Welcome to our Craft Palace! This is definitely our happy place.

Although I wish I could say this space was designed and pre-planned, it really has been a cobbled-together, ever changing and expanding project. There are so many things we need to update and upgrade still so keep that in mind as you take a closer look at our work space.

I’ll start off with the work table. This was a really cool curb-side find. I had noticed this drop-leaf table on the curb in our neighborhood and just had to have it as a project piece. With a lot of sanding first then a few minor repairs and cleaning, it proved to be a very sturdy piece that was perfect for the craft palace.

I wanted to countersink the sewing machine we use for free motion quilting so I used white contact paper and traced the bottom of the sewing machine to make a template. Using the white contact paper made it easy to place (and adjust) where I wanted to cut the hole and was easy to remove when I was finished.
After tracing the template onto the table, I used a jigsaw to cut the hole and put L brackets underneath to secure a board I cut to make a shelf for the sewing machine to sit on.

To finish it up, I used some wood patterned contact paper to cover it thinking it might be easier to re-do in the future if need be because sometimes these surfaces take on some pretty rough treatment.
I love this table for the versatility! Since both sides can be lowered, it’s easy to move around and open back up for much appreciated space to work.
To make the most of the space in the room, I ordered four small dressers from IKEA and spaced them out to accommodate a kneehole space and put a board on top to make a desktop for the computer and keyboard and some of our smaller accessories.
I purchased the board at Home Depot and had them cut two feet off so that the makeshift desk would be 8ft x 17in. I put a light stain and acrylic sealant on the board. The dressers make a great base for the desk and have lots of storage.
I can’t seem to get into the right position to take a picture of the small dressers with the board but if you look at the first picture posted, they are directly behind Papa Tom.

At the end of the desktop is my Galaga Arcade game. What can I say…it was my favorite game to play back in the day and it’s so much fun to play when I take a break.

We used some basic bookcases for our fabric. Fabric is wrapped onto comic book backing that was ordered from Amazon. One idea that definitely didn’t turn out to be all that great is using fabric panels and Velcro patches as covers. Just one of many things to put on the list to update (a list that grows fast)!

On top of the bookcases are some metal tubs I found at the At Home store. These make storing my habit of buying remnants from the fabric store really nice.
Above the bookcases, I installed curtain rods to drape quilt tops on that were in the works.

The window treatment is comprised of scraps of fabric and assorted tulle tied in a square knot on a curtain rod. I had seen this idea on Pinterest and loved it. Makes it interesting to come up with the colors you like and blend them the way you want.

I absolutely love the IKEA cube storage unit! This thing holds a lot of our fabric scraps, button stash, beads and baubles and on and on.
On top of the cube storage, I used stackable milk crates zip-tied together with an aluminum rod running through them to make a closet for 18” doll clothes. There was a time when I was sewing doll clothes for our granddaughter’s American Girl Doll for Christmas and this made for easy storage of the finished outfits while sewing continued.

Oh and then there’s the design wall. I admit, not much to look at but it sure makes laying quilt blocks out so easy! It’s simply felt hung over the wallspace. We will definitely be upgrading this in the near future.

The TV tray ironing set-up has to be one of my favorite additions to the Craft Palace. It’s so easy and convenient to move around to where we’re sewing or to put away and store. I bought an old wooden TV tray from a thrift store, cleaned it up, covered the top with Insul Bright then covered that with fabric by stapling the fabric underneath the edges of the tray.
I use a condiment bottle to keep water in so that I can refill the iron and of course some handy dandy Quilter’s Starch.
We also have a really neat wool pressing mat and small iron that makes ironing seams as I go a breeze.
The button hooks on the wall were a great find at Dollar General. I painted them to coordinate with everything and used command gripper strips to mount them. I mainly use them to hold my binding when we’re working on a quilt.
I found four (4) really sturdy chairs on our local on-line garage sale site. The chairs were orange and the seats and backs were covered with Texas Longhorn fabric. I was really excited to pick these up for $20 and get to do a project to boot. I painted them a really nice blue and used some peacock fabric to cover the seats and backs. Sure makes it easier not having to move a chair around plus I can have friends over and work on projects comfortably.


Another really neat project piece we found at a thrift store was this old CD tower/case. I had some wooden dowels so I cut them to the size that would hold cone thread spools. I drilled holes in the tower and glued the dowels in then spray painted it all black to finish it up. Now it holds our quilting cone thread and bobbins.

Some people have a “junk drawer” somewhere in their homes. After our youngest left the nest, we have a room that could probably be featured on the show Hoarders, ha ha ha! So we bought a No Trespassing sign and hung it on the door. If we have company, I hope they keep this door closed!
So many more ideas, updates and projects on our list to improve our ever-growing and evolving Craft Palace, I think it may always be a work in progress.
