Our attic Sewing/ craft room is finally done! : Let the decorating begin

Ta da!  Our attic renovations are finally done.....with the exception of a few tiny details (I still have some painting and staining to do).  This has been a labor of love for the last 2 years, hence the lack of new posts here.  I've been acting as my own general contractor and designer for this project as well as doing a few DIY projects.

View walking into the attic

Our attic has come along way!  It was unfinished when we moved in 9 years ago.  We threw down some fiberglass insulation on the floor and basically never went up there ever.  So this truly is new extra square footage for us.  

Our attic before: notice we originally had a pony wall around the stairs that we had to build up to meet code

Our attic before after we took out the insulation, check out the beautiful sub floor, wish I could have used it as our floor alone but it was too cut up from the renovations

I'm so excited to finally have a space to sew and store my craft materials.  I have not had a space to use my 5 threaded industrial serger (pictured below) for about a decade (it's been in storage at my parents patio for a yr and our basement for 9 yrs), and I have craft stuff all over the house (my husband is just glad he doesn't need to look at it anymore).

Cleaning out my serger after being in storage for 10 years It was pretty nasty

For almost 10 years I've been sewing on our dining room table (pictured above) and often will leave projects out on the table to save time putting away and setting up and to remind myself I still have a project to finish.  The problem is it's not very cute to look at and doesn't really encourage us to eat at the table.

Our (almost) finished Attic remodel

Design Plan: Maximize Knee Wall Storage
I wanted to use every nook and cranny I could for storage, cause you can never can have too much storage in a craft room!  To utilize our knee walls as much as possible, we put 9 custom built dressers on one side with 3 cubbie areas with doors that I placed plastic drawer units on wheels in.

Cubbies

Far right cubbie: our biggest cubbie space, since there are no ducts here!

We framed and sheet rocked three cubbies where we didn't have dressers and added louved doors.  One on the far left, middle, and far right.   This was the idea of the contractor that did our framing, sheet rock, dressers, and mill work (moldings, etc).  He suggested this as a way to cut down on price (custom dressers are expensive), and to have some air flow to the back of this side of the attic. The middle cubbie could not have been a dresser anyway because this is where our HVAC trunk from our furnace was.  

Middle cubbie: Finding some space still around our HVAC truck and ducts.  I purposely placed some fleece I have on top of our HVAC trunk so my cat can't get back in here, the floor is a bit open around the ducts and Mr Cat is kind of crazy

In the far back space in the cubbies I'm using for long term storage for personal items like photos behind the plastic drawer units.  We chose the side that had HVAC ducts since some of the space isn't usable anyways. 

Far Left Cubbie: long term storage items in the far back of and plastic drawer units in front for fabric and yarn storage

On the other side of the knee walls we put in hanging storage with custom built sliding drawers.  I can't hang anything tall or long of course, but your average size top fits just fine as well as knee length skirts and shorts.  Just like on the cubbie spaces, I can use the far back area of the hanging closet for personal long term storage like out of season shoes or coats and sweaters in vacuum sealed bags.

Built in Dressers

Some of our custom built dressers waiting to be installed: Not the slant in the back on top

We had 9 dressers custom built to fit in our knee walls.  I seriously considered buying Rast dressers from Ikea to put into the knee walls, but  concluded they were just to small (only 11 3/4" deep and 24 3/8" wide).  But I was in love with the price $35 and the fact that it's solid real wood (almost impossible to find these days let alone at that price) that is unfinished so you can paint or stain it however you want.  I did buy a Rast dresser for my bedroom.  I have left it unfinished so far as I'm not sure how I want to finish it.  
 

Our deep drawers make for great storage for fabric and yarn

The drawers except for the top are 15" deep.  They work great for fabric storage and yarn storage.  I'm also using it to house inventory for my Etsy shop Ornute.  I bought drawer dividers at Target to help keep smaller items still organized in these deep drawers rather than having smaller drawers being built which would have cost more.

