My New/Old Cutting Table

Plans to relocate my sewing room to our unfinished basement never materialized, and to be honest, I'm glad because I really don't think that I would like sewing so far from the rest of my house. For now, I've moved sewing into the "sitting room" area of our rather large master bedroom.  In five years of living here, we've really rarely used it for it's intended purpose. The fireplace, which burns propane, has only been lit once.

 Storage for fabric and books is still upstairs in a spare walk-in closet off the small guest room where my sewing has been sharing space with a twin size bed until recently. Now that I've moved my machine, I found that my little cutting table needed to be traded for something that would also provide some storage for rulers, fabric, etc. Enter this old dresser: perfect height for cutting, cute shape, moveable, and lots of drawers for storage. 

 Now, many people (including my hubby, at times) think that it is a dreadful sin to cover up perfectly good, tiger striped wood with a coat of paint. Me, I don't have that problem. This time, Mr. Lollyquiltz just smiled sweetly as I described how we already had "too much wood going on in our bedroom and how cute this dresser would look painted cream...yada, yada, yada."

 Long story short, I love my new light colored cutting center! My hubby widened the top by adding a 4-inch piece of wood to the back, making it just big enough to hold my cutting mat perfectly.

I fell in love with Annie Sloan's chalk paint at an antique store recently and will testify that there is absolutely no prep needed to use it on an old piece of furniture. I was going for a cottage look so sanded off some of the painted edges. The waxing takes a bit of elbow grease and learning curve, but after watching an online tutorial, I had no problems. The paint is a bit pricy, but the result is worth it to me. As they advertise: the paint is for girls, but boys can use it too! Am I tempting you?

I'm loving that I no longer have to bend over while cutting and every thing can be tucked out of sight in the drawers, if I want. The little glass knobs are the perfect addition, I think.

 Since we don't use the fireplace anyway, I decided to make a small removable design wall to cover up the opening. An added perk is that the insulation board covered in flannel blocks out any drafts in the winter time. You can see that I'm working on a layout of my Mazed quilt...unfortunately, the design wall is not quite large enough for all of the blocks. oh, well.

Next, I'm planning some ideas for storing my rulers on back of the dresser, which faces my sewing area. I'll do a full reveal once I get everything in place.

Thanks to everyone who entered the book giveaway last week and welcome new readers who have joined me! Mr. Lollyquiltz picked number 72 out of air, which happened to be Sylvia Whitesides. Sylvia, I posted your book and fabric yesterday, so keep an eye on the mailbox!