After several months spent sewing at the kitchen table and a growing business, it was finally time to dedicate a space to Briar&Boone!
I use multiple machines, and need ironing, cutting and storage space. Needless to say my hobby turned business was starting to take over our whole house. I either had to entirely clean up my sewing mess in order for us to have dinner at our dining table or, more often than not, we would eat our meals on the floor! It was finally time to make my sewing room dream a reality! Over the past few months my husband and I have transformed our guest bedroom into my dream sewing space!
This is the only before picture I have, which fails to really show the room, but you get the idea. We had a queen size bed in there and some small side tables, but not much else.
This project was done on a budget, but one thing we did shell out some money for was a sleeper sofa. It was important that we still have a place for people to sleep when they came to visit so the sleeper sofa, and the space to open it out into a bed, was a necessity. We went with one from Ikea, and when shipping was all said and done it was around $650.
The new sofa takes up almost the entire back wall but leaves the rest of the room open.
The first thing I did after getting rid of the big bed and bringing in the couch was paint the entire room. I went with the Behr Marquee paint, which is about $43 a gallon, but it really does only take one coat so it is totally worth it!
After the paint job I got to work on a desk and shelves. I didn`t want there to be any legs associated with my desk because I wanted to be able to vacuum the floor easily. I bought butcher block counters to make the desk, and then cut them at an angle so that they would fit together and make an L shape. I also took the router along the outside so that the top of the desk would have a rounded edge. We have white trim and doors, so I whitewashed the wood to lighten it up and keep it cohesive with the rest of the room. The desk is installed on heavy duty shelf brackets (each pair of brackets is rated to hold 300lbs) which I screwed directly into the wall studs.
It took my husband and I a few tries to cut the desk top to the appropriate angles to fit because the walls in our house are not straight and are not at a 90 degree angle! I was so relieved when it finally fit!
After that I installed two shelves above the desk on brackets. These shelves are just whitewashed pieces of pine. One was a 1x10 and the other is a 1x6. I will be storing bolts of fabric on the top one, and the bottom one is for sewing notions and miscellaneous other knick-knacks.
The last thing I did for this area was drill holes in the desk top so that the cords for my sewing machine and serger could go through so they wouldn`t be hanging off the front and sides of the desk.
I lucked out at the thrift store and found a folding cutting table for $15 (which retail for about $200) so I bought that and covered one of the folding leaves with ironing board material. I use that instead of having a separate ironing board, and then I use the rest of the table for cutting. This was the perfect addition to my room because it folds down so small when guests come and we have to pull out the bed!
I also bought a small set of storage drawers to store all of my shipping items in, which was about $20, a new light fixture, and hung spool holders below the shelf.
A final touch that I am super excited about is this solid oak office chair that I found on craigslist for $35! I had initially planned on upholstering a cushion and painting it white, but I found out that it is quite old and worth money, so I am leaving it as is!
With a lot of help from my husband I was able to get the sewing room of my dreams for a pretty low cost. I will still be making some curtains for my new space, but otherwise it is perfect!
Cost Breakdown
sleeper sofa - $650 IKEA
desk/shelf lumber and brackets - $180 Lowes
paint - $43 Home Depot
light fixture - $50 Home Depot
cutting table - $15 Salvation Army
ironing board fabric - $7 Joann Fabrics
plastic drawer storage- $20 Target
vintage office chair - $35
So the total for the whole project came in at under $1000, most of that expense being the sleeper sofa.
If you have any questions feel free to leave a comment or email me at briarandboone@outlook.com.