Sewing Room Makeover Needed

I have a very large room that I use for my sewing room and office (I work from home).  It’s about 17-1/2 feet long and nearly 13 feet wide. It should be plenty big for anything I need to do.  However, if you notice on the drawing which is nearly to scale there is a large window on the west wall, a door into the garage, a passage into the kitchen, a door into the living room (I keep the swing door propped open except when I know guests are coming over) and a fireplace.  Additionally there are 2 AC vents and a return all about 6 – 8″ off the floor.

I’m getting my front window replaced next month and have to pull everything away from the window. Since everything will be disarrayed, I thought I’d take the opportunity to clean up and rearrange. This is the current layout (each square is 6″). At one point I was able to have 4 friends over to sew.  The last time we got together we took over the living room and dining room as over the years I’ve brought more ‘stuff’ into the sewing room.

Currently, on my sewing table I have a printer on the window end and my sewing machine on the other end. There is also a printer on the end of the work table/desk over the file cabinet.  One scans and faxes but doesn’t print, the other prints but doesn’t scan or fax — and I use all 3 functions.  As part of this process I’m planning on getting down to just one printer.

The wire shelves along the west wall is the result of “stuff”. I really think much of the stuff can be gotten rid of or belongs somewhere else in the house. I want at least 2 of those gone.  The ironing station is a large dresser with 3 drawers. That space is not being utilized well – partly because the drawers don’t slide well.  I’ll either replace the dresser or get drawer slides — but I’m not giving up my large ironing board.

The fabric shelves on the west/kitchen wall will be staying. My preference is to keep them together so I can hang tops from them.  The cutting board is one of those fold down boards. I don’t want to get rid of it, but truthfully it is frequently just a flat surface. I can cut on my ironing board.

There are two desks in my office because I have a personal computer and a work computer. At one point I had 3 monitors so I needed the space. I now just have 2 large monitors and they both will fit on the “desk with shelves” – I  just have to get rid of the file cabinet currently under the desk. I think that’s doable. So, I think this is what I’m looking at for the new layout.

The plan is to put a single printer on the shelves over my desk. The smaller file cabinet will hold up the work desk which will become my new sewing table. The other end is held up by wire shelves which will now be accessible. The only thing this layout doesn’t have is a 3rd set of wire shelves.  I suppose I could put it folded in against the sewing table in the middle of the room with a set of wire shelves on the west wall next to the fireplace.

Of course in order to remove storage from the room, I’ll need to be ruthless in what I keep. I currently have a couple of under utilized rolling carts with drawers under my sewing table which are not shown and there is a small set of plastic shelves sitting on top of the cutting table, but as I look at what is on those shelves I have to wonder if they are really necessary.  If I have a shelf or flat surface, it just gets filled up as I get lazy putting stuff away.

If you have a suggestion, chime in. I have no budget, except maybe for a new printer and I hope to get the all-in-one working without having to buy a new one.