DH & I use our house as our "cave" too. It's a "man and woman cave" I guess, LOL. We can handle a couple of guests but we're not set up for big parties anymore. My sewing room is the living room and I leave stuff out all over the place, so right off the bat when you step into my house you're stepping into my beloved & cluttery workspace. The couch & TV and stuff are in the 'family room', and DH has a big wedge of that room turned into a satellite music studio and there are guitars all over the place. 3 of our 4 bedrooms are also art/craft/work rooms too - DH's main music studio, my drawing & painting room/office, and the 3rd room is currently getting converted into a "shop" where DH can work on his old radios and I can work on my old sewing machines. :)

It's nice to have things compartmentalized, so I won't get paint or grease on my fabric or cutting table. The cats & dogs are banned from my sewing room and will be banned from the "shop" room but allowed pretty much everywhere else. I keep them out of those rooms because of safety - I've found my cat eating thread, and I'm thinking there will be dangerous things in the trash in the shop room. I just put a big cozy bed outside of the room where they can see me and they're pretty content to just pile up there and watch me.

It IS so great to have your own space and a hobby/obsession you can walk away from then go back and pick up where you left off! Before my injury I did things like beading and painting where, as you can well imagine, one did not walk away and leave things unattended for the cats to investigate.

As my abilities to do those things faded into history, I learned quilting and the joy of having a pet safe project which I could leave lay as many times as I needed to for breaks and interruptions. No wonder I'm addicted to quilt making!!!

Wow, that would be nice! But you make due with what you've got. Our entire apartment is a studio with the main room being 13 x 17 and 2 closets. I'm married to a professional musician that plays the Hammond Organ, so we have one (organ) plus a leslie speaker in our place. Here are some pix if anyone is curious. The first one is essentially our main room, you can see part of the leslie speaker in the upper left hand corner. When I need a design wall, I have a portable fons & porter one that I hang on the wall behind the bed. To sandwich, I use the long wall in our entry hall and hang the sandwich. The second picture is where I have all of my 'current' projects, and notions/tools/supplies that I need on a regular basis. I also have a scrap bin up there. Organizing each project into its own crate has helped immensely with the whole having to clean up everyday thing. At the end of the day, I put the work bench and machine (covered) under the lowest shelf, throw the scraps in the scrap bin, and put the wip in its crate. All together cleanup takes 3 minutes. I've completed one twin size this way and am close to finishing up a chemo comfort quilt that will be 64" x 80". In my closet, I have 2 huge tubs with my stash, along with 3 of the charm pack storage containers from nancy's notions stuffed with charm squares and fat quarters. Eventually, I plan to make liners for all of my white crates, and I got these super cute chalk board signs that I'll use to mark what's in each crate. Not the easiest setup, but it works for me at the moment. That said... it would be absolutely heavenly to stand up, stretch, and shut the door to a sewing room. Ah, maybe someday! :)

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My dogs are no problem its the #$% cat shoving things around and onto the floor. Diane C

My studio, formerly the living room, has no door so it can't be shut off. The cats aren't allowed on hard flat surfaces above their eye level...a rule they follow without challenge...so I have no worries about leaving things out on my cutting table, work surface, ironing board, etc. If I had to put things away every night, I'd probably stop sewing.

I have my "sewing cave" in the walled off unfinished portion of the house basement....half is for longarm other half my sewing/fab/stuff...great setup---no complaints here. Have 2 dogs/2 cats neither are allowed in my space...dogs could care less, cats will meow and tap on door to get in, then settle down in family room portion and patiently wait. Once, one got in, jumped up onto shelving unit and somehow up into rafter area....fell through the drop ceiling of office next to me.....so no more...next time she might have crawled into the family room/bar area/bathroom which are dry walled ceilings....they are truly tree cats-always looking and jumping up, not bush cats who are content on the floor.......

Funny - had never thought of domestic cats as tree cats or bush cats. :)

Mine were involved or could care less.

"Tree cats" - I like that! I call my cats "Couch Panthers". :D The big fluffy one likes to sprawl in the middle of the floor on his back, so when he's doing that his nickname is "Carpet Otter".

I have a baby gate to keep the critters out of my sewing/living room. The younger cat could hop right over it if he wanted to, but he doesn't seem to realize that. :) It's a nice bonus for when we have a delivery; we have 3 dogs and they like to rush the front door and make all sorts of racket when someone's on the porch. But now the baby gate holds them back so we can receive a package or a pizza without quite as much chaos.

The baby gate doesn't do much to keep back the airborne fuzz though. Two long-haired cats and three mostly-indoor dogs...it's inevitable that some fuzz makes its way in.

I will have a room one day when the kids move out, but I couldn't live without my kitties. I just put up with how they are for the comfort and joy they give. 😊

Mine are 'reformed' tree cats and all padded furrniture is within their approved realm giving them the height and view they crave. They have been taught not to jump/climb on hard flat surfaces just as they have been taught to sit, lie down, wink, and fetch when cued. The youngest one is now working on 'gimme five'. :)