At the end of last year I shared a little tour of my workroom, and now that 2016 is coming to a close, and i’ve changed a few things up, I thought you might like to see my current updated setup!
The biggest change this year was falling out of love with open shelving. I loved the idea of open shelving for my fabrics (see here), so that i could look at their prettiness and access them easily, but in reality i found it got really messy really quickly. And after a while i had to come to terms with how much fabric, equipment, tools and samples I have and come up with a better solution. And here is what i’ve learnt: pretty open shelving only works if you have a huge cupboard to hide all your junk in.
So we decided to fill the entire wall with the tallest cupboards we could find and make it super organised. And guess what? I love it!
Now all my fabric, samples, tools, supplies and filing are stored behind these lovely glossy white doors. Ah serenity. I even managed to hide my printer and shredder which are my two most hated office items but are super necessary.
Once we changed that, a lot of other inefficiencies became clear. My husband Chris is an app and web developer and he had been using my cutting table at the window to work at intermittently and it really wasn’t efficient for either of us. So we decided it was time to set up a dedicated desk for him, and I think it’s made a huge difference in his work efficiency. As a side note i get a lot of laughs out of how small a space he needs compared to me!
We kept the couch as its turned out to be really useful for meetings and as it’s actually a sleeper couch i like to tell myself this is a possible emergency guest room if we ever needed one. Oh the things i like to tell myself hehe.
I also moved my iron and ironing board to our laundry room… which is on the other side of the house. I really hate it there, because walking back and forth from my workroom wastes time – but it was all taking up way too much room in my workroom and i needed to make everything more efficient. Sometimes you just have to compromise, and not having my iron in my workroom was one i had to make.
Other changes included moving my massive pattern plotter to the other side of the room closer to my desk. Wow increase in efficiency. It’s a big deal having that so close to me, i’m so glad i moved it! The downside is that i lost the wall space that housed my huge mirror, and that was really useful for fittings. I also lost access to the bifold door that joins my office to the playroom. I must admit, that made me really sad. I loved that my office and the kids play area were joined, but if i’m really honest, I hadn’t been opening it much recently anyway.
Above my plotter I have a really simple 3M hook. I clip together all the patterns i’m currently working on with a bulldog clip, and hang it off the hook. It takes up minimal space and was a nice easy quick solution to my masses of paper.
I also added a new overlocker and coverstitch machine to my equipment – so i had to try and find a way to house 3 machines on my limited desk space. What i ended up doing was moving a big set of drawers i had (that house my art supplies, notions and miscellaneous small equipment) next to my desk. I put my overlocker on that, my coverstitch on the far corner of my desk and my sewing machine stayed next to my computer.
Working on an overlocker on a set of drawers is a little awkward, i’m not going to lie, but this setup has worked best for me given my limited desk space. I generally do short bursts of overlock and coverstitching, so it hasn’t been a tragedy. I prefer having my sewing machine most convenient as i use it by far the most.
So that’s a peek into my little world! I really love making constant little improvements and adjustments to my space. It’s so much easier to be inspired and efficient when my workroom is neat and attractive, and I’m really happy with my current setup.
