Thursday, August 16, 2018

At last

After
It's finally done. Or as close to done as it's going to get right now, since I probably shouldn't have been working on it at all.

But a maker's gonna do what a maker's gonna do.

We've been here since March, and even before we moved in, I knew what I was going to have to do with my work space. In the old house, I had an enormous 4 x 8 conference table as my workspace, but that wasn't going to work here. The whole room is only 8 x 10. I spent some time at the office browsing Ikea for ideas, and ended up deciding on two 5 foot long work tables, one at standard height and one with adjustable legs so that I could have a cutting surface that wouldn't wreck my back. I printed out the list of what I needed, and put it aside until there was time to deal with it.

Before
Is there ever time? I worked on a few commissions, and started trying to get ready for spring craft shows, but I wasn't really motivated. I did it, but I was thankful there weren't very many shows scheduled.

Then one day, I just couldn't take it anymore. I went online and found that Ikea was running a sale. All the things I wanted were 10% off. Sounds like a sign from the craft gods to me. I ordered everything, paid an extra $5 to have them pull it for me, and we drove down to Ikea the next day and loaded my entire new workroom into the Outback.

Needless to say, I probably should have painted the room before I built the furniture and hung old pictures on the walls. But I will get to that eventually. Or not. The important thing is I'm working, steadily and well.

Turns out I wasn't unmotivated at all I was just uncomfortable.

4 comments:

Carolyn (Diary of a Sewing Fanatic) said...

Karen - it's sooooooo purty! Love your new space and glad you're sewing in it now!

Sue in MN said...

Very nice job fitting into a small space. Here's some things I learned after downsizing from 24X14 to 10X13 and living with it for many years now:
I have to keep thing put away or I feel like I'm in a cave. I used to go from project to project in increasing clutter - now I put away often.
I had to "curate" my stash and keep it sized to fit the space. That means once every year or two, it all gets sorted & the "never use" or "what was I thinking" stuff is donated.
I found an out-of-room place to store bulky things like batting, upholstery rems & totes of fleece - in my case on top of the cabinets in the laundry room -accessable but not taking up scarce space.
I converted the closet with steel shelves set up to hold the marked totes - no unstacking to find my stuff.
I added lots of lights to make it feel bigger, and as big a white/bulletin board as I could fit.

Nancy K said...

It looks fabulous! I am working on making my sewing room more comfortable and prettier as well. Enjoy!

Vicki said...

Nice! Much better. You deserve it.