16
Jun

A room of one’s own

by HML

Cross-posted from Sinister Craftiness, because it counts as a remodeling project.

There is an unexpected benefit to having newlyweds in the family who live nearby:  they need stuff, and we just happened to have a spare room full of furniture and other items that we just don’t need any more.  When they got back from their honeymoon, they pretty much cleared out the spare room, leaving me with …

A craft/hobby/quilting area, “fiber arts studio”, Mom’s play room, sanity space, whatever you choose to call it.  Depending on what I’m working on any given day, it could be Salon Solitary Elegance or The Lair Sinister.  The room is about 11′ square, plus a small closet, and receives sunlight from east and south facing windows.  It’s painted a pale lavender with white trim:  the leftover paint from Thing Two’s room.

My cutting table was made by placing two 36″ high bookcases back-to-back, then a 1″ thick piece of birch plywood is the table top, with a cutting mat on top of the plywood.  I’m taller than average so I appreciate the height of this cutting table; it’s much more comfortable to work at than my current kitchen counters!  Lots of shelves for fabric, books and magazines, the binders in which I store my charts, and a little bit of display space, too.  Below, Nanaimo claims the work table … for now.

A little history:  when we first moved in, the basement had a lot of potential (standard height ceiling, full size windows, no moisture issues), but still needed a lot of work to make it a pleasant place to be.  Over a year’s time, The Gimlet tore all the walls down to the studs,  insulated, re-plumbed, and re-wired the rooms (adding lots of new outlets), hung drywall, and installed wall-to-wall carpet throughout the downstairs area.  We also replaced all the windows throughout the house.

Before Demolition in progress Drywall Carpet

This particular room soon devolved into an oversized closet for unused and unwanted items, with no definite plan for how and when to get rid of it all.   Enter the newlyweds, and in about an hour, the room was empty.  I spent the next day filling it up again.

It isn’t furnished with antiques or darling flea market finds; it can’t boast a top-notch organization system (much less shelves in the closet); there aren’t even any pictures on the wall yet, but I’ve moved in, and it’s wonderful to have a permanent space just for my projects.  I’m looking forward to personalizing the room and spending a lot of time here.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 16th, 2009 at 7:12 am and is filed under projects, sinister craftiness. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

5 Responses to “A room of one’s own”

  1. Kelley B
    June 16th, 2009 10:50
    1

    Oh how exciting! It looks like you get a lot of great sunlight too. I’m now officially jealous.

    By the way, HELLO!!! Hope you’re doing well!

  2. HML
    June 17th, 2009 07:54
    2

    KELLEY!! Hello to you too! :-D

    The light is great during the day. But right now my best chance at getting a nice long stretch of crafty time is at night, after the boys have gone to sleep. The room really needs some task lighting, and perhaps a different overhead fixture, too. Something that would direct light down on the work areas.

  3. masha
    June 17th, 2009 21:17
    3

    how exciting! So nice to have a room to spread your crafty things out. It looks very organized and clean. Congratulations. Hope you are enjoying your trip to CA.

  4. HML
    June 18th, 2009 00:38
    4

    We haven’t left yet; we still have Thing One’s junior high graduation to attend this week. Our flight arrives in Sacramento with just enough time to drive to the wedding.

  5. Kelley B
    June 19th, 2009 05:36
    5

    Oooo, yay! Another house project perhaps? ;-)

    Have a safe trip!!