Hi everyone,
It’s always more work than I imagine when I “rearrange” things in my sewing room and sometimes I spend way more time trying to decide where something should go than is really needed. But every so often I just feel like I have a better plan for how things could be laid out in there… so I have to go for it. This is what happened with my new bookshelf. I liked having a designated place for all my leather supplies, but it was so hard to get into this little cabinet and felt like I was always moving something to get to something else. My hubby built that cabinet for me years ago as a food pantry and I love it, but I just needed something more open.
Then the long rectangle box (actually a cabinet we repurposed) held all my props, which I’ve discovered I don’t use so often as I used to. The space in between the cabinet and the props box just seemed to be wasted space and I just envisioned a whole wall of nothing but shelves. This is what it looked like. The corner is kind of funny. When you walk into my sewing room, if you look straight ahead, the ceiling is high on the left side, but drops down at an angle till it reaches the back wall of my sewing room. That left corner wall where my new bookshelf sits isn’t a 90 degree angle… it kind of flares out at another angle. So you either make your furniture fit the wall or you fit your furniture to the wall as best you can.
Here are a few previous pictures of the ceiling and how it slants to the right side of the room.
Here are a couple of before pictures… It’s hard to take pictures in this room because you are always too close to everything.
Here is a picture of the corner back before I painted and did some extra trim work. It was painted an awful gold color. How did I ever get inspired in there with so many tubs of stuff all around?
This was another “brainy” idea I had when I saw this 21 drawer chest… “Oh, Honey, I’m sure it will work in there!” It does work and it fits, but it’s pretty big. However, it does have LOTS of drawer space for small groupings… so I’m keeping it for sure. I did measure the width of my new bookshelf to make sure I could still open those drawers on the left side of this cabinet.
Okay… enough of the past… let’s move into the “now” of things…
We had to move SO much stuff out of the way to make way for this all to happen… this is (unfortunately) what my house looked like in the process… and right in the middle of all this was my leg surgery. What were we thinking? I won’t even tell about the pictures… you can see for yourselves… sawhorses out, paint, tape, tools, cabinets, props in baskets, the drawers had to come out of the dressers because they were too heavy with them packed, bags of fabrics and other things on top of the 21 drawer dresser, etc.
After the bookshelf was dry and had cured a few days, we decided we better see if we could get it in the room and hope our “calculations” on the height were right. We used a roller dollie and laid it on its side and wheeled it to the sewing room door. We got it through the door on it’s side, but when we tried to tip it up there wasn’t enough ceiling height, so we had to move it over as far to the left as we could and we got it tipped up, just missing knicking the ceiling by about 1/2″!!! It was a bit scary! I had put felt on the bottom so we just zig zagged our way across the floor and put it in place against the wall. We HAD measured correctly. The back of the bookshelf was 1/2″ shorter than the ceiling. That slanted ceiling can be tricky!
A few nights ago, I just had to see how my leather stuff would fit on the shelves… I took a little time and put the stuff from the cabinet we moved out and put them on the new white shelves.
I think I’ll have to “play” with things a bit to see what goes where best!
Well, I’ll have to stop here… I’m still in the process of getting things back in order in my sewing room AND my house! I’ll keep showing you my progress and soon I’ll be back to sitting and sewing!
Have a wonderful Tuesday!
Blessings, Jeanne
Wow, what a process, getting everything measured and figuring out how all the “puzzle pieces” (furniture) fit in that space!! Yes, I find it takes a while before things settle into their new “homes”. Once you’re working in there on sewing projects agai, it will all fall into place, I’m sure.
I will be sure to send a picture of Tonya and me in our twinsie outfits. That should be in about a month–Expo starts Feb. 27th!!
Wow Jeanne, what a mess! But it certainly looks good where you now have that bookshelf, and I’m sure things will speed up once you get the fruniture in place. The “big” stuff has to happen first, and you seem to be getitng there with that. But this is what happens to me, when I change out my dolls clothes. It is just a complete mess in the process of finding thngs and laying them out, but the upside of that is, I get “reacquainted” with what I do have, and believe me, I do forget a lot of what I have!
That one picture of a chair and small bookshelf with a ceramic cat sitting on top gave me a laugh! It looks like he is thinnking “What in the world is going on here?” 🙂
And my goodness, your table all filed up; with this and that! How in the world did you manage to eat on it?
My girls are all ready for Valentine’s Day, so I will be sending pictures today. The snow is melting fast, in fact, our front yard, which faces the south is free of it, but our back patio, which faces the north, is still icy and we are trying to chip it away little by little. It is about two inches thick, so no small feat!
I just read all of yesterday’s comments.
