Monday, December 7, 2020

Studio Planning

In our new home, the room designated on the floor plan as Bedroom 2 will become my studio. It measures 11 feet by 14 feet. You can see it at the lower right on the floor plan. 

My current sewing space is 10 feet by 12 feet plus the closet. Here's what my current set-up looks like.  (photo from the listing) 

View from the doorway. Those baskets in the closet contain my stash. The other closet contains hanging quilts and some unrelated stuff. The design wall, not shown, is to the right from this photo. 

Here's an old photo showing the view from the closet end of the room looking back toward the door: 

And another view:
Both the sewing table and the cutting table are shown with leaves folded down here. When fully opened, each is the size of a twin bed. 

I've been planning how to lay out my new studio. There's a lot more space; I've been playing with templates the size of the tables fully open. The layout below is looking into the room from the doorway (lower right in diagram) which is the opposite of how the room is shown in the floor plan above, but it makes more sense to lay out the room as I'll see it in use. 


The heavy black line at the far right represents my design wall. We'll have to get foam core panels and install it once we get out there and get settled in a bit. 

I'll usually have the leaf of the cutting table folded down, and there will be a lot of space between the table and the wall. I may push the table closer to the design wall except when I need the table open. The sewing table is shown fully open, what my husband describes as "air craft carrier mode." I like the open width but in my current space I have to keep the end leaves folded down. 

In the layout, the ironing board is shown in front of the window. The window faces west but has thermal glass and plantation shutters so I hope the room doesn't get too warm. The bottom of the window is about two feet off the floor, so the ironing board height will come up partway across the window. 

Currently, my stash lives in the baskets in the closet. I'm concerned about closet space in the new home, so I'm considering some alternatives. One is to get some low shelf units that are deep enough to accommodate the baskets, and put them on either side of the window (where all the small items are now). Another plan is to get a rolling garment rack and put it parallel to the closet, to store hanging quilts. 

We'll see how things come together once we get moved and I see my furnishings and equipment in the new space. I just want to be able to generally tell the movers where to put the bigger pieces so it'll be easier for me to unpack and arrange the small stuff. 

So I guess this gives a different meaning to Design Wall Monday, since I'm designing where the stuff in the sewing room, including the design wall, will go. Linking up with Small Quilts and Doll Quilts.

8 comments:

  1. Looks like you've got a good grip on the situation. It's so hard to imagine how you will use the space until you get there and live with it a bit.

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  2. Wow, your floor plan is identical to ours in Encanterra (Shea Homes, Queen Creek, AZ). I use the den as my studio, as we sometimes used to have guests (we are not even there until Covid gets under control) i wish you well on setting things up, and know you will enjoy the outdoor living room and fireplace when the weather is cooler at night. Jill McCaughey at shaw dot ca. Jill in Phoenix/Calgary

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  3. It's fun to play with designing a new sewing space. Hope you can figure out all the things you've got questions about. And, UGH, I hated having my studio space totally picked up for months when we sold our last house. Too bad I didn't get into the habit! Are you moving locally or a distance? Just a thought -- I have my stash on built in shelves next to french doors. From what I can tell, I'm not having any issues with the sunlight that comes from those doors which are suppose to be light blocking of some sort... Hope things go smoothly for you when you come to the move.

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  4. What a series of delicious dilemmas!

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  5. Jan, have you considered making an ironing board top with shelves underneath? I’m thinking about my new studio and think that’s what I’m going to do. So much wasted space with a traditional ironing board. Hopefully you’ll get set up quickly:)

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  6. I am moving my sewing room to our bonus loft, a lot more space, so I envision making a cutting table from Ikea cabinets. So excited to get it all put together! Good luck on getting yours situated.

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  7. Soooo much room! Your new studio is going to be just lovely and I can't wait to see photos when you move in :)

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  8. Congrats on gaining some extra space in the new studio, Jan! All of the tiny pieces of paper in the world can't substitute for actually being in the room and seeing how it feels. It's nice to have a plan... as long as that plan is flexible.

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