My shelves are incredibly messy at the moment after a year of making Farmer's Wife Sampler blocks, but no matter ... the cutting table is a sheet of heavy plywood with a mat on it that has a grid of 36" x 68" and is actually a few inches bigger than the grid. I've had this setup for many years and is the size I needed when I made all my clothing in the days of yesteryear; it works well for cutting any fabric. I have it at 38" up from the floor, which is a perfect height for me - I'm 5'5". The two end shelf units were home made from really cheap pressboard, so I covered everything but the backs and bottoms with wood grain patterned Contac paper. To support the center of the plywood, I have a really heavy (but on wheels, so easy to move) solid wood shelf unit, where I store everything (on 2 sides) from sewing machines to books & fabric. It's not tall enough, so I have additional support between the desktop and the plywood, leaving some space at either end to store really large and/or fragile acrylic rulers, etc. This set-up is certainly not for everyone, but I have that entire basement room devoted to fabric storage, cutting, and machine quilting. Other than machine quilting, I do all my sewing upstairs.