Sewing Studio Makeover: Task Lighting for the Cutting Table

After sulking for five days, I am now officially OVER my Corian countertop obsession.  I decided that, deep down, I really do not want a $2K countertop surface on my sewing cabinet.  For one thing, if I splurged on that countertop, I'd really feel stuck with it -- and who's to say I won't want to change or reconfigure my setup again a few years down the road?  What if I want to upgrade a machine or add an additional sewbaby to the family, requiring yet another countertop surface with custom cutouts to fit the new machines?  Nope -- no Corian for me.  We'll just have to figure out something else for the surfaces.  Let me know if you have any great ideas up your sleeves!

My Desecrated Currey & Co. Chandelier

Meanwhile, I've been on a lighting lark.  I already showed you here how I desecrated upcycled a chandelier from storage to replace the ceiling fan in my sewing studio, spray painting over its lovely hand painted finish with a can of Krylon Metallic Satin Oil Rubbed Bronze and switching out the chandelier pendants.  (It's looking a lot better now that the additional crystal chandelier pendants and replacement candle sleeves have been installed).  Then Bernie added four sloped can lights (just finding the right can lights and trim rings was an adventure in and of itself) while I embarked upon a grand quest to find the perfect pendant fixture to mount over my cutting table. 

The best information I found about designing an adequate lighting plan for a sewing studio came from Deb Luttrell, owner of Stitchin' Heaven Quilt Shop in Minneola, Texas.  Deb says that sewing requires at least twice as much light as casual reading, and says to plan for 2 watts of incandescent light (or 1 watt of fluorescent light) for every square foot in your workspace -- and that's just the ambient lighting.  She suggests a pendant light with a minimum of 150 watts hanging over the cutting table for task lighting, with the edge of the shade 14" above the work surface.  Wow -- compare that to the NO light I had over my cutting table before.  I also read some depressing statistic about forty-year-old eyes requiring twice as much task lighting for fine detailed work than twenty-year-old eyes need for the same tasks.  Ugh -- even my eyeballs are middle-aged, now?! 

Of course my husband wanted to just install additional can lights over the cutting table and "be done with it," as he put it, but the vaulted ceiling is way too far above the worktable and light disperses -- you get much better task lighting from a bulb that hangs 24" above your work surface than you would from that exact bulb mounted 8' above your work surface. I'm done using razor-sharp rotary cutters and shears in the dark. Not only was it difficult to get accurate rotary cuts after dusk with my old setup (because I couldn't see the markings on my rulers), but it's also dangerous.  I'm lucky to still have all ten fingers!  As it happens, it is not an easy feat to find a reasonably priced, moderately attractive pendant light with 150+ watts. 

Rejuvenation's 600 watt Dakota Warehouse pendants

The first pendant I crushed on was the Dakota Warehouse Pendant from Rejuvenation.  It comes in different finishes with different shade options, and you can customize the length for an upcharge.  Best of all, each of these pendants takes TWO bulbs with a maximum wattage of 300 watts EACH.  That's six hundred watts of luxurious lighting spilling across my cutting tables -- what's not to love, right?  Well, this fixture costs over $450, for one thing, but the deal breaker is that it can't install on my sloped ceiling.

I found quite a few pendant fixtures from other manufacturers with a similar industrial vintage style (not surprising, since this type of pendant is trendy right now in all sorts of residential settings), but I couldn't find anything that gave me the amount of light I was looking for until I came across the Ivanhoe Sky Chief Warehouse Pendant from Barn Light Electric Co. 



Barn Light Electric Co.'s Ivanhoe Sky Chief Warehouse Pendant

I ordered one of the Ivanhoe Sky Chief pendants with a 20" diameter Cherry Red shade.  It comes with an 8' black cord that can be shortened at installation to position the light precisely above my table, and it takes a single 200 watt incandescent bulb.  It's not going to be the prison searchlight that the Rejuvenation light would have been, but it should be more than adequate -- and it will install on my sloped ceiling with no customization or modifications required, all for a mere $238, less than half of the cost of the Rejuvenation fixture.  I think it will be perfect.

Next post, I'll share some conflicting advice about ergonomics in the sewing studio as it pertains to the proper height for sewing cabinets, cutting tables and pressing stations.  I know you're excited but, please, don't hold your breath -- I'm still working on gradually emptying the studio.  I'm hoping Bernie will have time to put in the additional dedicated electrical circuit for my iron (so the lights won't dim every time my iron cycles on and off) and the floor outlet for my sewing cabinet (no more cords to trip over) and complete drywall repairs this weekend so we can start painting.  I can't believe I unwrapped my new sewbaby over two weeks ago and I still haven't sewn a single stitch with it -- I want this room finished ASAP! 

That's not going to happen unless I get EVERYTHING else out of the room, though.  Here's a reminder of what my room looked like just before Christmas:

My Studio Disaster "Before"

...and here's what my room looks like today:

Studio Half Emptied, Today

See?  My sewing room may only be half empty, but my cup is almost half full or something.  Whatever that means! 

By the way, I did order a finish sample of that Cherry Red pendant shade so I could check that it was the right shade of red for my custom sewing cabinetry, but then I just ordered the fixture anyways, because I'm impatient (and because I have a very good track record with dangerous color-matching like this -- don't try this at home!).  If the two reds don't play nice together when my pendant arrives, I'll repaint the sewing cabinets to match the pendants. 