Oh Jeanne, your sewing space is cozy. You and me, I agree with you about our “extensive inventory” we need to start making some assessments on stuff we have. I worry about giving things away but I always think it will just go straight into the trash.
Forget about FB market place, it is a zoo and having strangers come to your home, my husband does not like that idea…. even though the couple from Alexandria that bought the huge 9 panel mirror were very cute, like newly weds.
Anyway, good to bag things up and sorting. That is a good start.
Yesterday I dumped all of my stationery in two bank boxes, not packed full, but I am not sure I need all of that. I might give them to my daughter and let her sort through and find very old (35 years) cards and stationery.
I packed up the piano music.
my only other goal is to pack up the curio cabinet. We have not moved in 40 years, so this is overwhelming but it won’t kill me 😂
I love all of the white furniture. It looks clean and less overwhelming than dark woods so good choice on the paint. Honestly, if you can, make a list, without removing anything, of all of the things you have that you love and need (hubby at the top of course🥰) then make a list of things you have that you do not think you will ever use. I know that is hard. I have plenty here I would mail to you but I do not want to add to your excellent stash. I have two local sewing shops I could contact…. but
lastly, thank you for sharing your space. It looks a lot like mine. My non sewing sister came over about 4 months ago and asked me if I was a hoarder. 🥳 I said, yes of course.
I hope everyone has a lovely day, it is nice and mild in Northern Virginia, gonna be 40 today. I hope all of you enjoy sunshine. I might do some packing… or I might do some sewing.
I tried FB market place once to sell my elliptical. Stephanie was doing it for me. She ended up conversing with a “bot” and it went nowhere. She had to report it to FB. Listening to you talk about packing up made me think this could be me in a couple years. I would rather stay here where the grandkids are and maybe spend a few months each year in the mountains as my in-laws did, but hubby is determined to move back to the mountains lock, stock and barrel at some point. I keep reminding him we are no longer spring chickens, and that kind of move would have been better twenty years ago, but my pleas fall on deaf ears. But we’re not near that point yet so time will tell but I found it stressful enough when we moved here 35 years ago.
Dear Jeanne, wow, you are going to have a ton of organizing to do. However, it will all look perfect when it is completed. You and George remind me of the TV organizing shows where a designer goes into a room, makes a plan, and the carpenter team makes whatever the designer suggests.
Please let me know when JGTV (as in Jeanne and George TV) will take its show on the road. I hope PA will be your first stop (smile).
And speaking of being on the road, UFDC’s (United Federation of Doll Clubs) next Convention will be held in Norfolk Virginia, from July 22 to July 26. I hope that you and some of the Sofa Sisters might be able to attend. Here is a link to the website: https://www.ufdc.org/convention/
Well, I’ll start with the cabinet that George made some years back. It is large, heavy, boxy, and lovely made. If the hinges can be changed out to something not gold, or painted black or bronze, I would think it could go in any other room and be a focal point. It is lovely. Then, there is way too much furniture still left in a small space. Even painting things white does not seem to unify them. So many different styles. I know drawers are something Jeanne likes, but I would try to dispose of several pieces of furniture in there. I do not like trying to stand in front of a piece of furniture and pry open a drawer only to find that something else is blocking it, even shelves. Now, with the new shelves, there should be space left in front of them to walk and also be able to find things without bumping into another piece of furniture. Maybe there is a smaller cabinet or shelf that might fit under the window in the back by the shelves that would give the shelves more access? I would probably also get rid of the dresser or whatever is on the wall opposite the window as well for walking space. The shelves covering the hidden door might fit there as they are narrower? If they don’t fit there, I would put them on the long wall next to the large bookshelf because, I was delighted to see the picture of the beautiful hidden door. My favorite piece is the, looks like oak, vintage bookcase on the long wall with the doll display. Leave that, but remove most of the other pieces. Then, in that area over the stairs that has the fabric curtain, clear it out and make that the storage area for things used most. Maybe add doors to the front. There would then be space to walk around and there would be a lovely door to walk out onto the porch filled with beautiful potted plants come spring. Jeanne could take her hand work outside and enjoy the view. 🙂 I think putting everything back into the small space is asking for claustrophobia. I know all of the things in the room are needed at one time or another, but perhaps a lot of things that are only used occasionally can go up in the attic? or a guest room closet. I’m sure everything will be gathered from around the house and put away, but it will be interesting to see how “the puzzle pieces”, as Charlotte mentioned all fit back in the sewing room. 🙂 When she is done, Jeanne, can head out here and help with the “mess” as Linda mentioned that keeps growing around here. Ha ha I don’t mean to be mean, but I am very visual and love to see the special things that Jeanne decorates with in her room. However, too much stuff seems to get in the way of creativity, for me anyway. 🙂
And on to another sunny day. Yay. However, I do believe that we have rain headed this way for the weekend. So needed.
