Almost a New Room

I've been thinking about rearranging my office / sewing space for a long time. I don't think of myself as the kind of person who needs to rearrange the house every few months, but things need to find their right place before they can settle in and stay that way for ages. My office space has just never found that order.

I'm still not sure it has, but it is different...

With the help of my patient husband, we flipped the big desk units from the longer wall to the shorter wall. The gain was floor space -- with the sewing desk on one edge instead of in the center of the room, things feel larger even if they really aren't. The loss? Well, I'd say the biggest issue is that I now spend most of my time facing away from the window (which is next to the ocean painting). Before I could at least see the window if I was sewing (though it required about a half-rotation if I was at the computer), now it's a half-rotation from the sewing station and a quarter from the desk, but it feels farther than that. It also seems a little creepy to have the big dark window just over my right shoulder at night -- but I'll probably adjust to that.

My hope had been to set things up with the sewing station on the far side and the file cabinets on the near side, but that is backwards for my sewing machine and I didn't want to be fighting fabric into the desk's cubby when I could turn things as they are now and have the extra fabric drape off the desk into open space.

There's enough room before the corner for a little bit of storage space. Right now I've got a lamp there, but I think I'll end up moving that and putting my plastic drawers of flannel and minky fabric in the opening instead. That should help open the 'entry' area -- and mean no more moving things around before I can drop my over the door ironing board!

I'm still not sure this is the way things belong, but I'm going to take some time to adjust to the new-ish space. I am really enjoying the new sewing set up, and the more open floor space, it's more the computer area that just doesn't feel right yet. Moving the lamp to the darker side of the room should help a little too.

Oh -- and, one surprise gain in the process is that I now have a space that might be workable as a small design wall. I'm not sure that's something I need -- I might use it for basting small projects instead -- or there's a chance I'll find some more art to fill the space instead -- but I'm excited about the possibilities. In a house like this one -- with ugly walls I have coated in pictures and art -- a bare bit of wall is a rarity and I want to make sure I use this one to it's full potential!