Kitchen cabinets in the sewing room
 

Hmmm....You would think this would be a slam dunk! Those of you with kitchen cabinets in your sewing room, please tell me about your tips on design and storage? Drawers vs. shelves, what you love, what you would choose to do over, etc. i am talking base cabinets only as my new room has sloped ceilings. no wall cabinets space.

I know that they can be expensive and I want to do it right. I plan on one short 8' wall for the cabinets. If I "hint", my DH will be on a mission to find bargain cabinets.


Thanks for your input!

sandy.

Exactly. My DH already has kitchen cabinets in this room and he will be moving them to the basement once he completes the "remodel". I know that standard base cabinets will fit just fine in the room since his have been there all of these years. "My turn"! I already have a mobile kitchen island that I will roll into the space. My goal is to finally ditch all of the plastic drawers that I have even purging for months now.

Sandy

I bought cupboards from Lowes -- I have one that has doors covering shelves, one that has one drawer and open shelves below that, and one that has 3 big drawers. I then brought over an antique upper cabinet with glass doors and 3 shelves and put it on top of the base cabinets. Love all the storage!

Got pics, Nammie? Or maybe you have already posted them.
sandy

I was lucky enough to find a local hardware store/builder's supply company that was closing out some of their kitchen and bath cabinets for about $75 each - already stained and finished. I haven't been able to find the time to do what I'd like on the inside as far as drawers/shelves are concerned, but I use one as a cutting table, one sink base as a general "catch-all" cabinet, another base as my area for winding bobbins for my long-arm machine, etc. I actually found one wall cabinet that was such a good height that I use it as my ironing station! My husband made a "big board" type ironing board and we set it down into the opening of the cabinet and it was good to go!

Consider using upper cabinets for most of the cabinet space you have and a one or two regular base cabinets depending on the room you have. The deeper cabinets take up a lot of valuable floor space and have a tendency to get filled to the point where nothing can be found in them anyway. The upper cabinets have a narrower profile and just about anything in a sewing room that you want to store will fit in the depth of an upper cabinet without getting over stuffed with stuff.

Depending on how much room you have, maybe use regular lower cabinets in the more out of the way spots where floor space isn't lost.

The depth of the upper cabinets works great for a work space with out having to reach to far for tools.

Good luck with your room and please show us the progress.
peace

We used lower base cabinets that we bought at Menards. Each unit has a top drawer. Painted them white. Hubby made pull out sliding shelves which makes it very easy to find material. I bought utensil drawer organizer to hold thread in one drawer and in another I use it for odds and ends.
My room has very sloped walls as it is the top floor go a modified A-frame.

As Ube Quilting suggested upper cabinets do take up less floor space. We built a storage unit in our dining area that looks like a built in from upper cabinets. We got them at Ikea. We used 6 cabinets of three different heights and stacked them 3 high with the highest, then mid then shortest in that order. The middle set has glass doors. There are two sets of three like this. We started at the floor and they go to about the same height as cabinets that have a base and upper like in a kitchen. The only modification we had to make was to sit the lowest cabinet on a 1x2 to elevate it just a bit off the floor so the door would clear the floor when opened. They are attached to the wall and each other. If you're short on floor space this could be a solution.

In my kitchen I have pull out drawers in the lower cabinets. Those would work well to be able to find things in a sewing room as well. I like the idea of a pantry unit as well.

My sewing room is the old, circa 1954 kitchen and I love it. The only physical change I made was to take the doors off the front of all the cabinets, up and down. The drawers are a plus for patterns, etc. I guess I am strange but I left the double kitchen sink and I adore the tile counter tops and wrap around back splashes. The kitchen sink is an obvious plus but, oh my, those back splashes. Things hanging in front of my nose are much better than things I have to remember. A combination of Command strips and hangers with museum putty on those tiled wall parts does the trick: bobbin boards for 4 varieties of sewing machine, thread boards for cones and spools alike, nifty plastic bathroom-type hold everything things with suction cups for all the little stuff you can't do without and would "lose" otherwise. The list goes on.

Another thing about sewing in an old kitchen is there are more electrical outlets available. And then there are the lights. Besides the "great white eye" in the middle of the ceiling, there is the second white eye over the sink, and then the occasional lighting under the cabinets. The 19+ running feet of cabinet top is pretty good too. And the windows!

My sewing room is not beautiful but it does the job.

May all of us be as happy in our spaces as I am in mine!

Pat