..and so do I, but sometimes you just have to run one of the stinkin' things. I have _got_ to add 'small industrial vac' to my must-buy list. Cutting threads from the vacuum beater bars ranks as another sucky task. I am almost through cleaning up my sewing room, which looked a bit like the Titanic did after ten years or so of resting on the ocean bed. Guess I can finally toss my first Singer, the poor, broken, decrepit thing, as it has been out of sight long enough for my affections to be totally weaned. It hasn't gotten well in all this time, so I doubt it will resurrect itself, as it was totally around the bend. I've salvaged anything which could be removed and re-used. Weird stuff found: half-dozen thick cardboard corners from a shipping crate. I still think they would make a great dinosaur tail on a Halloween costume. For that reason, I cannot part with them. I can hold onto them and wish for a little boy Grand, can't I ? The floor is visible! Organization is imminent! What a thrill. I'm almost to the point where I can drag my blindhemmer in from the dining room to fill up the vacated floor space. Like I said, I abhor a vacuum. Cea
Whoo hoo!!! We have floor!!! I completely understand what an accomplishment this is. :) This is the measuring stick I use for the children's rooms after all. "Start cleaning and don't stop till there's nothing on the floor except furniture." (did I mention my children are very literal minded? If I didn't add that last part, they'd figure a way to rig beds, bookcases, desks and dressers from the ceiling! lol)
So, do you have carpet in your sewing room? I have tile. This was a very specific request when DH finished the room for me. I told him I wanted to be able to take the broom in there. Too, I **frequently** drop pins. Even with berber carpet, they can get tangled in the carpet fibers and point up. Last thing I need is a quiling pin stuck in my foot. (BTDT --- got the t-shirt.) Pins don't stay point up on a tile floor though. Yes, I know this whole thing could be avoided with vigorous application of shoes. But we all know I'm too much a country babe to wear shoes. lol And who can sew with them on anyway?
I'm so glad for you that the blindhemmer will be moving in and taking up residence soon. :) This is a good thing. New toys are a wonderful thing, especially when you get a bargain on them too! :)
Maybe one of the girls will want to be a dinosaur or dragon for Halloween one year. We had several little girls through here last night in "boyish" costumes. One was a lion, complete with mane. Boy did she ROAR too. She was about 4. She said trick or treat and then thanked me for the candy. Then she looked at her dad and said "can I?" He nodded. Then she let out the biggest roar her little body would allow. LOL I whooped, and fluttered and asked please don't eat me big scary lion. Then, bless her little heart, she said "It's OK, it's just a costume. See it has a zipper here." lol I wanted to hug her. Just a darling little bit. So there may be a use for those cardboard triangles yet. (Although I think more grandbabies for you is a wonderful idea. :})
I actually have three areas, so that would have to be the first to change. Currently I have my main sewing area in the back half of my living room with shelving and filing cabinets to hold all the current projects. In the staging room, I keep *some* of the stash and the overflow. Last year when we were cleaning out the building my business was moving from, we had a fixture sale and I bought several big wire rolling racks that were used as shirt displays. I also ended up with a couple of really big industrial wire shelving units, so I can keep *most* of the stuff off the floor. I have a large outbuilding under my carport that the previous owner had fitted with good lighting and shelves all along one long wall, so all my craft books reside out there. I keep the rest of my stash out there, too, along with the commercial pattern cabinet a friend gave me after she closed her sewing business. It's nice and dry because of the desert, so I don't have to worry about mildew. That building (and the two other smaller ones which catch the overflow) was the main reason I bought my house.
What I really want is to have a house with a second floor that is completely open like a loft. One whole wall would have slatwall for adjustable shelving like you said and another wall would have floor-to-ceiling bookshelves. I would like to have a work table stretching along another wall with BIG windows to let in the light and skylights, as well. I would also have a work island in the middle with lots of plug outlets. Can you imagine giving THAT list to a realtor? If I had gone to the place my company had originally planned to send me, I would have had something close to set up like that. Oh, well! There's always the next transfer :-)
My house has an oil furnace, and while the furnace man was here for the annual tune-up, he left me a brochure for a small unit I could put in my attic apartment. It's a little furnace that looks like a heater. It requires a feeder line, but they also have one like it that you actually pour the fuel into it. I couldn't help but think of all the things that could go wrong there - drips of heating fuel.... But, my point is that there are new heaters on the market....great improvements, too.
