It occurred to me this week that I have NOT actually written a blog post about my sewing studio here in our Indiana home. I did a full tour on YouTube and Instagram and I have shown it many times on my Instagram stories and here in snippets on various posts. I am actually going to be making some BIG changes in the next few days/ weeks so I thought a tour was due now but if you prefer video-I have included that below.
Let’s start with the room itself. The above picture is a wide angle view showing the entire sewing studio/craft space. I actually share this space with my husband. We each have two of the Ikea Havsta cabinets plus I claimed the TV one 🙂 This house had a full walkout lower level. It is exactly what we were searching for in terms of usable space. Our previous house had a traditional (but beautifully finished) basement with almost no windows and 7ft ceilings. I didn’t like to go down there because it felt completely closed off from the rest of the home (it was since the stairs were turn style) and it felt dark even though it was well lit. One of the boxes to check on our house shopping was a walk-out so we could have natural light and taller ceilings if possible so it didn’t feel too claustrophobic.
This home MORE than fulfilled those requirements with being a complete walkout lined with windows and having not only higher ceilings but 10ft ceilings!!! In fact, this was beyond what we had hoped to find. The windows on the sides are 6ft tall and the door is 9ft tall. This room is also quite large.
Design Wall
My design wall is 8 wide by 9 ft tall for size reference. The design wall (which needs a post all its own) is essentially foam core board wrapped in flannel. I am determined to be a better blogger (she said right before expecting baby number 5…haha) and document more. I tend to be all or nothing and if I can’t properly blog a novel length post-I just don’t. But I think my new approach will be short, sweet and often.
Custom Sewing Desk
Let’s star with my sewing desk. This was a dining table hack that became my built-in sewing table. I blogged about the entire process here. Originally I used an Ingo table from Ikea which worked well in my very first sewing room set up. It was a lot smaller and lighter but as I got more into quilting and started quilting my own quilts-I wanted a larger space. I also wanted something that didn’t vibrate every time I sewed at max speed. This has been the MOST functional piece for sewing and I just love it!
Ikea Hack Cutting Table
The other star of my sewing studio is my Ikea Hack Cutting Table WITH batting storage. The full tutorial of this piece and how we made (along with a PDF list of materials can be found here).
I also filmed another YouTube video on how I change the roll and show the different pieces.
The goal for this cutting table was to look like a piece of furniture. However, it needed to be mobile because I knew we were planning to move when we were in Ohio. Originally I thought I would have my father-in-law build an epic island and then I started thinking how on earth would we ever get it out of the house and into another house. Kitchen Islands STAY with homes for a reason. I loved the clean lines of the Hemnes because it reminded me of the classic English furniture with full frame cabinets and my idea evolved from there.
I simply updated the look by switching out the handles and adding brass bars and S hooks to hang things from. It was a mail sorting station from Target but I took it apart and put the folder on the left to hold the current pattern I am cutting. When we moved in, my goal was to make this sewing studio/craft area just functional for my husband and I and NOT worry about decorating. We purchased Ikea Havsta cabinets, re-used our old craft furniture and its been amazingly functional.
I wanted to start this room with good bones but I had yet to really decorate it. We had this 9×12 rug from our prior home’s living room and we stuck under our desks. With baby number 5 due in a few weeks, I decided to do some room switches so we needed that rug for my oldest son’s room.
At first I felt it really opened the space up NOT having any rug since I loved the tile after all. However, after a few weeks my husband and I missed the cozy factor of having a rug. The room felt sterile and too plain-perhaps even a little cavernous. My goal for my first sewing room was neutral since it was right off our entry and my home was decorated in neutrals. I wanted it to feel just like any other room in the home and not a craft room looking one. I think I succeeded and I absolutely loved it.