Knee Wall Hanging Closet

Our short hanging closet with the doors opened I still need to paint the hanging rod

I plan to use this short hanging closet for hanging closet for my out of season clothes.  Our house was built in the 40's so we have the tiniest of closets, and well I have ALOT of clothes, so every season I have to put away and swap out my clothes at least now I can have everything stored on hangers in conditioned space (I've been storing my seasonal clothes in our unconditioned basement).  After we finish our basement remodel and create our master bedroom with our huge walk in dream closet I plan to use the attic closet for projects and inventory for my Etsy shop Ornute.  I can use it also for hanging shorter pattern pieces and to put fabric on hangers so it doesn't get wrinkled. 

Our short hanging closet with double track louved custom sliding doors, I still need to paint the hanging rod

The contractor created custom wood brackets to attach a round handrail with a flat back for the clothes rail.  I still need to paint the clothes rail white.  They used standard closet doors to create custom doors that fit by cutting them down and attaching two together.  They are sliding on a two track system.  I can fit an average top (not long) with 3/4 sleeves or shorter.  I've had to cuff up any long sleeves so they don't drag on the floor. I can also fit shorts, and knee length or shorter skirts.

Crawl Space: Cat Play Space/ Extra Storage
 

Door to the Right: Cat Play Room and Extra Storage Space

We have a huge room that you need to crawl to get in and has too low of a ceiling height to stand.  For now we plan to make it our cat's play room and extra storage space.  I was really hoping that we could let our cat have access to the attic whenever he wanted and to move his litter box to his room in the attic, but unfortunately our cat is way to adventurous and the ledge on the pony wall around the stairs is way to tempting.  We decided to add a board and a handrail to the top of the ledge to help keep him off of it (pictured below).   

Cat Cave Before: figuring out how to frame it

Crawl Space: Cat Cave and extra storage space, the box is the first of many to come for Mr Cat to play in

Eventually I plan to turn this spot into a cat play land with scratching post "art work" and shelves for climbing, and large boxes forming a tunnel maze. So far we just have one large box with a hole cut out for him.  He loves that he can jump in from the top or crawl in from the front and hide behind the box.  I'm having fun thinking of hilarious ways to decorate Mr Cats cave.  I might even hang up posters from the Kitten Covers like the pics below.

The RaMEOWnes by The Kitten Covers

Beastie Kittens by The Kitten Covers

How to Keep a Cat Off a Ledge?

Pony wall caped off with 2 boards (one wider than the other) and a hand rail, to deter our cat from hanging out on top of our stairs.  I still need to paint it white.  And yes Mr Cat has jumped up on the ledge.

As soon as we had our sub floor patched we let our cat come into the attic for the first time ever.  I was so excited to see his reaction to finally getting to go up to the attic.  Of course he loved it he pranced around meowing and eventually became very interested in jumping on our pony wall around the stairs.  "Oh crap. This is going to be a problem," I thought.

I decided to find a way to finish off the pony wall to make it less dangerous for Mr Cat.  This was quite tricky, because I didn't want it to look ugly or weird or cost a ton.  We settled on our contractor doing the wood work's suggestion of adding a handrail to the wood edge and another smaller board between.  The idea is while he will still jump up there (and he does), he at least won't be a comfy place to hangout and sleep up there.  My fear is that not only would that make him jump up there more frequently, but he also could fall over the ledge while sleeping or grooming himself (it would not be his first time doing that).

So did it work?   The verdict is still out since Mr Cat is still feeling out the space.  He has jumped up there a few times and even shakily walked the inside ledge once.  Our idea does make it less safe for him when he actually does jump up there, but less likely to jump up there and especially less likely to hang out and or sleep on the ledge.  I do think it will be safer for kids (we don't have any kids but do plan to adopt kids in the foster system) because they are less likely to try to stand or sit on the ledge, and it's higher than code so it's harder to fall over the stairs. 

I plan to set up a lot of chill spots for Mr Cat and he will have the crawl space aka cat cave for his play zone (as mentioned above). Hopefully he will lose interest eventually in the ledge and focus on safer areas.   I've concluded it's best to just lock him out of the attic unless we can watch him.