Time to get those kids to bed so I can go back to emptying the studio!

PSST!!  I'd Love to Quilt for YOU!

By the way, if you or any of your quilty friends has a quilt top or two that needs quilting, I'd be delighted to quilt for you!  My turnaround for edge-to-edge quilting is currently running about 2 weeks, and you can click here to find out how to book your quilt with me.

Nitpicking: Because Design is In the Details

Somewhere in my computer, there is a much better picture of this island backsplash in which you can see that this backsplash on the left was cut about 1/8" shorter than the adjacent backsplash on the right.  Those who know me will understand that, once I discovered this, I was driven to distraction by it.  It looked like a dark line between the backsplash and the raised bar countertop, and it stared me in the face and mocked me while I made my morning lattes.  If I could find the picture I was looking for, perhaps you would understand why this was so unacceptable to me.  Perhaps not -- but sweating the details is what I do for a living, and I spent too much money on the new countertops to be disappointed every time I look at that seam.

Bernie remembers that, during installation of the countertops, an adjustment was made to lower the island countertop slightly for the sink installation, and he thinks they may have already cut the left backsplash when the counter was sitting higher because the backsplash on the right was cut second and it fits perfectly.  In the end, however, too short is too short.  Tile Collection sent a repair technician out to change the caulk from translucent to white in hopes that the gap would be less noticeable, but no dice.  I asked for that backsplash to be replaced with a new one cut from the leftover pieces of my granite slab, and Tile Collection obliged.

The tricky thing about this is that initially, backsplashes are cut from adjacent parts of the stone so that the movement or pattern in the stone flows as uninterrupted as possible from one piece to the next.  Since the countertops adjacent to the backsplash were already installed in my home, the fabricator wouldn't have them in his shop as a reference when cutting the new piece.

My solution: Crayons to the Rescue!

I have a roll of heavy white butcher's paper in my sewing room that I use for making patterns, and I used it to make templates of my countertops indicating where the major veining patterns were located.  While I was doing this, my husband was looking at me like I was a wild-eyed crazy woman. 

I took pictures too, naturally, and those were invaluable for showing which colors I needed to have in various places.  I took my pictures to the granite fabrication shop along with my paper patterns, which I laid out right on the leftover piece of granite and found a place where the veining lined up even better than on the original backsplash.

Isn't that fabulous?  SO much prettier than before.  Scroll up and look at the original backsplash again.  I wasn't wild about the Big Black Blob on the original piece, and this one matches perfectly with all the beautiful golds and greens in exactly the right places.  I should tell you that in order to get this perfect piece of backsplash, they had to cut my little strip of stone right in the center of the remnant at about a 45 degree angle, which pretty much ruined a large remnant that they could have sold to another customer for a sink vanity or table top -- and to their credit, no one batted an eye.  I love these guys!  Everyone has great customer service before you sign the deal and stroke the check.  It's really important to me to know that my workrooms and suppliers are willing to go the extra mile for me at the end of the job, making adjustments and corrections until everyone is satisfied with the installation.  I highly recommend Tile Collection to anyone in the Charlotte, North Carolina area for stone countertops or tile work.

The same day that the backsplash was replaced, they also installed my red laundry room sink with its little granite counter.  Bernie and the installers were joking around that my sink is so big, all I'm left with is a granite sink frame instead of a countertop.  Whatever.

This little countertop was also cut from the remnants of the CD Volcano slab we chose for our kitchen.  After I butchered one of the two remnants for my Backsplash of Dreams, this was the only piece left that was big enough for the laundry counter and splashes.  It would have been nice if there was a smattering of the red and green in this piece, but the red ties in with the leftover kitchen fabric that will eventually be used for a little valance on the window in this toom to tie everything together and cheer up my laundry room.  The red enameled cast iron sink was special-ordered from Kohler, and it's the exact shade of red in my fabric (Monado in Havana colorway from Vervain).

The faucet is going to be the Venetian Bronze Delta faucet that I bought for my kitchen about a year ago, but the plumbing isn't connected yet.  Also, there is a nasty fluorescent tube light fixture in the laundry room that is going to have to go.  It casts a horrible sickly light and makes my colors look gross.

Hood Classic Globe from Rejuvenation Hardware

I really like the new Hood pendant with caged glass from Rejuvenation Hardware, so I think I might get that one for the laundry room.  It's based on industrial styles that were common from 1910-1920, and the wire cage served the useful purpose of containing broken glass if the globe should shatter.  It comes in 12", 14", or 18" diameter and uses a single 300 watt bulb.  I just think it would add a nice splash of personality and character, complement the dark bronze and opal glass fixtures in the kitchen beyond, yet it's a simpler, more functional style that's better suited to a workspace like a laundry room. 

-- Ooh, wouldn't it be fun to rip out the perfectly serviceable tile floor in the laundry room, and replace it with vintage-style 2" hexagonal mosaic tile like this?



Merola Tile Old World Hex with Dot from Home Depot



I'm not even going to suggest that to Bernie; I can't risk a mutiny.  Still, IF I was going to do it...  I like the way this particular background tile ties into my granite, but not so much the black dots.  The dots would need to be a more subtle contrast for me, maybe more of a golden/rust/brownish color on the same spectrum as the golds in the drapery fabric and the tones of the cabinetry.  So it would probably have to be custom-ordered instead of conveniently purchased from the local Home Depot. 

At some point, you just have to say that enough is enough and call it "done."  For now...  ;-)