Big plans for a small sewing room

[Diana / Artemisia]

(originally posted in Show me your sewing area!)

Well, I'm planning my new sewing room for our new house. The main room is 12.5 x 8.5. The entranceway is another 5' 8" long. This is the almost final plan:



http://dressdiary.blogspot.com/2009/08/sewing-room-challenge.html

I came up with this design with help from magazines and "peeking" into other sewing rooms via this forum and other sites.

Since I'm still in the planning phase, I'd really appreciate your feedback.

[Madrona]

What a fun project.    I think your room looks pretty good.  Do you have a large fabric stash or a lot of patterns?  I love your idea of mirrors in the entry. 

If it were me, a full-size ironing board would be a must.  I would probably have a single table against the window, move the Closetmaid organizer to the room where the 2nd table is, and put the full-size ironing board against the wall where the Closetmaid currently is.  If you need additional layout space, you can always open up the cutting table.

[Diana / Artemisia]

Not too large of a fabric stash. I currently have six 90qt plastic bins full of fabric.
I first had only two mirrors next to the closet. The three in the doorway makes for a better view and frees up that wall.

So your idea would be this:



That's my dilemma right now. I think I could squeeze a full size iron in between the 2nd table and the cutting table. I'm worried that I'm trying to fill up all the walls that I may not have enough free area to move around in. It's great to have the table space but at the same time things look more messy. I've seen pictures of other sewing rooms with tables all around but I don't know how practical that really is.

In my current sewing room I was used to two tables - a large computer table for the machines and a utility table for research/cutting. I setup the Sullivan table in my current sewing room and it hold my current project. The utility table is now holding my open research binder, patterns, etc. Not sure if it's all a good thing or bad thing.

[Madrona]

Yes, that is my general idea.  You are right about lack of floor space to move around.  Keeping the cutting table collapsed when not in use will make the room feel larger for sure. 

Do you already own the Closetmaid piece?  You may be better off with more wall-based storage than floor storage.

If you move the table over to one side of the wall or the other, is there room for either the bookcase or the closetmaid on the same wall?

The trouble with a L shape setup in a small room is that really, only the two sides are usable; the back corner is too deep to get full use out of, and every square foot counts.

[Diana / Artemisia]

I already bought it but I could easily put it into the closet to free up floor space.

I see your point with the L shape desk.  I thought I could store magazines or get a lazy susan in that corner and store tubs of fabric underneath. But that would be all storage - the area won't be actively used. Do I really need that much extra table storage? Can I make the space (for lack of a better term) actively usable?

::off to ponder::

[Madrona]

Alternatively, you could get an ironing blanket to put on your cutting table and iron there.

Or something like this, to collapse your ironing board and get it out of the way when not in use:

I used to have a setup like yours in my computer room - two long folding tables.  The problem with using the underneath corner for storage is that you have to pull one of the tables out to get at it, because the legs block both sides of the storage.  But you're right about a lazy-suzan working for the top of the table. Another idea - in our computer room right now we have a corner cabinet that looks like this hanging on the wall. above the corner of our L.

[Diana / Artemisia]

I did order a gridded ironing cover for the cutting table. The table collapses to 13" wide so in theory I could iron on it. Again, I won't know if it will really work or if it will be enough. Will be getting the cover in soon for testing though.

That corner cabinet looks nice. I wonder what would be cheaper - utility shelving or kitchen-style cabinets?

[Madrona]

Nice.  That ironing cover will probably work instead of having a full-size ironing board.  Like you say, try it out and see how it goes.

If you could use the cutting board as an ironing board, and only had one table across the back, you may be happier with being able to push/pull the cutting table around in that area along the east wall so you can easily move around on 3 sides of it during the cutting phase.

We put upper kitchen cabs from Ikea in our computer room - it looks nice, but was probably more expensive than shelving.  I think we paid about $800 for five 36" cabinets; 3 with glass doors, which are more expensive than plain doors (but we needed them because of the buildings).  Photos here.