Our Construction Plan:

• We ended up hiring a contractor to frame, create the built in storage (both build the dressers and to create the custom hanging closet), sheet rock, mud and tape, priming with vapor barrier paint, patch sub floor put in a thin sub floor above our existing to create a even surface for flooring install, build stair walls to code, railing to code, and trim and moldings. 
•  I provided the plans for the city and obtained the permit and have been scheduling inspections. 
•  I hired out Electrical, HVAC, and Spray Foam.  
• The DIY projects we did
• Painted our existing windows that are bare wood white to match out trim and reglazed them
•  Painted the walls I wanted the over all room to be white, but wanted the walls to just have a hint of color to make the white moldings pop out more and to create some interest when the light hits it in different ways.  I didn't want it to be too different than the white ceiling since the walls are the ceiling, just a subtle difference. 
• paint used Glidden diamond in drifting snow (white with just a hint of grey) the in egg shell, and Glidden Diamond in ultra pure white in eggshell.  I love it it's just what I wanted.
• Installed the vinyl plank flooring.We picked vinyl plank flooring because it's easy to do yourself.  Cutting is simply snap and score with a utility knife.  With laminate you need a special blade and a circular saw, so we would have had to hire that out.  Our contractor quoted just over $3700 to install the vinyl planks we bought.  So we saved some serious cash doing it our self!  
• Vinyl Plank Flooring Used: Shaw Citadel floating vinyl plank flooring in Palmero Oak  bought on sale at Menards for about $1,000

We Installed our Shaw vinyl plank floating flooring

I'm so excited to finally move in and decorate.  Finally the fun part!  It's been a lot of work but I am soooo glad I managed the project and designed it myself, not only did we save a lot of money (I'm guessing it would have cost double if I had not acted as designer and contractor) but I must say I have a lot more pride about this project than I would have otherwise.  I'll keep posting as I start to move in and decorate so check back soon for clever craft and sewing storage ideas.

Pervious Posts in this Series:

Check out my Attic Remodel board on Pinterest to see my inspiration and my Dream Craft room board.

Our attic after open cell spray foam

As I said in my last post, I've been busy working on our attic renovations lately.  When we bought our house 9 yrs ago it came with an unfinished attic that was perfect to finish off.  While most people would want to turn it into a master, I wanted to turn it into my dream craft/ sewing place.  We are actually going to turn almost our entire basement into our dream master retreat.  That's the next big project after this one.

After spray foam (open cell) my future sewing space

I have been working with a construction company to do everything with the project except drawing plans and filling the permit, electrical, HVAC, spray foam, installing the floors, and painting.   I have been acting as general contractor and designer for the project.  I started by drawing plans and filing a permit with the city.  I was really nervous about this but it was so easy that I feel dumb for even worrying about it.  Because I filed the permit I have been scheduling inspections with the inspector.  Also super easy. I hired out for elecrical, HVAC, and spray foam.  

My future sewing space After first day of sheet rock

What We Have Done So Far
We're finally at the over 1/2 way done part.  We now have heat and air (HVAC), electrical rough ins (still need to do the electrical finishing after we paint), spray foam, and drywall.  My attic design plan centers around keeping as much space as possible.  We are having built in storage in the knee walls instead of just blocking them off, and having a cathedral ceiling instead of just putting sheet rock to the roof rafters.  Apparently this makes sheet rocking and mudding and tapping into a super difficult long job, because instead of having a box you have all kind of angles and small spaces to get into.  Apparently our drywaller did not realize how difficult the job would be (our contractor hired him) and almost walked out the second day.  Our contractor's project manager (the guy in charge on the job site) had to come over and talk him into staying to finish. 

Our attic view as you walk into the space after  first day of dry wall

Right now as I type our attic is being mud and tapped, apparently this should take about a week to finish.  Next up is priming.  Our contractor will be doing the priming with Sherwin Willams vapor barrier paint in order to meet code for a vapor barrier (only necessary if you use open cell spray foam).   Finally I can start thinking about fun stuff like decorating and it's starting to look like a living space.

