My Sewing Studio Has GPS: Giant Purse Syndrome!

According to The Daily Mail, the average woman's purse now weighs a whopping 5.2 pounds, and it's causing quite the increase in related back and shoulder injuries.  Why would women want to schlep around such heavy bags?  It's partly a fasion-driven phenomenon, but I think we naturally trend towards larger and larger bags over time.  You start out with a small handbag in your teens, which you pack full of makeup and a hairbrush, maybe a travel-sized can of hairspray.  Then you move up to a medium-sized bag as a young adult, so you can fit your cell phone and your planner, your keys and maybe even a novel.  Once kids come along and you get used to having a monster diaper bag to fit bottles, toys, iPads/iPods/kindles, Cheerios, water bottle etc., you get hooked on the capacity of the big bag and you pack it so full the seams are nearly splitting and tell yourself "If I got a bag just a little bigger than this one, I could fit EVERYTHING I need..."  The reality is that, the bigger the bag, the more crap you will fill it with, the less often you will clean it out, and the more difficult it will be to FIND what you're looking for when you need something!

 

This is my Sewing Studio when we first moved in, before we'd finished unpacking

Which brings me to the current disaster of my sewing studio.  When we bought this house with a 21'6" x 15'6" bonus room to completely dedicate to my sewing, I thought I had died and gone to heaven and I was sure I would never again feel cramped for space to create.  The previous homeowners even had a full-size pool table in this room.  My sewing room has a high vaulted ceiling, is flooded with natural daylight from the beautiful windows, and is located at the end of a narrow hallway on the second floor of our home, so no one traipses through my space on the way to some other part of the house, and I can leave in-progress projects out while I'm working on them.  Perfect, right?

 

This is what my sewing studio looked like a week before Christmas!

Welcome to my Chaos...

Unfortunately, just like the stuff you "need" in your purse expands to fill your handbag, the stuff I "need" in my sewing room has expanded to fill my room to the point where I don't even have room to work anymore.  My cutting table is overflowing with several in-progress projects, new rulers and other tools that I haven't found homes for, and new fabric not yet pre-washed and added to my stash.  My bulletin boards are overflowing with project ideas and inspiration ripped from various magazines.  My sewing cabinet and several folding utility tables surrounding it are similarly loaded down, and all of my storage pieces are overflowing.  It's time for a change, don't you think?  Since January is all about resolutions, renewal and reorganization, I'm planning a complete overhaul of my sewing studio for the New Year!

 

Step One: The Painful Purge! 

I've already started the first step, going through everything to figure out what to keep, what to throw away, and what to donate or sell.  I have accumulated quite an assortment of high-end drapery fabric and trim remnants from my interior design business, for instance, things that I couldn't bear to toss in the trash because they were so expensive, but they are mostly in pieces that are less than one yard, that don't coordinate with anything else in my own home, and they are all wrapped around tall cardboard fabric tubes so they take up a lot of real estate.  What am I REALLY going to do with these?  I remember a professional organizer once telling me that you have to consider the cost of storing items that you aren't using -- is that item worth giving up space that you could be using for something else?  Well, right now all those bolts of fancy drapery remnants are costing me the ability to run a vacuum over the carpet, preventing me from seeing or accessing everything that is buried behind them, making me feel claustrophobic and overwhelmed, and making it impossible to even consider bringing a comfortable chair or two into my room so my husband and kids could hang out with me while I'm sewing.  It's time for them to go!

 

Step Two: Redesign Furniture & New Floorplan

Next, I'm going to redesign my existing custom sewing cabinet, cutting table, and storage furniture to improve their function, ergonomics, and use of space. 

Santa Baby did not bring me a new sewing machine for Christmas -- but Bernie and the boys did!  My new Bernina 750QE is a bit heavier and has a larger footprint than my previous Artista 200E/730E machine, so it won't fit into the opening of my existing custom-built sewing cabinet without modifications anyway. This is a great time to make changes to the size, shape, and storage options of the sewing cabinet as well.  I'm toying with the idea of designing a larger table with two lifts on opposite sides, one for the main sewbaby and the other for the serger, which currently sits on a table top full time, taking up valuable surface space.

