The great sewing room makeover - phase II

In my first post on this subject, I promised I'd document the makeover of the annexed room once it was done.  Today the Murphy bed was delivered.  And I installed the new halogen light fixture (wow, that is bright!).  So it's sufficiently done to show you.

Behold:

The two Expedit units I put together a few weeks ago are shown here.  It didn't take very long before they were both pretty full.  I rolled my knit stash into two cubes of the shorter unit.  Previously, this part of my stash was in under-bed storage and so practically inaccessible.  Reacquainting myself with it was a good thing - I've already used part of one piece!

On the opposite wall is the pièce de résistance - the newly-installed Murphy bed.  It looks like a nice big closet, but folds down to be a full-sized bed!  It's very easy to operate - special hardware ensures it is practically effortless to raise and lower.

It even has a built-in reading light!

I love the fact that this bed means the room is completely dual-purpose.  It's a very comfortable bedroom, but it leaves tons of space for my cutting table, when the bed is folded up!  Finally!  I can walk all the way around my cutting table.

Bliss.

Massive sewing room reorganization - finally!

The Sewing Lawyer has a lot of stuff.  And, until recently, there was not a whole lot of room to store it all in.  I had the third (smallest) bedroom for my sewing room.  In that approximately 8 by 10 foot space, I had:

• A big corner desk top sitting on two ancient metal file cabinets;
• Large office chair;
• A massive cutting table;
• Two wooden shelf units - 3 feet wide by about 6 feet high - each loaded to the ceiling with bins of fabric, books and other items;
• My duct tape double;
• Various wicker baskets containing this and that;
• An Ikea 3 drawer under-desk unit on wheels;
• My super duper ironing board and related gear;
• Piles of miscellaneous stuff - like UFOs, my current "actual" project, my current "future" projects and a whole bunch of "maybe sometime" projects, as well as huge piles of overflow stash.

Due to certain non-negotiable features of the room (primarily a corner closet door and the location of electrical outlets, there was only one way to get everything in, and the result was a messy maze.  It was embarrassing. Lately, it was dispiriting.  I think it was depressing my sewing mojo.  

The next three pictures date from early 2009.  From time to time it was better, but then it was also (if I admit it) periodically much worse.

To the right is a view from the hallway door.  You can see the closet door in the far left corner.  It's really hard to get into the closet because the door opens the wrong way (hinges on left).  The ironing board jutted into the room because that was the only place it could go.  But it was like a big wall blocking off access to the cutting table, closet and window.  

 The beautiful photo at left shows the two shelf units that were located in the right hand corner on the window wall, i.e. opposite the hard-to-access closet from photo number 1.

One more? To the right, please meet my sewing table.  This was inherited from the original owner of our early 1950s house.  He built a lot of items for the house out of 5/8" plywood.  The table top has green battleship linoleum on top and it weighs a ton.  Perversely, I like it. However, the actual sitting space (between the two ancient file cabinets that hold it up) was limited because the table was jammed between the hallway door on the left and another closet door on the right.  That closet stores all my pressing equipment, and also contains the only electrical outlet I can use for my iron and ironing board without blowing a fuse.

Several years later, and my son (who occupied the middle sized bedroom) grew up, went off to university, and eventually moved away.  It finally felt right to expand into the unused space, and besides, we just took him the biggest piece of furniture - a double bed.

So....

Off to Ikea we went.  For the new (to me) room I purchased the Expedit shelf unit that is 4 cubes square (16 total) and the 8 cube unit on three casters.  I had a lot of fun putting them together, and then even more fun moving all my sewing, knitting, fashion and miscellaneous crafting books into them.  I have also ordered a Murphy bed so that my son will still have a place to sleep when he visits.  When no one is sleeping there, it will fold away leaving lots of room for ... my cutting table!  (The table takes up a lot of real estate, but it is just a door that sits on Ikea legs; so knocks down flat in no time after you find places for everything that might perhaps have been piled on it.)

I'll document the annexed room once it's finished, but now, behold the new, reorganized, MUCH IMPROVED and seemingly MUCH MORE SPACIOUS sewing room of The Sewing Lawyer.  Since pictures say it all:

The view from the hallway door.  With the cutting table gone, I could put the corner desk in the opposite corner, which allows the ironing board to be placed along the wall.  This is not only a better use of the space, it'll be easier to use my gravity feed iron in this setup, since the hose comes from approximately the middle of the board instead of the very end.

I have a tray set up on top of the little Ikea drawer unit since I need somewhere to pile up my in-progress project.

I put the two shelf units on the hallway wall, where the sewing table used to be.  They "just" fit.  I have to reach in behind to work the light switch.

Behold my functional (and temporarily neat) sewing desk!

I'm very pleased with this layout and hoping to be very productive in it.  

This is really boring

However, it seems necessary to document the completion of my brown canvas "boxes", since (surprisingly) so many of you expressed interest in this very utilitarian project.

Without further ado.

Box open and stocked with my white interfacing collection.  There's room for more!  (The sides are just propped open, they are not stiffened even slightly).

Box flaps closed over contents.

Boxes in situ.

They are squashier than you may have expected.  I decided against getting all fancy with closures and labels.  The flaps will stay down.  Gravity is my friend.  And decorating the flap with a small square of the type of stuff inside is quite a graphic reminder.

Sadly, I still need a plastic bag or two up there.

I could make more, but I am going to do something more interesting instead.  At least I won't be at risk of an interfacing avalanche when standing at my cutting table.

Paralyzed by clutter

This is one corner of The Sewing Lawyer's rather small sewing room.  It may explain the title:

Specifically, the problem is the bags up top.  They contain my stash of interfacing, silk organza, and batting.  There's also a bag each of biggish scraps of wool coating and fake fur up there.  Every time I need some (say) black fusible, I have to take down two or three bags before I figure out which bag hides the black fusible.  It seems every time I put them back, I cause a slippery plastic bag avalanche.  A bag full of interfacing that falls the metre or so distance from the top shelf to my cutting board is rather inclined simply to give up the ghost and split, spilling its contents everywhere.

Recently I've basically given up putting them away, which means they are on the cutting board, and on the floor.  Too much clutter makes it impossible to sew.  This is not good.

I've had it.  I have the equipment, the supplies and the ability to fix it.  Enter a bolt of sturdy brown canvas (Fabric Flea Market).

A design.  Rudimentary, but it should work.

Heavy canvas "boxes" will not slip and slide on each other.  I hope they sit nicely side by side up top.

They may need some kind of handle too.  I'll work it out as I make the first one.  I have five cut out.