The Domino Effect

At the end of May of this year, I decided to move my studio out of the dark front bedroom and set up in the dining room,  a room that is rarely used. I loved it. Bright, sunny, open, a great view and great lighting. (It was never this clean...only for the first pictures).

Then I decided to decorate the living room and when it was as finished as it is for the time being, I realized that the mess I make in this creating space does not compliment the new decor at all. So my first thought was to put it back as the dining room with a coordinating table setting, maybe even a centerpiece, and make it look cohesive with the nice living room. 

That would mean I would have to return to the dark old studio in the front bedroom. But I knew that all it would take to make it a workable, more creative space, is a better ceiling fixture, LED of course with a gazillion lumens. 

Thus began a marathon furniture move.

First I had to empty the dining room of my sewing stuff, and make room in the old studio for it all to come back. In the meantime I changed my mind about restoring the dining room and decided to move the old couch in there and make it a TV lounge area, where messes could happen but cleaning could also be swift.

What this entailed involved a third room, Dave's bedroom, because there the couch had been living. Also, the second twin bed was in the old studio and that had to go. I bought a zippered mattress cover and we put the mattress in it and tucked it on the floor under Dave's bed and disassembled the bedframe and found space in the garage to store it. 

As I studied the old studio arrangement I was dubious that I had made a smart choice. Something was always wrong with it besides bad lighting , and it may have been TOO MUCH STUFF.  Yep, that was it, so as long as I was moving things I might as well toss stuff, which delays the process considerably as one has to make a lot more decisions. I got as far as I could before my old body gave up, and put off the rest for the next day.

Overnight the light bulb went on in my mind and it revealed the real issue. Bad Feng Shui. Nobody I know believes in this stuff but essentially it means that the room arrangement has to be mindful of the doorway and the windows. One wants to be facing the doorway and have the windows behind the work area. That way anyone entering the room is seen and is not a surprise and the light is over the shoulder of the worker, as well as in front at the ceiling, illuminating everything well.

The thing is that this room has an angled front entrance. One wall that is not square to the rest of the room and that has the door opening on it. Aha!

This means that the work table also must be angled to match it and that's just what made all the difference. I'm not usually a fan of  angled arrangements like this, but it really has to be this way to feel right. 

The sewing machine is tucked nicely in the corner with the pin up wall above, joined with the thread chest and storage drawers. Plenty of walk space between the work table and the machine, and lots of sunlight over my left shoulder for sewing, as well as my LED lamp for those darker times. Now all I need is to replace the dim ceiling light with a big blast of lumens and I will be happy to be here.

 My fused fabric is tucked in the corner and the rest of the remaining stuff is shelved. Packed shelves yes, but really I got rid of a lot of stuff, so it was worse, trust me.

80% of my yarn now lives in the closet and it much more accessible than under my bed or in the garage. I didn't change anything in there.

Hmmm, looks like a lot of empty, maybe I need more yarn?

O yes, here's the dining room that is now the tv lounge and see it now before the snacking plates, cups and crumbs, and knitting yarn enter the space.

UPDATE!! I switched out the bulbs in my ceiling fixture to brighter ones and what a huge difference it made. The orignal  ones were 450 lumens and then new ones are 800 each. Yay! Saved me the trouble and cost of installing a new fixture.