You would love my sewing room LOLOLOL. I have my machines (sewing and serger) in the middle of the room facing each other with a walkway around them. My cabinets that David made have sliding doors because we knew doors that swung out would not work at all in there. I have one closet in there and it is full so I have stacks of plastic boxes on floor dollies that I can move easily to get into the cabinets behind them. But, since I did not have a sewing room at all for years and sewed in a corner of the kitchen with my supplies on shelves in the laundry room, I’ll take what I can get these days. David promises me a large sewing room someday but by that time I’ll probably be old and frail and no longer sewing so I’ll just sit in there in my rocking chair and admire the lovely space. In the meantime I’ll just do the best I can with what I have albeit a bit claustrophobic.
I would love to see pics of your sewing room. The idea of the machines in the middle of the room sounds great. Lots of elbow room. 🙂 Everything else sounds ideal too. I definitely need to do something here as my stuff is everywhere.
Your explaining moving your new shelf unit into your sewing room reminded me greatly of the recent ordeal of getting the closet into my laundry room. There was much planning and measuring that went on ahead of time, and some trimming, but things not considered did become a bit of a problem. When you open the door from the garage there are three steps that go up into the house, the bottom one is angled. It is a lovely transition up into the house but was a problem trying to move the closet up and over it and still clear the doorframe. They ended up having to half lay it down but fully laying it on its side didn’t work for other reasons. Standing it fully up became a problem because of the light fixture in that area. I was watching most of the time but I truly do not know how they actually got it in. I just know that suddenly everything worked and it was in place. I never did understand why they built it down at the shop instead of in place but in reality it is movable so that anyone living in the house after us will have options of where to put it. All I know is that I now have a coat closet which we never really had in this house because it never had A/C until before we bought it and they used the coat closet for the air handler so the coats were put wherever we could find a place for them. Fortunately here in Texas we don’t need a lot of coats.
Can’t wait to see the results of your reorganizing. I’ve run out of possibilities for organizing my sewing room after my recent reorganization. The only change could be using up a whole lot of fabric. But I have always enjoyed reorganizing my sewing room because it reacquaints me with all the things I have, and I do find I forget some of them. The same with redressing my dolls for the seasons. I tend to forget what clothes some dolls have so I’m often surprised by what I find.
Not too bad here today. It was 53 last I looked but no sunshine.
Oh what a fantastic sewing room! My mother was an excellent seamstress and would have LOVED a room like yours!
I just realized I made a typo yesterday. I should have said I could put a bookcase of almost 8 and 1/2 feet in the family room. That room has a step down and therefore a higher ceiling.
Looks like you will be arranging and organizing for quite a while, Jeanne. I forgot you had that door to the outside. I would definitely have a screen door on that and be able to have it open in the summer and like Joy said, take any handwork outside.
January seems like a good month to plan and reorganize sewing/craft rooms or areas! This happens nearly every new year to me! The Texas skies have been gray, rainy, and gloomy this week, so organizing and moving things around are a good indoor thing to tackle.
Right after Christmas, I washed my art room windows, curtains and sheers….dusted for cobwebs, repositioned furniture and pictures on the walls, and hung another small shelf next to the one that holds the Ruby Red dolls, since I had collected more RR dolls in 2024. (I don’t have shelf space to display my AG, Heidi Ott, or Wellie Wisher dolls just yet) My work table sits in the middle of the room with the sewing machine on a cutting mat on one long side and another cutting mat and art/scissor tools on the opposite long side, along with a lamp and a goose neck craft lamp….can’t sew without good lighting these days!
If I’m not sewing, then I am working at the opposite side of the table on an art or craft project…..or making the greeting cards needed throughout the year. I have a narrow credenza that has a TV on top as I often watch a Hallmark+ Movie (or at least listen to a repeated favorite!) The credenza is put to good use, storing my greeting card supplies, doll clothing patterns, sorted buttons/embellishments. My room is packed, but it works for me! There is a double wide window for good light and the three shorter plastic drawer-storage bins (laces/trims/ribbons) sit side-by-side under under the window, padded with white towels so my cat can sit and look out at the birds at the feeder!
I don’t have a bookcase for my 1/2-1 yd. cuts of doll fabrics, so I keep them in see-thru plastic boxes and have most sorted into colors groups and labeled the boxes as such so I can spot what I need for a current project. One box is just Halloween fabrics, two boxes hold Christmas prints, and one box is labeled dressy fabrics, to hold the satins/chiffons/sparkly assortments. Three boxes hold whites and neutral tans, one box is full of plaids….and one box is full of small print flannels for nightgowns and PJ’s. The boxes are stacked, four high and take up half a wall….love seeing the colors and possibilities of new creations!