Our attic after first day of dry wall

The DIY Projects we will be doing on this project are painting (which should be quite fun with the stairs and cathedral ceiling), install the vinyl plank floors, and paint and glaze or original wood windows (I'm currently working on this now).

Update we are done! See our final results in Part 3: Final Results! Tons of Built in Storage

Check out my Attic Remodel board on Pinterest to see my inspiration and my Dream Craft room board, and if you missed Part 1 of this series (the before and our design plan) check it out here.

Here is how our attic has looked for 8 yrs

When my husband and I bought our home 9 yrs ago we saw the unfinished attic and thought it would be perfect as my craft/ sewing studio and office space.  We put some fiberglass bats on the floor and basically never went up there again.  Last year we were planning on finishing the space, but a combination of family crisis's and the project being much bigger than I anticipated pushed it back until this summer.

Our attic after I took all the fiberglass bats out spring/summer 2016

We started our journey spring of 2015 when we asked a local remodeling company Castle to give us a bid to finish off our attic.  They had a good reputation and I liked that they gave itemized bids.  I did not however like their price tag.  They wanted $65-$70,00 to simply put in new windows, HVAC, electrical, frame, add built in storage to knee walls, spray foam, sheet rock, mud and tape, prime and paint, add sub floor and hardwood floors, moldings, and a hand rail to code.  Well let's just say for what we were doing and what houses go for in our neighborhood that's kind of crazy.  We would never get our money back.   So I realized I would need to be our own general contractor/ designer if I wanted to keep the budget in check.  So it's taken a long time to realize what order things need to be done, research and find the best people for each job, learn how the trades work together, how to file for a permit, and coordinate inspections and the trades along with a few DIY projects I am doing.

Attic after first day of construction (framing) We had them frame horizontally where possible to break the thermal bridge

The Plan For Our Attic

Design Plan: 

• The space will be my sewing/ craft/ office space.    
• Over all design look:  Bright loft where scandanavian style meets glamour
• It will have a cathedral ceiling with exposed white sheet rock beams that have white led dimmable track lights at the top of the beam to create more head room
• Built in dressers in the knee walls on the side with HVAC to make the most of the space (since vents take up alot of space in the back)
• Access to the whole space of knee walls on the other side with rolling louved doors and a hanging rod
• Cat cave (yes our cat is spoiled)/ storage space in our big space that you ave to bend down to walk into (pictured below). 
•  It will house his litter box.  I can't wait to get it out of the kitchen which is the only place we can out it because we have carpeting everywhere. 
•  I think I will make a cat tunnel house out of big boxes I've kept for him along with a comfy cat bed.
  

Our cat's soon to be cat cave (yeah he's spoiled) It will have a louved bifold door

Construction Plan:
We ended up hiring a contractor to frame, create the built in storage, sheet rock, mud and tape, priming with vapor barrier paint, patch sub floor put in a thin sub floor above our existing to create a even surface for flooring install, build stair walls to code, railing to code, and trim and moldings.  I provided the plans for the city and obtained the permit and have been scheduling inspections.  I hired out Electrical, HVAC, and Spray Foam.  The DIY projects we plan to do is painting our existing windows that are bare wood white to match out trim and reglazing them (I am currently working on that), painting, and installing vinyl plank flooring.

So if you've been wondering why there have been no new posts, it's because I've been pretty busy planning this and working on my Etsy shop Ornute.  So hopefully this spring I can start to post more regularly.  :)

Next Posts in this Series:

Check out my Attic Remodel board on Pinterest to see my inspiration and my Dream Craft room board.

image via One Late Night

Since I've been learning how to knit lately, I've been acquiring yarn and supplies and am needing ways to store them.  I've been searching the internet for good ideals and I found a lot I'd thought I'd share with you.    I think my favorite is the yarn ball machine pictured above.  How cool is that!


I've worked in visuals and merchandising so I've learned the best way to design a space is to pretend it's a store.  So for example pretend your closet is a boutique, how would you merchandise it?  Or if your craft room was a craft store.....?   So how would you display your yarn your selling?  Below are a few ideals that fit with my way of looking at design.