I'll do a new floorplan in my design software to come up with the best layout for the room (borrowing some basic principles of kitchen and bath design), and once I know where the main furniture and workstations are going, I can design a new lighting plan for the room.  Although this space has great natural light during the day, it's currently lit by a measly four bulbs on a ceiling fan that was mounted way too high to begin with and a few inadequate lamps and task lights scattered around the room.  The whole room is on a single electrical circuit as well, and every time I plug my iron in, the lights dim.  I keep my computerized sewing machines plugged into a UPS at all times to prevent damage from power fluctuations, but the truth of the matter is that the existing wiring is inadequate for the way I'm using this room. 

 

Step Three: Structural Upgrades, Electrical & Lighting

"Largo Chandelier" from Currey & Co.

So I'm planning to add two additional electrical circuits, one just for the iron, one for the lighting, and one for everything else.  I'm going to replace the ugly ceiling fan, which I can't turn on when I'm sewing anyway because it blows things all over the place, and maybe replace it with a fun chandelier (I have this Currey & Co. Largo Chandelier in my garage that used to be in my dining room, and I'm already thinking about repainting it in Oil Rubbed Bronze and changing out the amber crystal drops for clear ones).  Then we'll have to add additional can or track lighting around the perimeter of the room to provide even lighting without shadows -- maybe the new LED cans, which run much cooler than traditional bulbs and provide truer color rendering.  I love the red paint on my sewing cabinet, but I think the wall color and surfaces need to stay light, bright and neutral so I can focus on the colors of my project fabrics.

Step Four: Rebuild Sewing Furniture & Built-In Storage


Koala DualMate Plus IV: Pricey, Very Little Storage, and Inadequate Support for Large Quilts

The goal here will be to maximize efficiency and space.  I've looked at commercial sewing furniture from Koala, Horn, and other big name manufacturers, but they all seem to sacrifice storage capacity for the ability to fold up when not in use, and the prices are outrageous for what they are made of.  I'd like to design one large sewing cabinet for my sewing machine and serger to share, with the ability for both machines to completely lower and hide within the cabinet when not in use and no wasted storage space beneath the cabinet.  The cutting table needs to be large enough for basting a large quilt or cutting 54" wide home dec fabrics when needed, but perhaps it can have drop down leafs so that it doesn't eat up so much floor space all the time.  Storage solutions for fabric, thread and notions needs to be sized to fit contents.  Who knows -- hopefully I can even fit a small seating area and a wall-mounted flat screen TV in the redesigned room, to entice my husband to hang out with me more often while I'm sewing?  Right now he sits on the floor with his iPad and both of our hundred-pound Rottweiler puppies pile onto his lap. 

I've ordered a couple of books on sewing room design and organization tips for quilters from Amazon, and I've also been scouring Pinterest and the blogosphere, looking for suggestions and best practices from others.  If you know of any resources I may have overlooked, please share them with me in the comments!  I'm hoping that, if we can start this project in January, we can wrap it up by the end of March so I can get back to sewing again.  Not that I don't plan to commandeer the dining room as a sewing space while my room transformation is in progress...  ;-) 

So, that's what I'm planning for the new year, once the trees and decorations are all taken down and packed away.  Wish me luck!

Once Upon a Dining Room: A New Ceiling Reinvigorates an Ever-Changing Space

Finally, my dining room ceiling is finished!  In person, it looks like a midnight sky; pictures (my pictures, anyway) don't do it justice at all.  The ornamental scrollwork design around the chandelier is barely visible in this picture.  It's subtle in real life, but you can see it much better.  It's kind of like a shadow or an echo of the scroll work on the chandelier, and it's embellished with decorative upholstery nails.  The crown molding has a metallic foil finish selected to complement the gold drapery hardware and accents on the light fixtures.

This is Not My Naked Beach House

DeBordieu Beach Community near Georgetown, South Carolina

A few days after returning from our family beach vacation, I attended a webinar on designing for beach homes.  Our week at the beach was perfect, but I admit I was secretly decorating the house we rented in my mind the whole time we were there.  The shelter magazines on the coffee table, existing furnishings and a few framed photographs on the book shelves gave clues to the taste and preferences of the homeowners, so even though I was "off the clock" I couldn't help thinking about how I could help this family to make their home-away-from-home feel even homier (is that even a word?).