Those store walls are just peg board - cheap at Home Depot, Lowe's, etc., it's sold by the sheet. The costly part is getting the hangers, but sometimes you can find a pile of them in a thrift store or when a store remodels. A few years ago, I merchandised sewing and craft notions and had to do resets in a chain of stores using that stuff. Can make you certifiably crazy when you're trying to follow their sheet that tells you where each peg goes and what hangs from it, and you're applying it to 3 different stores and competing with neighboring suppliers who will try to encroach on your allotted space. And all the stuff you're hanging is in itsy little bags. But I digress.
Yes, I have looked at real estate listings, and they don't include the "right" things. I want a house that is solid brick, has a full basement and full finished attic, lathe and plaster walls, double-hung sash windows, hardwood floors, a fireplace and central air conditioning --- oh! wait!! I already have that!
A couple of things to remember about pegboard: you must provide some kind of spacer behind it, or the little hangers don't go through the holes.
Andother thing: if you want white walls, paint the pegboard white. It is usually dark, and ugly, in my opinion.
My own preference is to use a white plastic-coated grid, on white walls. There are several different systems, and the one I have came with different types of hanging doodads. I have three different ones hanging over three different sewing stations in my studio, and they pretty much disappear on the walls, unless there is something colorful on the grid. I hang tools, instruction sheets, thread spools, little baskets--you name it--on them. One even has a little bedside-type lamp clipped to it that I can position directly over my shoulder when I'm sewing on one machine.
Cea, clear everything out and put in that laminate floor. You will love it. It has a layer of thick plastic foam sheeting that goes beneath the floor; this not only dampens sound, but it would give you the insulation you need, too. We put it in our kitchen five years ago, and I wish we had it in the entire house, it's so pretty and easy to take care of.
Face it, if you remove a window and replace it with a doorway, you're in for a major overhaul, anyway. Might as well go corpus porkus, eh?
My DM has Pergo and has been less than happy with it. It is "very noisy" if you have pets. Their nails on it are like snare drums. They put a layer of felt under it but it still is noisy. Now they have put throw rugs all over it to quiet it down so it's almost a carpeted room again. So many that they trip on them. Plus there is this small detail of the plastic bowing up at each crack. Maybe a moisture problem?
The linoleum layer spread some leveling compound (smelled like concrete) and really did a job leveling the wood floor with it. Took about a day to dry but the floor is very nice, very quiet, very flat, maybe not as easy to clean as Pergo, but no water will get through it and damage the particle board backing of the Pergo. Plus nothing I drop on it breaks like it does on the kitchen tile.
snipped-for-privacy@webtv.net wrote: > Given a perfect world, we'd have a sewing room with a button for a room > extension--like those high-end motor homes have: Walla! Ten more feet of > sewing space!
Maybe that's what you should have? A motorhome with a "pullout" dedicated for just sewing? I used to often think of that.
I wouldn't say mine is "perfect" at all, but I like it although it has its warts. I have two windows, one northern and one eastern, where the door stands in front of. The room is quite small and has no closet (old farmhouse) but has started to become nicer since I painted it. The walls are a light beigy pink color ("Fragile Beauty" by Sherwin Williams) and I found a border with bird's nests and leaves to bring in some green. That's up near the ceiling. Look closely and you will see it's "off" but who goes around sticking their nose up to wallpaper near a ceiling?
The room is shorter than the average room, about 1 foot, so the windows are lower and being a 1900's farmhouse, they are narrow. The biggest problem is I want natural light and the eastern window has the door in front of it most of the time. I'm trying to convince DH that although this is an old house, you can still hang a folding door without too much trouble. I want one of those louvered ones from Home Depot, as there is no heat source upstairs, where the room is, and whatever heat comes up the stairs could go into the room with the doors closed (hopefully).
I have a huge rolltop desk (with no top) to sew on. It's a problem because it's 30" high and the machines (plural) add about another 3", so my back and shoulders get a little sore. I've been looking to modify it but trying to get someone to commit to that around here is like a joke. Had three people tell me they would; one was too busy and two "flaked" out. I've asked a fourth, who is coming over today, but I've been hearing "flakes fall", so I'm almost to the point of doing it myself. I really like the desk because Koala Cabinets are a little pricey. Besides, I don't want to have to put all my stuff away including folding the cabinet every time I finish sewing, and I use the desk for my artwork.
I found a frame at Pennsylvania House's "clearance attic" in Lewisburg and paid $3.00 for it. I painted it and had a mirror placed in it. It's now a nice full length mirror which I've hung on my wall.
