I recently completed a facelift for my sewing room. Working with a very limited budget, I made some small changes that had BIG impact! Here are some photos of the transformation, starting with a before picture.

Above is a before shot of my sewing room. Nice space, but several problems: big machines on a very rickety table (the whole thing collapsed on me once while sewing!), cramped/crowded storage area, nowhere to store/display my beautiful fabric (it was all hidden upstairs in a closet), not much natural light, and my printer (not visible here) was precariously perched on top of a small file cabinet.

The first step in the transformation was finding better storage. This small, narrow closet next to my sewing room had never worked well for jackets or toys, and it had become very cluttered over the years. I cleaned it out completely, donating old items and finding better places for everything else. Now it holds my sewing supplies perfectly!

After I emptied it of every bit of furniture and "stuff" (oh my aching back), the room got a much-needed facelift with new paint. I chose a bright white color (SW Greek Villa) to maximize natural light in the room. An added bonus was the white paint made this small room look much bigger!

So, about that rickety table that once collapsed on me while sewing. It had to go. But on a shoestring budget, I wasn't sure what to do. I randomly walked into Goodwill and I couldn't believe my luck when I found this table. It was very worn and, well, not pretty at all, but for the $10 price tag I could see its potential. A fresh coat of paint and a good scrubdown later, here she is! Perfect. There is just enough room on either side for me to roll my chair from machine to machine. I have had a lot of fun sewing with this new setup!

Perhaps the most exciting part of this project... My fabric moved in! All the inspiration is right here now, instead of hidden away in an upstairs closet. I added some hooks to display some of my work, too.

And finally, here is a panoramic picture of most of the finished sewing room. You can see on the far left that my printer is now on an actual printer stand! I used to have my coverstitch machine there. The big table (my Goodwill find), which fits all three of my machines, allowed me to rearrange things in a way that makes a lot more sense. Printing is much less of a chore now that I can neatly organize all my papers, card stock and labels in one place. To the far right you can see the little craft table that used to hold two of my machines. It is now much more useful for crafts and small projects. My cutting table is not shown in this picture, but it is right behind where I was standing when I took this picture.
With a relatively minor facelift, this room has really transformed into my Happy Place. Thanks for visiting!