Clean Slate Questions
 

So, a little back story first:

I have a bad back, two bad hips and and even a bad leg, so climbing stairs is not always easy for me by the end of the night. Currently my sewing room is downstairs on the first floor and my bedroom is on the second floor. Because I sew in the morning, DH and I agreed that we should move the bedroom downstairs and the sewing room upstairs. We had already started planning a full house remodel, so this decision came at a good time. Soooooo, that means that I have a fully clean slate. There are two rooms in the upstairs front of our house (the bedrooms are in the back of the upstairs). Now that our two daughters are in middle school and we really don't need a full school room or a toy room (we homeschool), those two upper front rooms have no current purpose, so that will be my new sewing quarters since the natural lighting is better. We've gutted the rooms and even knocked down the wall between them, so I have a LOT of space in there.

Here's the question part of this: I have a fully clean slate. I can design this room any way I'd like. DH and I are doing the bulk of the work with my brother, FIL and own father are helping with the things we don't know how to do (both of our fathers are contractors). So, I'd like to take full advantage of this clean slate. I want to take advantage of any space saving tips that you might have or any other things you'd like to do if you had a clean slate.

I do plan to take the interior wall (that also is the hallway wall) and put built in shelves between the wall studs. That will give great space for patterns and such since interior walls do not need insulation.

Congratulations! Wow, how exciting! I think getting your room to fit YOU and make you feel comfortable when using it, like getting the right height for your cutting table/ironing station. Storage under it. I love scrappy quilts, so having a scrap storage system would be great. Do you have a huge stash? built-ins for folded stash fabric with glass doors to keep the dust out. bookcases for books. how many machines do you use? I have 3 that I use all the time, having them in a table/counter flush so quilting is easier, LOTS of plugs and LOTS of lighting. I am a collector of Unfinished projects, so having a file/drawer for just projects to be done later, nice. Design wall? Wood floors so chair can roll across. Of course an area where you can sit and read the quilting board. :)

Time to Browse Pinterest! There are some Fabulous sewing studios on there, providing some great inspiration for creating your space. Along with built in shelves remember empty wall space for a nice BIG design wall! ��

Consider having your electric plugs placed on the wall above your sewing table instead of below it. It eliminates many bend overs to plug/unplug things. Also keeps so many cords off the floor where they trap dust!

I'd love to have an oversized cutting and ironing table. It will have drawers on both long sides, hook areas for hanging rulers on one end, magazine rack/book shelf or more hooks on the other end. And make that on locking rollers so that if I decide to move it, I can. I totally agree with flush mounted tables for the sewing machines. Cabinets or shelving all the way up to the ceiling for fabric stash. Drawers for anything below waist high for yardage and kits. A view of the outside just in case I want to look up while I am sewing.

Skinny drawers somewhere for all this thread I have accumulated. I can't imagine getting to start from scratch on the sewing room. This is terrific for you.

Happy for you and your new sewing space. For me if you're going to put shelves between the studs on the hallway wall, I would make the shelves far enough apart to have the wire baskets that slide onto the shelf above (these baskets can be as deep as you want or need depending on how deep your shelves are - mine hold charm packs, etc...). The other thing I would love is having some dowels that fit in between the studs (easy in, easy out), for my rolls of trips (I use on quilts and sewing of garments too). I would even see about putting in a board (a number of them), with pegs on the tops to hold my threads (again you would need different heights between to hold the different sized spools - this would also make it easy to know when you're getting low on a color of thread). Enjoy your new sewing space and all of that great light.

Congratulations! Can I borrow them when they are finished?? Be sure to make room for some peg board. Best way to store some of your tools.

I would have all wall space some type of storage all the way to the ceiling and one of the industrial type Library ladders (with railings, for when your Daughters fetch something from the top rows) definitely electric plugs at table level !
I would also want everything that is not built into the walls.....to be on wheels, locking wheels, because the lighting will change with the seasons and to easily change with it would be awesome.

Graph paper and measuring tape. Start with that. Measure so you will know what space you have. You will want some breathing room. Congratulations on the remodel.

Line one wall at least 8'x8', preferably 8'x12' with insulating foam board for a design wall. Cover it with upholstery flannel. This is the BEST thing I ever did in my sewing room, and the only thing I've never wanted or needed to change.

One more suggestion while everything is in flux and can be modified or changed: Put in an electric stair lift for later when you need it to climb those stairs! It will be cheaper sooner than later and you will wonder how you managed without it. Enjoy the journey.

My one wish in my sewing area is that all lower cabinets be drawers, not shelving. I am too old and crippled up to get down into those, so they pretty much go unused, but if they were drawers.....

First and foremost, save room for a chair that rides upstairs electrically that we see on TV. I'm gonna need one soon. I would have it installed now, to save your hips, back and leg. Then go from there. Good Luck. Oh, I didn't see Carolyn had already said this about the chair lift. Won't hurt to have 2 LOL

Sounds great to have a clean, larger slate! Being up stairs, would it be possible for your contractors family put in a dumb waiter to get things upstairs without having to carry them as it is difficult for you to climb stairs? I understand your back and hip issues because I do have them also. It may not be possible or to expensive but that's a lot of "building" minds there for you! Keep us informed...

Yay for you! I would make a list of things that you must have, would like to have, and can do without.

