sewing room, while also making it feel less crowded.

Step 1 was taking out the bookshelf. (You can see the "before" of my sewing room here and here). I moved it completely out of the room. Its new home is in the adjacent, somewhat small walk-through room we refer to as "the library," where the mirror used to be:



The bookshelf used to be in this corner. Now that space is (mostly) freed up for a cutting table.



And then there's The Stuff. Five fabric bins that I really, really want to reduce to 4, by using up, giving away, and/or re-homing some to the stacking drawers. Some of the stuff in the stacking drawers now will get re-homed to smaller boxes on wall shelves, which will hang above the cutting table.



Ideally, the cutting table and work/sewing table will make a split L in the room, with storage underneath, beside, and above.

The last big unknown is the cutting table. I've been gathering ideas; here are a few:

I like this table made of Ikea Lack tables, but 36" is just a tad short.
I found this sewing room idea blog post with lots of cute ideas.
This craft table made of Ikea Expedit cubes could easily be made with a larger top.
This larger cube table has some storage, but enough open area for the big boxes.
I also saw one and lost the link; it used short bookshelves on each end instead of the cube units. Since I'm planning a corner table, I might do shelving on one side only, and legs on the other.
Then there's always just a plain, tall Ikea table, with no built-in storage. Just put everything underneath.

Either way, I definitely need wall shelves so storage can go UP without making a bigger footprint.

Comments

[nuranar.livejournal.com]

My cutting table is a hollow-core door from the hardware store, with oilcloth stapled over it and set on top of cube/shelving units from Target. I LOVE it. There are different sizes of doors, too; I got the biggest. The 2x3 unit is 36" on the long side, so with the door on top it's over 37" tall. That's as tall as I could find for any pre-made shelving units. And FWIW, I wouldn't want anything much taller than that. I have to stretch to reach the other side of the door.

[undycat.livejournal.com]

I know you want more of an overall solution, but for temporary means, I've heard of people using bed risers to raise the height of their work surfaces for cutting.

[the-aristocat.livejournal.com]

Those Lack tables look very handy. So much storage space.

[starlightmasque.livejournal.com]

I love a sewing room re-do! Looks like you have a really nice space to work in. My cutting table is a concoction of a filing cabinet and two desk hutches all shoved together with a large piece of melamine MDF on top, which is wrapped in wool batting and silver ironing board fabric, and then topped with a self-healing cutting mat. Works really well for me! I love the idea of building a cutting table from storage thingies.