home improvement

Long ago (two years ago) when we were looking for an apartment I had visions of a craft room dancing in my head.  What if I could have a whole room or area just for crafty stuff.  In particular, a place where I could permanently set up my sewing machine.  In our old apartment the sewing machine had a stint in the living room but it had such a tendency to get messy that it was always sort of an eyesore.  A whole room for crafting would mean I could let things be the way they were in the middle of a project without it stressing me out while I relax in the living room.  Ahhhhh.....

Unfortunately I live in New York and the idea of a whole room for crafting or sewing is, well, rather laughable.  Particularly if you can barely afford to buy an apartment to begin with--one with an extra room is setting your sights a bit high.  Since we didn't have an extra 100,000 dollars laying around to dump on getting that craft room I began to think of alternatives.  

When we found our apartment it had a big bedroom and two closets (his and hers).  I realized we could put wardrobes in the bedroom for our clothes and use the closets for other things:

His and Hers hobby closets--guitars and sewing.  Its unfortunate how stereotypical our obsessions are---he likes to play with electricity and loud noises and I like to make clothes.  Sigh. 

Anywho, when we moved in I managed to get all the sewing stuff into a closet with grand visions that any day now I would go get some wood and make my little closet into a little sewing room.  Life of course got in the way and for the past 1.75 years I have been thinking, "any day now I will make that sewing closet functional." Over the past few months I have actually been sewing and the sewing machine has spent a lot of time on the living room table while I think, "any day now I will get around to that sewing closet."

Then last week many forces converged at once.  First we were informed that there is a leak in the basement coming from our apartment.  They would need to go in through the closet wall to fix it, which meant we had to take EVERYTHING out of the sewing closet for a few days so they could do the work.  WOW!  There was an incredible amount of stuff and it completely took over the bedroom, to get to my side of the bed I had to walk over the bed because all the floor space (remember I live in New York so that really means about a 2 foot swath at the bottom and side of the bed) was taken over by mounds of fabric, paint, yarn stuff, and other crafty items.  

Second, we discovered the bed of our dreams which not only is beautiful, but has 6 drawers of storage under it, AND happened to be on sale.  So we bought it.  Then we realized that a new bed was coming, the bedroom was popping with craft crap, and it was not going to be easy to get it all back in the closet the way it was.  So, I decided the time had come for the sewing closet escapade.

I went to the local hardware store, as I would like them to continue to exist and not be run out of business by Home Depot and Lowe's, and asked if they had any wood and if they could cut it to sizes for me.  "Whatcha making?" was the reply.  After explaining that I was putting shelves in  my closet and I need wood in the sizes on my list I got, "Woah! Are you taking a class to learn about being an architect or something?  This is what architects do, they write down all the wood they need in a list just like this.  How did you know to do that?"  I then explained that I just did, my dad builds things a lot and maybe I learned it from him.  "Oh!" was the reply, "your dad made this list.  That makes sense.  Well let's go see what we have."  

We went in the back where he tried to sell me pre-made closet shelves which I rejected because they weren't deep enough.  "What!  How many clothes do you have that you need such big shelves!?" he said.  So I explained about the sewing machine as he raised a questioning eyebrow.  Finally he said, "well so we don't have any lumber you want but you and your dad can go to a place down the street.  Its good you dad is going to do this for you."  I replied, "no, I'm doing it."  "Well, yes its good your dad is doing it because if you did it yourself it would just fall apart and you would have to call him crying to get him to fix it."  So.  I left.  And decided that I maybe don't care so much about his hardware store and went to Home Depot to get some wood.

Miraculously (since I AM a girl) I managed to cut the wood, glue and screw the supports to the wall and get it all to fit:

Then, I painted.  Though my obsession with pink still lies firmly within my early adolescence somehow I really needed this tiny craft closet to be bright, bright pink:

Now I just have to put it together.  Of course it will probably fall apart as soon as I do because the gene for knowing how to use a saw, drill, and glue is apparently located on the Y chromosome.  So dad, the hardware store dude is warning you to expect a tearful crying call any moment now.