31 Days of Pinterest Projects - Day 6 - Margaret's Sewing Room {Planning Stage}

As I mentioned last night, I went to my sister-in-law, Margaret's house today to begin work organizing two of their spaces - the sewing room and the basement.

For now, I'm going to post just on the sewing room and the plans that we made for that space. You see, Margaret operates her own home-based business doing alterations and quilting and sewing projects for others. Her work is fabulous! And this sewing room is where she does the majority of her work. She expressed to me last winter that she would love to add several layers of organization to this space to make it work harder for her. And I agreed to help her with that! {And as a side note, she's right there with me in thinking that Pinterest is one of the best tools EVER invented.}

For starters, here's a BEFORE floorplan of the space. The doorway at the bottom of this photo is from the hall, and the doorway to the right of the Desk and Ironing Board goes into the bedroom. Margaret's husband, Rod, is going to close off the doorway to the bedroom and re-drywall this area to make more workspace inside the sewing room. Margaret also plans to remove a bakers rack from the room in leiu of other storage options.


Unfortunately, I forgot my camera today, but I do have a couple photos that we took last winter to show where we're starting. Since these were taken, Margaret has already done several big clean-up projects, so this is really not the best "before" illustration, but it will give you an idea. (Hopefully she doesn't get mad at me for posting this...LOL!)

In the following photo, you can see Margaret's sewing desk. It is a countertop spanning two cabinets with shelves in them. On the wall opposite her desk, she has an ironing board that she uses in conjunction with the sewing machine, and some hooks on the wall above the ironing board. On the far wall is the baker's rack (which will be removed and repurposed elsewhere) and a door that leads to the closet. Since last winter, Rod & Margaret have removed the closet door and inside are cubbies for current sewing projects.

Today we walked through the space and discussed what pieces were functioning well and what needs Margaret would like to be met.

DESK~
Her desk is working perfectly well as a workspace, but we did decide to add a couple organizing products to increase storage functionality.  On the right side of the desk, there is a cabinet beneath the countertop. It currently has two shelves piled full of scrap fabric. Margaret expressed that it is difficult to find what she wants when she wants it with this system. So we plan to purchase 4-6 shoebox size plastic containers to categorize and containerize the scrap fabric and then put them back into this same cabinet. We may sort it based on colors or types of material (cotton, wool, etc.) Also, we will "file" the fabric scraps rather than piling it in the containers, to make it easier to see all the scraps at once. Just like this pin:

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The cabinet holding up the other end of the sewing desk will house other sewing supplies: elastic, ribbon, buttons, etc. that are currently on the baker's rack.

We discussed potentially purchasing an organizer or two like these three-drawer units I used for extra toiletries in our linen cabinet for separating these items inside her cabinet. Or we may continue using some of the acrylic ribbon organizers she already has (that she got for a steal at a garage sale!).

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We will purchase another thread organizer from JoAnn's (like the one sitting on the countertop behind her sewing machine) and mount the two on the wall behind the sewing machine to free up her countertop for working.

STORAGE~
We will install another shelf or two inside the closet, underneath the cubbies that already exist for current projects. There she will be able to store larger, unsightly items such as batting and pillows. We will relocate the hooks from above the ironing board over to the wall next to the closet to hang current projects.

INSPIRATION BOARD~
With that reclaimed space above the ironing board, we will hang a very large inspiration cork board. We could have something as big as 4 x 8 ft!! Margaret is very visual and she loves being surrounded by colorful, beautiful images while she works, so this will be spectacular! As you can see, the standard size bulletin board she currently has is just not large enough :)

 

CUTTING STATION / STORAGE SHELVES~

With the new workspace that will be added in place of the bedroom doorway, Margaret & I planned that we will paint this wall a fun purple and install some sort of fold out cutting table that will normally be 12-18" deep but could fold out to 36" deep. And above that table we will install two shelves. There she will be able to store fabric along with binders - one for client invoices, one for inspirational clippings from magazines, etc. and one for current client projects. The photos below, we both pinned when we thought of these shelves.

 

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SCHEDULING / PROJECTS~

On the wall just to the right inside the door from the hallway, we will hang (decorated) clipboards to hold inspiration for current projects and hang a large calendar (not sure it will be a chalkboard calendar or not) to keep her on schedule with fittings, etc. Once again, we got both these ideas from Pinterest :)

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FLOORPLAN~
Here is an after floorplan that sums up what we plan to do:

 

Even though we didn't technically finish any Pinterest projects today, we are headed out to the store Monday afternoon together to purchase all the containers and supplies we need to get this party started! I'm SO looking forward to this!!! I just love taking a space that's just not quite working for someone and making it fully functional!!