Functional Work Room – Always a Work in Progress

I am fortunate enough to have space in our new home to create a very spacious work room for all my sewing and crafting needs. Technically the room I’m using is designed as the “formal living room” but really, nowadays who needs a room with fancy furniture no one can touch? Yea, not me.

Call it a sewing room, craft room, or even office…. It’s MY room.

This is what the room looked like at the start of my organizational obsession.

Using existing Ikea Billy bookcases I created a wall with plenty of storage space. The other extremely multifunctional piece on the wall is the fabric covered cork bulletin board. I get so much mileage outta that guy. Which I might add was created for under $20 using cork squares glued onto foam board and then covered in a cotton fabric print!

Floating in the center of the room is an extra long Ikea table. It’s narrower than most but it fits my cutting mats perfectly. With the table floating and not up against a wall, it allows for easy pattern cutting as I can walk around the entire table without having to move the fabric around.

Here is the progress I’ve made in the few months I’ve had to personalize the space.

The yarn covered letters above the cork board say it all!

To the left of the thread holder I have mounted magnetic strip that holds small metal containers with clear lids perfect for all those tiny tools and supplies. Fairly inexpensive. You guessed it Ikea!

I use the cork board to hang my scissors, rotary cutters, and any other tool that needs to be at the ready. I also like keeping special mementos, photos, greeting cards, and any other items that inspire me.

Most things in our home either have a purpose, a story, or significant emotional ties.

This is my UN coffee mug I picked up on a trip to NY several years back. I love coffee, and I love having mugs that remind me of places I’ve visited. It serves a higher purpose as a pen/pencil holder atop one of the shorter bookcases.

Here’s another mug that keeps me company quite often while I “create

If you’re as obsessive as I am about organizing, then you understand when I say I believe everything should have its place. One of the bookcases stores home office type items. Files, printer, scanner, etc all have a home here. I gave a motivational frame the important job of hiding stored printer paper by hanging it on the exterior of one of the bookshelves. This changed the visual of the bookcases and created a little nook for not so pretty things.

I was proud of myself for that one haha

What’s that on the clipboard inside the lower shelf you ask? Like I mentioned before everything has a story or a purpose. After the move, I had collected various sheets of paper with crayon drawings, or I should say more like doodles, my son had created the last year of his life. They don’t say anything or resemble any recognizable characters but they are him. I feel like it’s a tiny piece of him. One sheet I have in a separate room in a frame but here I have the others on display inside the shelf on a clipboard. I love seeing his art.

I was happy to have a place in the corner of the room for my rocking chair. I had this chair while I was pregnant with my son and tried to use it to soothe him after he was born, and of course he hated it!

My fabric bookshelf is on the right side of the wall. I’ve slowly started collecting bits of fabric here and there.

There are so many other tweaks and projects in progress for this room. I will be needing a Part 2 to highlight some more details 🙂