The Not-So-Big Reveal

The reorganization is finished and although the sewing/craft room is clean and fairly neat, it isn’t something you’d see on HGTV or a design magazine. I left the walls white, because although I love color to the point of an unhealthy obsession, I need a relatively blank background on which to do my color “thinking.” I didn’t buy any new furniture, so the skinny shelves meant for books are now holding rolls of fabric and stacking supply boxes, and my dresser from 1974 contains paper, pens, and bookbinding supplies. Still, I think it is an improvement.  

The good news is that everything is very clean. The carpets look and smell better, at least temporarily. I cleaned the windows, walls, shelves, and everything else as I was moving things around, so there had better not be a speck of dust in there.

The better news is that I accomplished my goal of dividing the room between sewing supplies and art supplies. The only exceptions are the dressforms, which move around as needed.

The best news is that I took three truckloads of craft supplies and small furniture to various donation centers. This freed up some space, but not much, as you will see.

The sewing table looks HUGE now that I have the piles of fabric and pending projects put away. I can even open the shutters, although not for very long, since the light will fade fabrics in no time.

I finally have all my books and patterns in one place! All the notions, linings, interfacings, and various cotton fabric types have their own shelves. The larger fabric collections are still in plastic bins on the floor.

The much-reduced paper and paint collection is better organized but still takes up almost one whole side of the room. Again using only what I already had, I’ve made extensive use of rolling carts on the floor in addition to the dresser drawers and various types of stacking bins. The big blank space on the wall is waiting for a cork board.

The last section is a no-man’s-land between the door and the closet. Here’s my 35-year-old stereo cabinet with what must be the last surviving TV/VCR combo so I can watch my yoga tapes. I put the ironing supplies here as well.

I admit that I did slack off in a few areas. For example, I did not sort through my thousands of collage paper bits as I was transferring them into a drawer. Also, the closet is still a bit of a dumping ground for the things that just don’t fit anywhere else, like all the pre-digital camera equipment, a big basket of toys, and empty boxes I might want to use again (hoarder alert!). And let’s not forget the queen-size airbed, my sole concession to the fact that this room is also a guest room. Imagine the poor guest who has to lie down in this place and risk bashing his or her head on so many hard corners and sharp poky things.

And so, the final result does resemble my “reorg chart” (thanks Lilly Forever for that hilarious reference). The new setup will certainly make it easier to find what I need and I should be able to handle some of the larger projects without having to haul them around the house looking for a big enough table.

Now I think I’ll just leave it alone for a while. It’s too nice to mess up!

Katrina