This is my very first blog post on my brand new sewing blog, so I thought it fitting to start by showing off my brand new sewing room. I'm in sewing heaven!
We've just moved back to Australia (Sydney) after 14 months in Belgium, and luckily our new house had some extra space to set up a sewing corner. It is up on the landing, where the windows provide lots of natural light. I did quite a bit of research to figure out which furniture to get, and even drew a scaled map of the room to make sure everything would fit.
I ended up buying 2 Micke desks from Ikea. See how there is still space for an extra machine ;-). I am planning to buy an overlocker (serger) someday... soon.
I deliberately mounted one of the tabletops the wrong way around, so that the hole for the cables is at the front. This way I have a nice little bin for all those little threads that otherwise so often end up all over the floor. I just empty the drawer once in a while. I thought this was a handy solution after I realised I would not be able to open the drawer when the knee lever is mounted.
I chose to get two separate desks instead of the wide Micke desk. I had seen a wide Micke desk all bent in the middle on a second-hand site. So this is a stronger option as my sewing machine is quite heavy. Surprisingly the two desks combined turned out to be cheaper too. The only drawback is that they are quite low. I sometimes hit the bottom of the drawers with my legs as I am quite tall. The desk height is 75cm, but the height between the floor and the bottom of the drawers is only 62cm.
I also wanted a work bench that would allow me to draw and cut fabrics without breaking my back. I looked at a height adjustable table, but figured I wouldn't need to adjust the height all the time, just something that was high enough. There are plenty of example in cyberspace of "ikeahacks" and I just shamelessly copied them. The combination of Kallax shelving units with a table top seems very popular. It is so simple to make and it works. I added wheels so the whole thing can easily be moved around, I can walk around it and use it from all sides. I love it!
For the table top, I decided on a size of 150cm by 90cm, as that would fit the A0 size cutting board I wanted. My hubby got the board cut to size at the local hardware store, oiled it, and simply mounted it to the Kallax shelves with L brackets. The A0 size cutting mat -which is 120 cm wide by 90cm- fits the table top perfectly. The overall height of the table is 91cm.
I still had a unit with drawers from Ikea that once lived in our kitchen, this has now been turned into a handy storage cabinet. Ikea has lots of trays and boxes that fit the drawers perfectly, so I inserted those in to organise all the little bits and pieces a sewer collects. The space looks so tidy and organised now. Lets hope I can keep it that way!
