I haven’t done a full studio tour in a while, I think the last one was shortly after finishing the gentleman’s cabinet. Not a lot has changed, but I did feel inspired to do a deep clean after taking photos of my recent knitted FOs. As you can see, I had an unsightly cord mess, which is what inspired the cleaning.
As I’ve mentioned before, I am super lucky to have the whole upstairs. Managing the climate up here has been a struggle until we installed this ceiling mini split. I need to paint over the failed heating/cooling attempt in the sloped ceiling, but I’m not quite ready for how much of a pain that will be as I also need to paint all of the window trim. It’s essentially painting the whole space again and I just can’t.
Fabric storage is still in the built-in shelves, but now my stash is fully contained here (I used to have a stack of fabric underneath one of the sewing tables). Over the past year, I’ve really been trying to use up some oldies and only purchase fabric when I have a project in mind and the desire to make it immediately.
My birthday gift from my husband was this long coveted piece by Sarah Sullivan Sherrod. I rearranged this whole section of artworks so that I could see it from my work computer.
And the work from home space. Not an exciting view, but I did work on the cord management here too. I’m thinking about knitting a fun and colorful sleeve for the cords since they’re still so visible.
Tidying up the sewing machine cords feels so great! I also realized that my table depth is shallow enough to allow the foot pedal cords to run through the back.
I recently bought this vintage medical stool for sewing and definitely prefer it to the old green one I had been using. It can be pushed right under the table and there’s no longer a risk of bashing a seat back into my machines’ free arm systems. The top of the stool is torn, so I signed up for a local upholstery class – very excited to learn from a professional.
And now we’re over by the cutting table.
Slowly replacing IKEA furniture and fixtures (usually from my former classroom) with old, solid, and well-made pieces has really transformed the space. Both of these cabinets were refinished and restored by me and I am still very, very proud of how they came out. Not having all my thread and notions on display frees up the space for artwork, which I definitely prefer.
I am keeping my eye out for a low bookcase to sit underneath the window since these IKEA benches aren’t great for storing books. My husband and I might design and build something ourselves though. I have some ideas percolating.
And here are some some vignettes from around the room.
And back over to other side of the space, I have my somewhat neglected art table and the knitting nook. This art practice is one of my greatest achievements and I’m really trying to get back into the habit. It’s such a challenge to make time for all my creative hobbies.
My husband built this incredible daybed last year. This little nook is about 2″ shorter than a standard bed or couch so I wasn’t going to find anything secondhand. It’s so cozy over here now.
Since this space also doubles as a guest room, I want to create a curtain a la Adam Pogue for some privacy. It’ll cut the window off at weird place, but I think it’ll be okay. Other plans for this area are to:
- Paint it a cozy color to further differentiate it from the rest of room. Ugh more painting.
- Build some under bed storage for guests.
- Maybe find another rug to better match the space.
- Add more art.
- Make a little shelf with hooks. Possibly a ceramic and wood collab.
- Sew a wall quilt for the big white wall.
I so enjoy seeing other people’s creative spaces. It’s also fun for me to look back on the iterations of this space.