I have a TV in the corner but I don't watch many programs, although I have a VCR in the TV; I use it mostly for the dish network music stations. The TV also warms the room, a little, as well as a few candles--a trick I learned when my sister and I had a playhouse when we were young. Can't use a heater because the upstairs has the original wiring--all on one breaker, and I'd trip it. I have to turn off the iron when I sew.
Cea, you asked about a wall heater. DH is getting a gas one for his shed; they also come in electric and propane. You can find them at Home Depot, or Lowe's and they are about $89.00. I've heard nothing but good stuff about them, although I can't remember the name (DH is in the basement with the radio on, so I can't "get through" to him...). They have ceramic blocks that radiate the heat and put it in the room and the electric ones have a fan. They look like the old fashioned freestanding floor heaters that Vermont Country Store has for sale, but these mount in a wall.
Now I'm thinking of putting a cork bulletin board next to my desk so I can tack things I'm working on, or embroidery designs on it. But I don't want to "junk up" the walls, so I'm trying to overcome that. On the left side of my desk, on the opposite wall (the room is small) I have two bookshelves, one is at the height of my cutting table so I can lay the top of the table on the bookshelf to utilize more space. The other bookshelf is just above it for my quick reference sewing and quilt books. Other wall, where the closet should be, has a bookshelf/cabinet combination, which I'm finding I need a larger one to store more stash. Maybe I can hide it under the bed in the guest room?
The room is cozy, when I get the natural light in there. Stark when I have to turn on the overhead. I tried to get DH to install a dimmer, for obvious reasons, but he was a little uneasy. So I'll put "that one" away for now.
As to vacuum cleaners, I got a cannister and use the "bare floor" switch. I have carpet, but no pad (hard on the knees when cutting at the cutting table, but it keeps the floor warm) and it seems to pick threads and garbage just fine. That is, when I remember to vacuum the floor and little "sewing bunnies" start to appear in the stairwell, downstairs living room or great room.
Those of you who have their sewing rooms in a corner of the dining, living room or garage, my heart goes out to you. I had one like that too, with a sheet dividing me and the car. The other side was the washer and dryer. Pretty cold and dusty!
We don't have Pergo; we have Formica, and I am thrilled with it. There is a different underlayment system with each of them.
My daughter has dogs, and they visit "grandma" often. We have hardwood floors in the rest of the house, but the Formica in the kitchen is much quieter than the hardwood.
Why not just take the door off? If you need to close the room sometimes, make a Roman shade that will drop over the opening. Of course, that might not work if you have animals or small children you're trying to keep out.
If you can't lower the desk, how about one of those chairs (Home Depot has them) with the hydraulic lift? You can adjust the height easily by the lever under the seat. They come in regular height, and also "counter" height with a footrest.
Thought of that one. DH wants it on because he likes to close the door before we go to bed so the heat will go in our bedroom across the hall. And the only "small children" I'd be trying to keep out is DH. Heh heh. I could look into the Roman shade idea though. That's a good idea. But I'm still hoping he'd change his mind and install the louvered doors. They are easy to install; in fact, I fixed one in the guest room tonight; it came off the track. These would be single folded, not bifolded like a closet door. Like the door on an old Western barroom. Maybe I should install them. Okay, now I have to get DH out of the house, after I've hidden the doors for a few days. Not too easily done, I'm afraid.
I have one of these. Sorry I didn't explain. :( With a rolltop desk, the kneehole is only so high. After that, you are crushing your thighs just to sew at the right height. Maybe that's a good idea. Then I could make my thighs thinner! Just kidding. I'm thinking of taking the top of the desk off (it comes in three pieces with drawers on two sides and the top lifts off) and placing a door on top; the same door that is on the doorway now, if DH installs the others. But then, the room will be a little more crowded, and I'd lose three drawers: the middle and one drawer from each side. I know it....I'm difficult to please!
That's all right. Get what you want, don't settle for make-shift, because you'll always regret it. This is not like buying a house or a car. It's a much smaller investment and the payoff is high. The other advantage to doing it the way you want it is that you can then focus on what you're doing, not on what you would like to do.
Ceramic tile, or vinyl? I'd love to have hardwood floors, (Pergo), but I don't think all of this sewing stuff will be moved out of this room in my lifetime. The room was originally a one-car garage,
And I am yearning for a wall like some stores have, where the walls are grooved, and you can adjust various projecting chrome hangers on them.
