Building a table or two for the wife for her craft room...

[mcolford]

So, as mentioned recently, I got an AR. Well, me getting the AR was a big trade deal that meant I sold my weight bench and such, we got a family membership at the YMCA, I got an AR, and my weight room became her craft room.

The first 3 are done, but now Im working on the craft room. Well she is into embroidering and such, so I want to build her a couple tables and such to keep her machine on, as well as places to store thread, cloth, etc. I dont know a thing about seamstrissism (The being of a seamstriss, and yes I made that word up).... So I was wondering if any of you all had wives that were into this type of thing, or maybe (and Im going out on a limb here) some of our female members had a craft room that I could see pictures of, and possible table sizes.

Throw me a bit of insight here, I would appreciate it.


-MColford

 

[Bubbajms]

My wife says she wants as much table space as she can get, but still needs to be able to get around the table to let things fall off the edge..

Does she just do embroidering, or does she sew? Clothing or quilting? Does she cut fabric? (apparently these are concerns..)

My wife uses a 4x6 table that sits just below standing waist level, as that's the best size for her to sew AND to cut fabric on..

 

[meyer4589]

my dad built my mom a room in the basement for her to do all of her scrap-booking in. As far as tables she has two both of them are the ones you can build yourself from menards/home-depot.

2 Steel Folding Legs Black at Menards

my dad bought some of these and then measured the area where my mom wanted the table and then got a table top cut to those sizes.

 

[spasmo]

How big is the room? Does she do scrapbooking too? table space and storage options are completely necessary. You can never have enough table space or storage options.

Take a look at some of these craft rooms..... most of which I'd die for...

Sewing Craft Room Tour {Furniture}
Notice the table in the center of the room? Storage in the legs.. fabulous...

Check out the last picture here on this page. Lots of storage options
Paisley Passions: Craft Room.

Roundup: Inspirational Craft Rooms | Apartment Therapy

If she does a lot of things with beads, check this out. Notice the layered shelves so she can see the beads or whatever else she might have in jars.
Close-Up: Über Organized Craft Room with a Touch of Tech | Apartment Therapy

This is a nice little layout...
http://g-cdn.apartmenttherapy.com/734199/wendy-smedley-scrapbook-room2_rect540.jpg

This is cute. but unless you can actually sit and sew at that table in the middle, it's useless. But if you can sit at it and if there's also storage underneath it, it would be good.
Before & After: An Outdated Room Gets a Major Makeover Older And Wisor | Apartment Therapy

Do a google search or something "craft rooms" "scrapbook rooms" "sewing rooms" things like that to help you get an idea of what's out there.

 

[spasmo]

Ok, see these tables? perfect and notice they have storage underneath. Try something like that.

My creative space | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

 

[PAMom]

My setup is very similar to this. I have two large office desks that fit into the corner at right angles. I use the drawers for storage and can sit at the to scrapbook, sew or whatever. They measure about 3ft. x 5 ft. on top. My husband built shelves that go the full length - they are about one foot deep and they go almost to the ceiling - there are four shelves. I use the sterilite clear front drawers to store things in on the shelves. I like the plastic drawers because items are not dusty (I hate to clean.) and I can see what is in them at a glance. You could also label them if needed. They also work great for small items - since I paint I have brushes and paint etc. to store (lots of small parts).

As in this photo (thank you, Spasmo) I also have tall cupboards at the end of the desk.
You simply can not have too much table space. Just make sure it is not too high to be comfortable.

Good Luck.

 

[88GT]

My grandmother made miniatures. My grandfather made a large table area for her using two flat interior doors laid end-to-end on the vertical edge, securing them together, and attaching legs. For storage, he purchased inexpensive pre-fab cabinets. Between the two cabinet banks he installed a countertop slab at desk height to give her additional working area.

We made our our own office with 2x4 table structures for bases and laminate countertops for work surfaces. This wasn't the prettiest set up but it was sturdy and functional. And you could easily build a large work surface table the same way. Just use a countertop without the backsplash or laminate the surface yourself.

However, there's something to be said for buying the pre-designed stuff and assembling it yourself. The more stuff you want to make, the more applicable this becomes in my opinion.

Find out what she wants as far as layout, including how much storage she needs (and as with gun safes, make it bigger than her current needs. once you have a working model, you can decide what's the best path to get there.

 

[Westside]

My wife's sewing room, she does mostly quilting and dress making, has a large 4' wide by 6' long table in the middle of the room with storage on all sides for cutting fabric. Then one wall has another bench 30 inches deep with her machine on it. the wall behind the machine has a peg board rack with dowel rods sticking out a a 45 degree angle for her to store spools of thread on. the all opposite the machine is all cabinets to store patterns, fabric, and other items.

photo, not my house, to give idea of table and machine with peg board rack.

 

[spasmo]

This is a great design for a craft table with tutorial.

Ana White | Build a Modern Craft Table | Free and Easy DIY Project and Furniture Plans