121 Steele Beach Rental as it looks today

This is the living room of the beach house we rented last week in the DeBordieu community near Georgetown, South Carolina.  We had a wonderful time at the beach, and enjoyed staying in this beautiful oceanfront home with spectacular views of the Atlantic Ocean from every window...  But the bare-naked walls and windows, let alone the empty bookshelves, gnawed at my soul.  I can't help myself; it's an occupational hazard, I must dress the windows and cozy up this space in my imagination.  Design software to the rescue!

Lee Jofa Jacobean Tree fabric for drapery panels

The first thing this room needs is some color on those stark white walls.  I "painted" the ceiling a pale blue and the walls a pale blue-green to bring in the colors of the ocean and sky.  Next, I replaced the white honeycomb shades (on the wall above the sliding glass doors) with some bamboo shades in the same color as the floor boards.  I know that the owners of my beach rental like homes with a cottage, shabby chic appeal from the magazines they left in every room, so I added drapery panels in Lee Jofa Jacobean Tree fabric, Blues colorway to play up that angle.  I ditched the ceiling fans in favor of a pair of fanciful seashell chandeliers and styled the bookshelves with -- what else? -- plenty of books, a couple of seashells, and a few baskets.  I put an American Girls doll in a vintage bathing suit in the child's wicker chair (the homeowners have a little girl; her picture was framed in the bookcase and her chalk drawings decorated the floor of the garage), and I added a sleeping puppy dog in front of the fireplace.  Every room is better with a dog in it, don't you agree?  I don't know what kind of dog this family has, but I know they have one because of tell-tale scratch marks on the door leading down to the garage. 

Because I was too lazy to remove the one chair and ottoman that I really didn't care for, I just plopped a new chair down on top of it.  Pretend you can't see the other one that's still in the picture.  Oh, and since this is an imaginary project, I chucked the flat screen TV in the dumpster and hung a Van Gogh landscape painting in its place.  The finishing touches: a bowl of fruit, a houseplant, and a fruity drink with an umbrella...  Ta da:

121 Steele Beach Rental as it could be, with a little imagination

Important considerations: This home has a million-dollar view, and I was careful not to cover an inch of it.  The woven wood shades stack on the wall above the sliding glass doors, they do not hang down over the glass when fully raised.  The stationary drapery panels are also covering trimwork and walls adjacent to the sliding glass doors, they are not covering the glass, either.  The floral drapery fabric isn't for everyone; I chose it because of the English Home magazines that the homeowner subscribes to (showcasing English cottage interiors and gardens).  White linen drapery panels would be a crisper, less frilly option, maybe with a blue banding on the lead edges.  Big patterns like this at the window might detract from the view if it weren't for the soothing blue color story.  If the client had her heart set on vibrant reds and purples, I would have used those on the pillow and upholstery fabrics and kept the fabric around the windows calm and neutral.

Of course, if this was my own personal beach house, there would be two Rottweiler puppies lounging in front of the fireplace and an espresso machine in the adjoining kitchen.  There would also be an oil painting of a Star Wars space battle over the fireplace instead of the Van Gogh, painted by a certain 10-year-old artist of whom I'm extremely fond, and Lego scultptures on the coffee table.  Then I'd never want to leave the beach...

Some of my favorite goodies that I used in this design:

Arteriors Strasbourg Seashell Chandelier, available here

Lee Jofa Constanza embroidered linen/viscose pillow fabric

Landscape With Green Corn, by Vincent Van Gogh, 1889, print available here

Note: When Bernie sees this post, he is going to say, "I thought you were WORKING in there!"  Heh heh heh...

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...  ;-)

Design Tragedy or Design Opportunity? Even Better Than the First Time, Baby!

If you missed my earlier posts about this project I'm working on for a client who had a house fire, you can catch up here.  This client has such an amazing attitude about the disaster -- instead of moping about everything that was lost, she's made up her mind to rebuild and redecorate, not just in hopes of making things look the way they were before the fire, but taking advantage of the opportunity to change things about the home that she had resigned herself to before the fire, and the rise up from the ashes -- literally! -- even better than before.