Use the L-shape for sewing and ironing; I use a swivel office chair to pivot back and forth so I'm not up and down.

Cutting table--make it bigger than you think you need!
Keep lighting bright.
Paint the room in your favorite, cheeriest color than will inspire you and calm you. (I chose pale yellow.)
A comfy chair and ottoman for handwork/back relief/dreaming/QB.
If you'll be getting all new furniture (?) I suggest all white. It's unifying, clean-looking, doesn't compete for attention w/ fabric and clutter, and goes with everything.

And my quilting teacher says that every studio needs a secret drawer for "fuel" (chocolate). :)

With stairs, have you considered one of those electric stair chairs? I don't know what it is called, but you might want to think about it....

You should have a small refrigerator, TV and phone installed. Good luck!

LOL! I love all of these suggestions and love the idea of a secret drawer! DH and I have considered the stair lifts, but at this point, it's not doable. We've set a budget per room and we're already rearranging things because we found out that the attic floor was rotting. Bummer. But, we're so thankful that we found this out now, rather than later. That's all fixed now and we can get back to finishing the sewing room! I'm picking up the new flooring, flooring pad and subflooring tomorrow! The new floor will be installed this weekend, along with new floor joists, all new wiring and maybe even the new windows. Then we'll insulate everything and next week we can start to look at drywall and get that done. I even found the perfect paint, on clearance for $10/can because it was a "mis-tint"! It's a beautiful, calming shade of blue and perfect for what I wanted.

Most of the furniture in my sewing room is grey since DH's store had a remodel a few years ago and I scored big time. Their former coffee station was taller than most tables and measured 30"x36"---the EXACT measurement of my cutting mat! And it had plenty of storage room below. And his former laptop kiosk is perfect for my sewing machines with plenty of storage on the the shelf below and the large shelf above. I can't wait to get everything into it's new place and get to creating! Since we're remodeling upstairs, a lot of things had to find some new temporary home downstairs...and that overflowed into my sewing room. I just keep reminding myself that it's all temporary.

Once the sewing room is complete and everything's moved in, then we'll remodel the downstairs room to be our new bedroom. It's in desperate need of new flooring and new windows, but other than that, the rest is cosmetic work. Then we'll be in our new room and our former room will be repainted, get new flooring and new windows for our youngest DD. Then her room will get redone for our oldest DD and her room will get redone as a great store room for the things that cannot go to the attic, and my HUMONGOUS board game collection, lol. Then we'll just repaint the hallway and retread the stairs. We're hoping to have all of this done by the end of summer so we can then work on the bathroom remodel and kitchen remodel before winter hits. Thankfully, that will just leave the living room and aside from new windows and flooring, that's just cosmetic work. Then DH wants to reside the house in the fall. Any other cosmetic work can be done over the winter. THEN, in the spring comes the outdoor remodel. We're hoping to enclose our front porch as a mudroom and attach a wraparound porch to connect with our back deck and wrap that around the back to our new bedroom that will have a new sliding glass door. Then my sweet youngest DD will take over on gardening, lol. DH tells people that I don't have a black thumb, I have an apocalyptic thumb. So my DD, who will be eleven by then, will be giving me the directions, lol. I'll just be the one with the debit card at the store. LOL!

Congrats on such a great opportunity!! The best piece of advice I can give is to be sure you have LOTS of outlets and lights.

When deciding how I was going to lay out my sewing room, I took a piece of graph paper and drew the room to scale. I then took post-its (different colors for different types of furniture) and cut them to scale the size of the various pieces of furniture I had to use. I then would move the post-its around on the graph paper. Make a color copy and do it all over again. This way I could look at several different layouts at once. Tweek a layout or discard it all together. I found this immensely helpful.

What a wonderful opportunity! Think carefully about what's important to you and what kind of organization has worked for you in the past. What have you always wanted to include: a design wall, storage for thread, a quick way to find your rulers or just fabric storage?

Congratulations! I have been working on a basement redo for sewing/quilting area and will be watching this thread for member's suggestions. This is a wonderful board with a lot of talented and informed members.

I think if I could have mine done, I would have shorter distance in the steps going up stairs. that makes a big difference in going up and down. as long as everything is in the process, I would see if that can be done. Might already be too late as this is 7 months later. Have not been on the board for quite a while and am just catching up on posts. Good luck with your new sewing room. Amy

I did this when I remodeled and I am sooo glad. Also put a high plug for your ironing board and any TV you want to install. (DH had me do the high plugs by the bed and each of the TVs that we have around the house. Talk about a back saver. )

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*** I am soooooo happy for you.
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Any pictures of this new "clean slate" you have now that is has been
MANY months?

I too took over two bedrooms and knocked down the common wall. When the contractor took down the wall, he added plugs to other walls so I would have enough electricity where ever needed. I already had put up shelving on one wall for storage. I still have a queen size bed that I would like to get rid of but it did not sell and my kids keep coming back to visit. If the bed was gone, I would put up a permanent design wall and arrange my vintage machines so I could sew on them whenever I wanted. Currently I am organizing my fabric into dressers so I can use my linen closet for linens and am making an ironing station out of a small dresser I bought at IKEA for $39.00! Enjoy and relax. You have a wonderful opportunity.

Lots of useful suggestions in this post!
How does the room look now that you've (hopefully) got it done?