However, in our Indiana home I have embraced color, pattern and layers of texture. Our homes’ style is a cross between English Cottage (with exterior cobble stone, grey, tan stucco and exterior beam porch) and tradtional Post and Beam interior construction (with more stone inside). The home works well with color and pattern often found in English Interior design and I have also found myself wanting less seasonal specific decorating and more one and done rooms. I still will add touches of seasonal decor since I do love to decorate seasonally but in select places rather than all over my entirely neutral home.
One of the first changes I knew I needed to make in this room was to find a rug! I had been searching since we moved in and nothing felt right. This space needed a REALLY big rug as I wanted to include my cutting table on top. Two 10×14 rugs was JUST SO pricey! I realized a week ago that RugsUSA actually sold larger than 10×14′ rugs. Until then I didnt know such sizes existed! I finally found a 12×15′ rug and hoped I would not need two. It is a good thing I started with one because I forgot we had pillars in the way and two would not have fit (I was thinking I would need to orient them sideways).
You can see how excited I was about this rug because I had already pulled paint colors from Sherwin Williams! The goal will be cozy, warm, homely, and like this space has been there forever. I want it to feel rooted and old looking-like those cozy old English cottages/grand houses. They just have layers of history to discover in their colors, fabric choices, furniture, wall papers, etc.
Since we were laying out the rug and had to disassemble the cutting table, I thought it would be perfect to show here how we put it back together.
We started with the Ikea Hemnes dresser and removed the left two drawers since we screw it into the top from underneath for added security (read: I have four kids-and one more to add to the lively bunch).
Next we took the two Ikea Trestle Table legs and lined them up behind the dresser. I had these for over 5 years and they were in storage when I came up with the idea to use them for the cutting table hack. Unfortunately they no longer have the white but they do have a plain wood color so you can stain or paint to your liking. Finishing the back of this dresser has been on my to-do list for a very long time! It is getting done this fall and I can’t wait to share what I have come up with.
Back to the trestle legs…they are the ones holding the batting roll. Two years ago my father-in-law was the cheif builder for this hack when they stayed with us for the winter. We used a wooden closet rod, stuck it through the roll and then set it on the legs. My father-in-law came up with the idea of securing it with U-brackets to the legs so it wouldn’t move back and forth. He then drilled a hole into the rod and inserted a U-pin so the rod doesn’t slide back and forth (read: so the mischievous boys don’t pull it out).
We then lay the Edge glued pine board, that I stained Walnut, on top (found at Menards) and get ready to position it on the legs. Essentially it’s supported half by the dresser and half by the legs (see original post for details). The table top is held together using table latches underneath.
Through this whole design process my father-in-law’s expertise (he is a contractor) came in handy because I could tell him what I had in mind and he had the know how to make it happen and secure. Finally, I wanted a way to have something “hold” the batting on top of the table so we added a thin dowel rod to the side. I am a hardware keeper because you never know when you might have a use for some random piece. In fact, this dowel was the beneficiary of a random piece. I came up with the idea to use the hardware from old blinds. They were just thick enough to mount under the table top and then and also had a screw edge we could stick through the dowel. My father-in-law came up with the idea to add a plastic corner-piece (used for walls) so the batting would slide easily.
You can see me using the table above while 35 weeks pregnant! It sure makes prepping quilts quite easy.
I am absolutely LOVING the direction of the sewing studio with this rug. I knew the rug had to be the first thing to go in place. Paint and other things can be matched to almost any color but a rug is much more difficult to find to match a paint color. This rug will allow me to have many colors to pull from and hence many layers to add. I will be sure to document the process-short and sweet. Just a few planned updates:
**Update Hardware on the Havsta
**add some framing to the design wall
**add a furniture piece for my pressing station under the window
**painting my desk (the white part)
**finishing the back of the dresser
and…a few other things I am still working out!
Don’t forget to share by adding these pictures to your Pinterest boards, sending to friends and following along here. I am also keeping my inspiration pics updated on my Pinterest boards so follow me here on Pinterest to see the direction.
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