My Studio Makeover

While growing up my grandmother had a "craft room" over top of their cellar. Since I have been blog browsing, I've seen a lot of bloggers refer to this room as their "studio" and I love it!!! I thought...new look, new name. I am pleased to present you with my craft room makeover...err...my new studio!

I apologize in advance...but this post is gonna be long & picture heavy :)

Before...

I'm ashamed to post this picture of my messy, messy room...but hey, I have to show you the TRUE before. What you see here is my sewing machine sitting on a desk that I bought in college and on the right under the cover is my grandmother's Kennmore sewing machine (its in a cabinet). Yes, I have been using the floor for months as the home for my cutting mat. First to go...the curtain...I HATE it (too frilly, too floral)!

Now, I wanted to do this makeover by spending as little money as possible. So...my parents had a nice folding multipurpose table that is 8ft long that they were not using all the time (only brought it out for family functions when we needed to make a makeshift buffet line for food during the holidays). So the cost of my new table...FREE. The fabric is all from JoAnn's (home decor weight). The curtain fabric is something that has been in my fabric stash for at least a year now. I love this fabric but just hadn't found the proper project for it yet. I just HAD to use this fabric (i am a chocolate and mint fanatic!) and I consider the cost of this to be FREE because I've had it for a long time and will now be putting it to good use. Using that fabric as the inspiration along with the beach scenes in the paintings, I made a trip to JoAnn's and purchased 5 yards (I had a yard left over so if anyone wants to do this to an 8ft table in their own studio...only purchase 4 yards) of a coordinating fabric. Only $30 for 5 yards with a 40% coupon. Next, I stopped by Wal-Mart (sorry to those who love Wal-Mart but this is my absolute LEAST favorite store and I only purchase things there when I absolutely HAVE to) and purchased a roll of self-adhesive velcro ($15) and 2 sets of stackable drawers ($14). So that brings total cost of this makeover only $59!!!

During...



I moved out the old desk (which was repurposed on the other side of the room as a crafting table for my DH's models) and my grandmother's old Kennmore sewing machine in the cabinet (which will be put somewhere else for safe keeping). The 8ft folding table fit the space perfectly. I thought I would use the space under the table to stash needed items. I used a couple of wicker baskets I had around the house...one for unfinished projects (far right) and the smaller one for scrap pieces of fabric. I stacked the 2 sets of drawers on top of one another and used the drawers to organize buttons, zippers, ribbon, etc...plus, I got to use my second favorite gadget (my sewing machine is number one of course!) my label makers to label the front of each drawer as to its contents. The white basket to the left is home to all of my patterns (I have a really great pattern storage tip...I'll share that another day.)

After...

I used the self-adhesive velcro to attach the top hem of the table skirt to the table (think of the possibilities for changing the color scheme easily!). The table skirt was made by simply making a single hem along the bottom & top. I like simple curtains (no frills or ruffling please!) so I used a valence I already had at home as a "pattern" to make the simple but chic curtain.



I left a lot of my current inspirations already in place. The paintings behind the table were purchased during our honeymoon at the CuisinArt Resort in Anguilla (the best little island on the planet!) and the quilt hanging on the wall was quilted by hand by my grandmother (as well as that cute little turtle pincushion you see!) The most exciting thing of all was that I was able to move my cutting mat off the floor!

An upclose of the fabrics used (in case you are interested):

The table skirt fabric.

The curtain fabric.

Thanks for looking! Let me know what you think about my (cheap) makeover!