Given a perfect world, we'd have a sewing room with a button for a room extension--like those high-end motor homes have: Walla! Ten more feet of sewing space! Anyone have a perfect sewing room? What do you love/hate about your sewing room? What would you change about it? Cea
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I have vinyl tile. I purposely chose inexpensive tile. I didn't want to invest too much in it since I knew it would be a "working" room. Also, I chose the 12"x12" tiles. That way, if something heavy (like the iron) got dropped on it and banged up a tile, that one tile could be taken up and replaced. (Y'know, like if we are going to sell the house or anything down the road.)
Another thought on your wall hanging space. Have you looked at the white wire closet organizers? Would something like that work? I have a small alcove in one corner of my sewing room. I put up a tension rod there. That gives me somewhere to hang things. Works great. Although, if I could figure a way, I'd put that in the closet of the sewing room. But we all know there is far too much stash in the closet for that!!! LOL
I'm in the basement. That's really one of the things I love about my sewing room. Sounds odd I know. But I can come down here and forget there is a world outside of my own little one. :) I don't hear much noise from outside the house. Although, when the kids are home and running around, I can tell where they are in the house. lol I really like my lighting arrangement too. DH finished the room for me. He had to build a bulkhead into part of the ceiling to hide some ductwork and pipes. I had him run that bulkhead all along one wall. In the portion that wasn't to hide other stuff, I had him install some recessed can lights. These are great. I was able to get "daylight" bulbs to fit them too. My machines live under there. So I have fabulous light for working. I can't really think of anything I hate about my room. That comes from working so closely with the contractor I suppose. ;) He was highly motivated when it came to making me happy with the room. lol
When the room is clean, I will try to remember to get some pictures of it. No, don't hold your breath. lol
I noted that the doors in this house are held on with three pins, pulled the pins, and put the door to the laundry room and the door to the walk-in closet in the attic. No more sealed-room smell! Any objections DH has aren't strong enough to make him climb into the attic to retrieve the doors.
Can't repeat the stunt with the sewing-room door, since I need to close it when reading Usenet after DH has gone to bed. But then all that's behind it is patterns hung flat on the wall, and a dust mop I'd as soon keep out of sight.
I hung a curtain in the closet doorway, since it's fairly visible, and I don't want the afternoon sun to shine on the clothes, but I don't miss the laundry-closet door -- except when I hang a laundry basket in its swing space. (The "room" is so small that removing the door doubled the usable space.)
At the opposite extreme, I use a typing table with just enough space for the sewing machine -- copy leaves on both sides about double the surface when they are up. It's just the right height, and the paper drawer is a handy place to keep frequently-used feet, bobbins, etc.
Not something I can recommend to beginners, though -- this table comes from the brief time after huge electric motors were added to typewriters and before the carriage stopped thumping back and forth. Current typing tables are too flimsy to hold a sewing machine.
How about an adjustable chair and a footstool? (Oops, that doesn't let you reach the foot pedal. Never mind.)
This house came with a frameless full-length mirror conveniently mounted at the end of the hall nearest the sewing-room door. Probably meant for a last-minute check on appearance before leaving the house.
For the benefit of any newbies lurking on this thread: a full-length mirror is an absolute necessity.
My walls are junky indeed. Very little of that nice wood paneling shows between the patterns hung on little brass nails -- and I make patterns out of whatever comes to hand: wrapping paper, packing paper, an old Singer sack, gift wrap, used typing paper, shelf paper -- there's even a tissue-paper pattern between the window and the back issues of Threads.
I have seen dinguses that you can screw into a socket, with two separately-switched sockets in it.
I'll have to get one of those. I have a halogen light hanging over the ironing board, which shows details nicely when I'm working at the board, and it's good when I sit at the sewing machine with my back to it, but it hurts my eyes when I sit at the computer, even though this also puts me with my back to it. And this light is on the switch by the door; to switch on my other lamp, I have to cross the often-cluttered floor in the dark. (Though the computer screen gives off more than enough light to navigate by, even now that I've turned the brightness down to 20 and lowered the contrast to 95.)
By good luck, this was meant as a child's bedroom, so the floor is whatever the successor to linoleum was the year it was built -- maybe vinyl? So a dust mop cleans it nicely, but I must vacuum the hall carpet frequently -- I'm always tracking out white threads. Why only the white ones track, I've no idea.
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