Originally Posted by DebbE

My best advice is to find some used kitchen cabinets on Craigslist that are decent, and paint those. I used base cabinets on 2 ends and had open space between. My DH installed a 10' long countertop from Home Depot on that. Underneath, he built open shelves to hold the large totes, patterns, etc. I put velcro on the front and hang a curtain off that...the 'soft' side of the velcro is on the curtain. That way I can pull it off and wash it periodically, or take it off altogether if I need to re-organize, etc. Over this set up DH installed a set of wall cabinets at each end of the counter, and again, built open shelving in between. All was painted dove white, and I put my clear shoe boxes full of misc things on the open shelving. DH then took 1" x 5" boards and built a long skinny open shelf under the wall cabinets. There is tons of room for little storage cabinets, CD's, folded FQ's, etc. He installed a set of 3 Ikea mini flood lights that shine down on my countertop, so that's where I iron, cut, etc. I have a small ironing board (12" by 30") that I put up on my cutting matt when I need to iron, its quick and handy. The opposite wall is chock full of Ikea wall shelving, and the 2 end units have glass doors. The center cabinet is skinny (maybe 14" wide) which holds all my books. Between I have an antique crank table that holds my machines, and on the end under the window is my oversized chair & foot stool, to watch telly when hand sewing. It works, and other than the Ikea cabinets, most everything was here already, dirt cheap or free. Funny what a coat of white paint will do to unify everything!