Friday, March 2, 2012

ironing board storage

Ok, so I'm completely embarrassed that I am going to show these pictures of my terribly unorganized mess of a sewing room, but I'm showing them to get my butt in gear to clean and organize everything.  Not to make excuses, but the brunt of this disorganized mess comes from running out of fabric storage space, so my fabric ends up strewn about, wherever I can find space.  Anyways, I think I have found solution #1 to my problem, and I thought I'd share.  


These are the before pictures, ugh.  You can keep scrolling, don't look too closely ;-P  


In my search for storage ideas, I came across this picture, of course on Pinterest of Jacquie's ironing board/shelving solution, and I knew this was part of my answer.  All that unused space under my ironing board?  Turn it into storage space?  Yes please! 


And that is how this contraption was born.  I scoured the internet, and found these wire shelving units at Target, they are about 23" wide, so I bought two, and they were a little low (30" tall) for my liking, so I put them on some bed raisers I had to give some extra height.  I used a piece of plywood that was 48"x 18" and   wrapped it in about 4 layers of batting, and topped it off with some fabric.  I affixed everything to the underside of the plywood with a staple gun, and in a matter of a half an hour, had a solid ironing board top for my shelving unit.  


I am using the new storage space to store all my scraps.  I now have them sorted by each individual color, solid scraps have their own large bin, and my selvedge collection also has its own bin.   Up next is to refold all of my fabric using Jeni's tutorial like Kati just did, and nicely display it where those messy stacks are hanging out now.  Wish me luck!

16 comments:

  1. Smart cookie! Now you've got me thinking!

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  2. Great idea. I have a small ironing board that I can move around and place on my cutting table when I need it but this is cool.

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  3. Great way to use wasted space! Thanks for sharing!

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  4. Sorry Jessica, but that doesn't look big mess to me! That is a really great way to storage more and that ironing place looks more practical for quilter's use, than normal board!
    x Teje

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  5. Looks great! I wish I had room to do that, I have to take my ironing board out every time I use it and stick it in the middle of the room...not too convenient!

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  6. That's such a great idea!! ,for a sewing room that was big enough for an ironing board and still have room to get out the door!

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  7. Fab idea! Alas, a little short of space to replicate that here, but I shall bear it in mind in case I ever get more room!

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  8. That's awesome. I made an ironing board for the top of my very old student desk so its terribly low for standing to iron and I end up hunched over and that's no good. You've inspired me to look for a new solution! I have a kitchen island type table that might be just the thing. Your sewing space looks mah-velous darling!

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  9. Love this! I need one too. Good luck folding. Watch a few good movies while you're at it. It takes a while!

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  10. Wow. I am truly embarrassed about my super messy sewing space now! Great idea, I have a really small sewing room - I might steal your ironing board idea!

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  11. This is really wonderful, Jess!
    How creative of you! I definitely need something like this!

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  12. This is a fabulous idea. I'm going to figure out how to do this in my sewing rom!

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  13. Hilarious - Two weeks ago I started collecting the pieces to make an ironing board station quite similar but on a smaller scale. How did you decide to attach the ironing board to the shelves?

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