Roses of Joy: July 2010

Except for the finishing touches of valence, new machine covers and a new ironing board cover, the sewing room has been put together. And probably won't be this clean & uncluttered again until our next move!

The sewing room is one of the upstairs bedrooms. It had not ever been painted, beyond the builder's original wall paint. This was how it looked in the MLS listing.

We painted the room before we moved in, as we had a weekend in between closing and when we had the moving truck rented. We painted Curt's office that same weekend as we knew once things were moved into those rooms we'd never be motivated enough to empty the rooms for painting.

The 4 white cupboards were left here by the previous owners. They were used for storage in the basement but we put metal shelving down there instead and the cupboards are perfect for fabric (except for the polar fleece that is stashed under our bed and under the cutting table).

On top of the cupboards are 2 wood shoe shelves that were also left here. On top of the far shoe shelf is a cardboard literature organizer that I found at a thrift store. Each slot is storing a project (in work or future). On the shoe shelf on the left side of the picture is a cardboard shoe organizer that also is holding projects or fabric.

The machine table and chair were garage sale finds.

The cutting table came from Curt's work (headed for the dump); the legs are adjustable so it is at a nice height. The table top is solid wood (and heavy as...) so we were able to screw in my magnetic scissors bar and a cork strip for pinning up pattern instructions.

There is a 2 shelf bookcase under the table that was also left here by the previous owners. And the white bookcase at the end of the table is courtesy of my in-laws' downsizing.

The yellow/white boxes are copy machine boxes that I painted white and sponged with yellow (a project I did in our previous house when my sewing machines were in our laundry room). I painted them about 8 years ago and they still look great!

The yellow file cabinet was on a curb with a FREE sign on it and it works great because it is industrial strength and deep and the drawers don't twist and fall our like my previous one. Someday it would be nice to paint it, but I doubt if that will ever happen.

The bins with drawers were also left here, in the garage. Curt didn't want to use them so I spray painted the outsides white (were tan and gray). They work great!

On the wall opposite the window is the closet, which has stacking bins and a tall wire basket unit that was left here. I'm excited to get started using the room (you don't see the large stack of mending by the closet).

So there is the long awaited tour of my sewing room - can't wait to get going on some projects (after the mending....)

Catherine finally had a free day so she and I worked on her bedroom.

When we moved in her room still had the original builder-neutral paint with a pattern stamped on the wall. On the blank area of the wall there used to be cabinets that the previous owners removed.

We painted her room with the Woolie, although it ended up being more blue than the tan she was aiming for. The shade was replaced with some blinds I found on clearance at Lowes. The window scarf is some blue dress material for a project that never happened. At the head of her bed is her file cabinet, covered with more material. The box at the front of her bed still needs to be painted. Her body pillow lets her use her bed as an impromptu couch.

The design above her bed is from a scrapbook tablet of metallic papers that we picked up at Joann's. This was quite a stretch to create for an engineer mom and a realism-based artist, but we really like the results. She will tape them to the wall better when we get the right tape. The paper has a silvery, metallic design on it and picks up the silver flowers in her comforter (we planned that of course :P)

We used some of the paper from the tablet to cover her bulletin board, that is behind her door.

You'll notice there is no dresser. With wire organizers and plastic bins, everything is in her closet. As an English major, books have the highest priority and so a bookcase was put in the dresser location.