Sewing is a hobby that I really enjoy, however I’ve often been limited by not having a good work space. As much as I would LOVE to have a room dedicated purely to my sewing, this is just not the reality!
In the past I’ve creatively used my Dining Room Hutch to store all of my sewing supplies and it worked OK. However, the time-consuming process of having to drag everything out just to sew something actually held me back from doing much sewing at all.
Well, one day I had an aha-moment! Don’t you love it when that happens?!? We had previously used this armoire as a computer work station, but due to the ever changing (I can’t seem to catch my breath) technology that surrounds us, we no longer needed such a large storage area to hold our modernized, and now sleek computer.
Enter in my *NEW* Sewing Space! What I love about this armoire is that I can simply open the doors and start sewing! No set up is required. (And it’s in my Living Room so I can also have the TV on for some entertainment.)
Organizing a Sewing Space
Above I broke down the “zones” for you, but I really need to do a show and tell…
As you can see this was set up to work as an “Office Space” well, that didn’t stop me! In fact the areas designed for office purposes, actually work really well for sewing purposes too. For example, the bulletin board lined doors are a great holding spot to display sewing patterns.
At the top of the armoire, I simply removed two of the mail dividers and kept one section for knitting and one section to hold extra fabric. And the file drawer on the left holds my Machine Manuals.
The surface area where the computer used to sit was pretty scratched up so I laid down some black and white contact paper to cover up the “real life” evidence and to also give some contrast to the all black surfaces.
Then below my machines the pull out tray that used to hold the keyboard and mouse, now stores these two tray dividers perfectly.
They fill up the entire tray seamlessly (no pun intended) and give me all of my sewing supplies right at my finger tips! Ta-da!!!
Now let’s look at the bottom half. On the right side are three drawers. I used the first two drawers to hold mending projects and some miscellaneous supplies.
Drawer number three was intended to hold files, but look at what it holds now…it’s as if this drawer was made for the number of large-sized spool threads that I possess. (And it looks like I need to get to sewing something, soon!)
To the left of the drawers is a fixed shelf where I repurposed my baskets, that I formerly used in my old Linen Closet, to store my patterns. I divided my patterns into three categories: Kids, Adults, and Home Dec. (Again they fit snug as a bug…I think this armoire wanted to be repurposed as my sewing space!)
The lower shelf is actually a printer rollout shelf, which works well as I must have an ugly transformer plugged in at all times to keep my American machines working in Europe. So it’s hiding behind that cute basket and to the right is another stack of fabrics, I mean projects. Thanks to my sister Harmony who gifted me with a huge stack of home dec fabric, it pays to have a Designer in the family.
So that’s my Organized Sewing Space with not a stitch of wasted space!
For fun, I wanted to leave you with a little more organizing inspiration. Here are some great examples of how to repurpose an armoire for several different functions. Rethink the furniture you have sitting around. You don’t always need a dedicated room to set up an area that is focused for a specific purpose.
Get creative and set up a new zone!
I love these three examples, three of many that Better Homes and Gardens featured on how to repurpose an armoire. Every idea from entertaining, to kids, to crafts, to pets, to baking, to…you name it.
Remember this – don’t go shopping until you’ve shopped your own home first. If you’ve got an old armoire, dresser or bookshelf, look for a way to create a new and organized space!
Tell Me: What piece of furniture do you have sitting around that could use a facelift? What could you repurpose within your home to make a more organized space or zone?
Happy Organizing!