It’s finally here girls! One of this weekend’s projects was to FINALLY undig my new sewing space enough to get it through stages 1 & 2 of unpacking (the just-get-it-in-there-and-organized stages) I still have many slipcovers, feet covers (keep reading) and table skirts to make to get through the 3rd stage of making it pretty. Also, there’s a giant wood trunk just ASKING for a bit of scuffing up, but I snapped a few pictures last night with my iPhone to prove that I am, indeed, making progress on unpacking this all-important (to me) room…

{Looking in from the family room}

While I DID reuse a lot of the things from the sewing room in Snug Bug Minneapolis, there were a few more considerations with the Texas iteration of this room. Mainly, it is in the clear sightline from the family room AND immediately upon coming in through the front door. Due to that, I not only needed SUPER ORGANIZATION, but I wanted the furnishings to be a bit cuter and furniture-like. In this sewing space, form totally cut in line ahead of function.

I SCOURED the googles for inspiration. Unfortunately, just searching for ‘sewing rooms’ yields a lot of photos of great spaces, but ones that are (properly) tucked away into basements and extra bedrooms – rooms with doors that allow for a more disheveled look than I wanted to see. I found that searching for sewing ‘studios’ rather than sewing ‘rooms’ upped the notch a bit. Also, by widening/finetuning the search I found some better images – I looked for ‘scrapbooking’, ‘quilt’ and just general ‘craft’ rooms as well as sewing rooms. Looking at the workrooms and studios of interior designers and architects is also a great source of inspiration. Here are my favorites – you can see most of what I liked on my Pinterest page ‘Workspaces‘ – although these image pertain to my home office as well!

{Heather Bailey's sewing studio}

I’ve been in LOVE with the photos from Heather Bailey’s studio for a while – that green work table just kills me! For those of you familiar with her, doesn’t her space look just like her fabrics? Bright, cheery, warm and totally cool? Even though I wanted a more neutral palette for my space (well, Mr. Bug wanted more neutrals…) I really like the way she uses nice solid furniture pieces. Alas, my final room is still mostly Ikea and other flat packed, white laminate usual suspects. But a girl can dream, right?

{Atlanta Homes | Barbara Westbrook's office}

Holy cow! I LOVED this studio featured in Atlanta Homes & Lifestyle. It’s the workspace of interior designer Barbara Westbrook, so there’s more Macs and less sewing machines, but the simple white shelving filled with lots of natural tones and texture from the baskets is exactly what I wanted (and someday, perhaps nice lighting above my cutting table?) No cats, though. Totally go check out the original post – it’s an entire cottage of design studio awesomeness!

{Sew Many Ways}

Now HERE is a sewing space, right? This room is much more what mine will eventually look like, I think, once the clutter builds back up. The post is PACKED with really clever ideas for organizing and storing! Also, a great tip on how to add height to your craigslist farm table-now-cutting table!

{Anna Maria Horner's sewing space}

Like Heather Bailey’s space, Anna Maria Horner’s studio is colorful, warm and gorgeous with lots of built ins and and real, live furniture. I grabbed a quick link to a post on her blog for these pictures, but I KNOW I’ve seen more pictures out there in the googles. Again, I love the color so much! Those chairs!

{Thinking Out Loud}

I love the look and the organization of this space from the blog Thinking Out Loud. Of course, the cute little cubbies don’t lend themselves to storing the yardage of garment sewists, but it’s still adorable! I think her green cubbies are an antique, but the Sarah closet system from Ballard Designs is very similar. Of course, that would be WAY out of reach from my sewing room budget, but still…

{One Little Word}

One more I really liked! This craftroom from One Little Word is warm, cluttered AND soothing. I would be terrified of so much open (non box/basket contained) storage – mine would just look like a giant messy jumble! But she totally pulls it off! I love the clothesline of fabric above the computer and would like to do something like that for when I’m plotting full season wardrobes in one color palette!

OK, now that I’ve shown you the GREAT rooms, I’ll show you mine (hmmm… my order leaves something to be desired!!) I showed you the view from our family room above – that’s sort of across the back of the house. There’s also a set of french doors that are oriented towards the front of the house. Here’s that view…

Nice coffe cup, huh? My new cutting table is a craigslist find. It’s a great 6×3′ solid wood number from William Sonoma. I put it up on bed risers for now, although I’d like to evenutally get finials for a nicer look. I WILL be making little muslin aprons or something like that to cover up the ugly black plastic! The giant trunk underneath is a rummage sale find of Mr. Bug’s that we had a hard time putting into use, but it’s perfect for batting and such! I also upgraded to the 70 x 70″ Expedite from Ikea. I had the 54 x 54″ one in my old sewing space – it’s now in Mr. Bug’s office. I love how all the Ikea stuff ‘fits’ together! I use a LOT of magazine files and they fit perfectly in these! I also splurged on the seagrass baskets for organizing – they match the seagrass rug from Pottery Barn we got to protect our new wood floors!

Here’s the corner with my ratty old bed for Lucy armchair. I’d like to make a quick slipcover for that monster! The sewing space has a fireplace, which seems VERY decadent to me! It’s gas, so I expect I’ll actually use it in the winter. Mr. Bug and I may also add another TV to the house for above this mantle – it will be viewable from the adjoining room which he is going to outfit for poker playing.

Here you can see the door to the family room (on the left) and a bit of the door to the ‘poker room’ (on the right.) Since I dismantled my large white cutting table, I reused two of Closet Maid cube units that had been the base. I stacked them on one side of the doorway – they’re attached to each other with metal brackets. On my to-do list is to make a little muslin skirt to hide the bottom half of the shelving unit so it can get a little messy and match the Ikea Billy bookcase on the other side of the french doors. The canvas inserts are from Target (as are the cube units) and I like the way they look. I will say, though, that while these units serve a purpose and are the right scale for my needs, I really don’t recommend them. They are so very, very cheap and junky!

Here’s that Billy bookcase, along with some rather dramatic lighting – all the pictures were taken at the same time of day, but this corner was all atmospheric! The long sewing table was in the Minneapolis sewing space and will be getting a skirt made from a paint dropcloth to cover up the ugly metal legs, cords and wire Antonius storage units. You can just see in the upper right had corner one of the antique shop finds I nabbed just before leaving Minneapolis!

Check ’em out! They’re rather oversized advertisements for mens’ suits! Sorry for the glare, but this one shows some different styles and interior details…

And here are two dapper young men showing off two of the most popular styles. You can’t see it in the photo, but there’s a woman in a carriage in the background TOTALLY checking them out. Me? I’m not so much into mustaches or canes. Times change, I suppose. But could there BE any better artwork for a sewing room that’s trying to not be TOO girly out of respect for the man of the house??

Hope you enjoyed the tour!