Check out this cool wood working job for yarn storage from Easy Makes Me Happy

Prudent Baby used a wine rack for yarn!  Notice the storage of knitting needles and notions on top too.

Laughing Purple Goldfish Design uses magazine files for yarn storage on shelves, genius!

I love the ideal of using book cases for yarn storage.  I think it's best to either blend it into an existing use for a book case (books, pictures, etc), or to just fill it all with yarn in a organized way with supports for the yarn, weather it's cubes, baskets, or magazine files as pictured above.  You can buy cool cheap magazine files at Ikea or make your own out of cereal boxes and modge podge. 

Dottie Angel has created beautiful storage for her knitting needles (storage in cups and pitchers on top) and yarn with her book case which could also double as a side table.

Talia Christine used simple mason jars for storing her needles.  Simple cheap and modern, I love it!

I also love the ideal of turning your yarn storage into art work by using large clear vases as (shown below)  and a storage unit or making cool box shelves for the wall that turns your yarn into works of art.

large clear vases turn yarn storage into works of art as shown by Little Lady Patchwork

I love the ideal of using cube like book cases for yarn storage because it has natural separators to help hold in the yarn and organize it plus it gives you the option of open storage or using baskets or both as pictured below from Steamy Kitchen.

Cube yarn storage from Steamy Kitchen gives you the option of using baskets, open storage or both

A good option for a well organized yarn collection could be tiered baskets as pictured below.  I think this looks a little messy but if it was organized by color in a way that flows well (yellow to green to blue for example) and not over stuffed it could look quite cute. 

Imagine this tiered basket pictured in Loopey Ewe with similar colors in each basket.....

You could also pull the drawers out of a dresser and use containers like at Sew Many Ways.  I  prefer open storage or pretty baskets like Steamy Kitchen did (pictured above) but I know clear plastic containers  can have it's benefits too (easy to take out, protected from bugs and water, easy to see what you have).

Hanging storage for yarn from KTB Designs.  She didn't say what kind of hanging storage she used.  I'm guessing a hanging shoe organizer would be best for most yarn collestions.

Cornflower Blue Studio puts her bits of leftover yarn onto clothespins, what a great ideal!

Wine racks work great for yarn storage.  Prudent Baby came up with another way to use wine racks for yarn storage, under the desk.  So smart and I love that it fits the modern look of her desk and chair.

I've actually seen this before and didn't think it was too cute for shoe storage, but I never thought of it for yarn!  I actually think that would be super cute in a craft room.  It looks like it's screwed together with nuts.  Drilling through PVC is easy so this should be pretty easy to make.  If your interested in PVC ideals I wrote a post on PVC ideals in gardening and outdoor living.  Image found via pinterest

When I think of a craft or sewing room I want it to look pretty, be organized, and small space efficient.   Here are some of the best ideas I found online.

I think I found a much easier idea for storing my trims and ribbons than my last post.  I found this at creating keepsakes  this is perfect as I already have rolling racks in my studio and an extra pant hanger.  Brilliant, why didn't I think of that?  What's great about this idea is I already have garment racks with garment bags in my studio, so i can just put my ribbons in a garment bag and not have to worry about my cat getting into it.

O Hello Friend

I also found this great idea for hanging jars on the wall from O Hello Friend.  I love that by having it on the wall your getting more surface space.  I currently have all my notions in a storage container designed for screws and nuts on top of a file cabinet that houses my patterns I've made and bought (including a cool collection of vintage patterns).

If your working on a low budget Older and Wiser has some great ideas for creating a craft or storage room with next to nothing. 

Check out New Mexico State University guide for designing a sewing room for more ideas. 

Design Mom uses letter sorters on the wall for fabric storage genius!

I Found My Dream Craft Room and Future Woodworking Project

I've been working on my craft room for awhile now.  Looking for inspiration I found Sew Woodsy's cool craft room.  My favorite part is the ribbon rack.  I have accumulated a small store worth of fabric, notions, and trims through the years now.  I usually don't even go to the store when starting a new project now I just shop at home.  The only key is to have it organized and pretty so I don't forget what I have!