This is the sign that hangs at the top of the stairs, at the entry to my sewing room.
I thought it was especially appropriate because SIMPLIFY is my word for 2012 and in order to simplify my sewing room I needed to ELIMINATE and LET GO of a lot of stuff in order to find JOY and BALANCE in that space. I'm proud that I got this project done with six months still left in the year! (I'm thrilled that I got it done at all)!
Anyway. I did have a few guide lines for this project:
- Don't spend much money (I think I probably spent about $500 total)
- Make what I have work (see sign above)
- Involve busy husband as little as possible (see sign - LIVE WITH JOY)
- No painting or recarpeting (see #1)
A little background. My sewing room is the loft over our forth bedroom and although we've redecorated every room in this house at least once since we moved in nearly twenty years ago, we have never done the loft.
Several years ago I did have shelves put in the small walk in closet to store my fabric.
Over the years I've tried a lot of methods to try and keep my fabric organized and have found this is what works best for me.
I love that everything has its place, is visible
and is clearly marked.
I can pull out what I need or want to audition then put it back when I'm done. I've tried those pretty colorful stacks of fabric lined up perfectly on open shelves but that works for oh, like a nanosecond. I spent more time folding fabric than I did sewing. This is what works for me and no, I am not paid by Rubbermaid to say that, but I do heart my plastic tubs!
The room had several things in it that had to stay - like this big brown leather couch.
Ugh. I know. Although it does come in handy for afternoon naps during long sewing marathons, it didn't exactly fit the look I was going for. So I did what I always do in situations like this. I embellished!
I bought the dish rack from HomeGoods ($59) and filled it with some of my red and white dish collection. Then borrowed pillows from the family room (there were too many there anyway) and bought inexpensive pine letters from Michael's and spray painted them black.
I always say that decorating is simply layering colors and textures so it was back to HomeGoods for an inexpensive rug and the perfect little black coffee table. $120 later voila...
The inspriation board to the right is from HomeGoods. I covered the cork with linen from Strawberry Patches. The dress form was originally from HomeGoods and "borrowed" from Strawberry Patches (I got permission)..
Here's the before and after:
I spent about $300 on this part of the makeover.
The next challege was the sewing table.
(I can't believe I'm really showing you all of these before pictures - I'm such a pig!).
The challenge here was to MAKE IT WORK. I'd much rather had a new Koala cabinet but since that wasn't in the budget I simply accessorized what I had.
I wanted to create the feeling of a separate computer/office space from the sewing machine so I borrowed a little lamp from another room and added a stack of books and a plate.
I love the candle there. It makes me feel PAMPERED and RELAXED. Such a simple thing really. I hung a small quilt on the back of my chair and displayed some journals I made a few years ago.
I'm in the process of changing the wooden drawer pulls to clear glass - it seems that most stores only stock twelve of a style.
I want to show you how I store my thread:
Grouped by color and out of site and away from dust but right there close to my machine when I need it. I have a lot of thread.
My feet are arranged in numerical order (but then you knew that by now, didn't you?) and are just to the left of my machine. A girl can never have too many feet or shoes. = )
Here's the before and after:
I have a wonderful cutting table that I use a lot for everything from scrapbooking to quilting. I love that it folds down to almost nothing and can be easily moved about.
The last challenge was the wall of book shelves.
I don't have a good picture of the wall before I started, but you can imagine how bad it was by seeing this one section. There was just so much wasted space there filled with dusty old books we never used.
I had additional shelves cut and filled them with boxes and jars.
My thought was to get everything out and visible. I love how it turned out.
I bought lots and lots of jars (from Michael's and HomeGoods) in every size and shape then filled them with decorative straight pins
and flowers and feathers and bees and sugared bells.
There are jars of buttons
and jars of rubber duckies,
jars of fuzzy chicks and scary black spiders in two sizes.
Everything my heart desires is right there in plain sight, ready to jump down and play at a moments notice.
There's a child's antique muffin tin full of tiny treasures (yes, that is a beer bottle cap - I have plans for that)
and an old candy jar full of vintage looking pipe cleaners.
The black boxes add visual weight and continuity and hide a multitude of things. They're from Michael's and were $2 each. I labeled their contents with vintage looking paper.
And there across the top is a reminder
to SIMPLIFY life,
to RELAX, REFOCUS, RENEW. To ENJOY LIFE, LAUGH, LOVE, GIGGLE AND DANCE.
And to run with scissors if you want to.
Encourage one another,
PS Reader Julie shared a link in the comments section in the previous post. Go check out Julie's fabulous craft room and please leave a link to your room if you'd like to share.