So her walk-in closet will be enlarged, appliances and cabinetry in both kitchens will be upgraded, an elevator may be added to facilitate visits from the clients' elderly parents, and lighting will be added and/or upgraded in several areas.  I brought my client in to Fine Art Lamps' High Point Market showroom a few days ago for a private showing of the line, and we both fell in love with this enormous oversized pendant fixture from the Mid-Century Inspirations collection to hang over the pool table in her Game Room.  Pictures do not do this line justice at all.  The fixtures are all made-to-order in the U.S. and the company is wonderful about accommodating designers' customization requests whenever feasible, but beware -- the pricing is not for the faint-of-heart.  The photo above is from the manufacturer's web site, and I took the photo below myself in the showroom the other day.  The finishes are all hand applied, and this piece combines two gorgeous art glass styles.  The larger pieces of glass are smooth on the outside and textured on the inside, with a mesmerizing metallic shimmer that perfectly echoes the wrapped metallic bead trim from Kravet that we used (and are using again) on the black silk velvet drapery panels and the little door valance.

 Here's what the almost-completed room looked like before it was destroyed in the fire.  Virtually everything in this room has been written off as a loss.  I'm going to be campaigning hard to paint the vaulted ceilings a darker color this time, especially now that we're considering this dramatic, sculptural light fixture. 

As Porky Pig would say, "That's all for now, folks!"  :-)

High Point Spring Furniture Market 2010: The Good, the Bad, and the What Were They Thinking?!

I just returned from the High Point Spring Furniture Market a few days ago, and thought I'd share a few highlights here.  If you're looking for a full-blown trend analysis, you should follow my friend Jackie Von Tobel's blog, Jackie Blue Home, because she's great at sifting through the sensory overload we get at these shows and distilling it all down to find the overarching themes and major upcoming trends.  Even after I walk through the same showrooms she did, I enjoy seeing things a second time through her eyes.

Here's one of my favorite new ideas from this Spring's Market:

Now, I'm not rushing out to buy this exact chair for any of my clients; I think the overall effect on this piece is a bit gaudy, but I like the way the chandelier fabric on the outside backs of the chairs has been embellished with actual crystal chandelier prisms for a three-dimensional effect.  It's very tongue-in-cheek.  We've been seeing these printed and woven chandelier patterned fabrics for awhile now, most cleverly used as dining chair upholstery fabric in contemporary or modern dining rooms that eschew traditional chandelier lighting, so the fabric alone is nothing new.  But now I'm envisioning using a bold chandelier patterned fabric on an upholstered cornice, with large chandelier prisms stitched onto the chandeliers like you see on this chair, and maybe some draped crystal chandelier bead trim along the lower edge of the cornice as well...  You can purchase a wide variety of crystal chandelier prisms fairly inexpensively at ChandelierParts.com, by the way.  I've used them in the past dangling at the base of goblet pleats on drapery panels, like these ones that were just installed in a client's dining room recently:

I like the subtle glimmer of the crystal prisms against the silk taffeta panels; don't you? 

So, back to the High Point show.  Here's something that amused me:

At first, when I saw this table, I thought it might be a cool idea to have a favorite family blessing or food-related Bible verse carved into the dining table.  After all, customization is huge in the design world these days, and this company will inscribe any verse or quote you want into their table for you, so it's a one-of-a-kind piece that could be very meaningful to a client.  But then I thought of my own mischievous little sons, who are already guilty of carving their names and initials into their bedroom furniture and the walls of their toy room, and I realized that this table sets a very bad precedent!  All it takes is one little boy who has chewed the eraser off the back of his pencil and, before you know it, this table would look like a desk that's been used in a middle school study hall for 25 years.  I can see it now: "Lars was here, but now he's gone.  He left his name to carry on..."  and "Star Wars ROCKS!"

I really like this new collection from Fine Art Lamps, one of my favorite high end lighting companies:

The photo doesn't do this chandelier justice.  As always with Fine Art Lamps, the finishes are exquisite and the materials and craftsmanship are unparalleled.  What I like most about this style is how versatile it is.  The bronzey-brown finish will coordinate easily with many of the existing fixtures and door hardware in many of my clients' recently-built custom homes, and there is a wide range of drapery hardware available that would coordinate with this fixture as well.  This fixture would definitely be an upgrade over a builder-grade chandelier, and the styling would lend itself to a variety of different room settings as well.  I especially love the unusual bead-shaped chain on this piece, and the aged, mottled gold finish on the acanthus leaves.  Best of all, my Fine Art Lamps rep offered to open their High Point showroom during the off-season any time I have a client who would like to schedule a private showing of their line.  These light fixtures are breathtaking in person, and you just can't appreciate their dramatic impact when you're looking at pictures in a catalog.

I hope you enjoyed those little gems; I'll try to post some more goodies from High Point in a few days.