Taking a poll on Studio Planning

[delld]

Jeanne, I just love my studio. It's 14' by 39'. I have bamboo flooring and love it. The one thing I did for months was to draw the room to scale and then draw each object in the same scale and placed them on my room drawing. That way I could see where things fit best. It helped me decide where to put outlets, windows and my Milliie. The plug for the millie is in the ceiling that is controled by a switch on the wall. So I can turn off the plug. Helps with little ones. Goofd luck!

[Berylj]

My studio is contained in a former veranda about 16 feet long 8 feet wide and with two smaller rooms each a little under 10ft square that open off it (bear with me I am converting from metric I my head). There is also a small wash room. It is on the first floor of my older style home. My local authority is resistant to changes to any of the exterior of my home – the dreaded Australian Heritage Order. So I am confined by what I have re doors and window etc

I have the Millennium on a 12ft table in the long room, it has to be on casters so I can I can move around it –to be totally accurate to even get into the room. The 3 rooms have tiled flooring imported from Belgium made of recycle banknotes or something like that. It was designed for garage workshops so it is very strong, it has a solid water repellent surface but still gives underfoot (I am a barefoot gal), the best part is it has an edge like a jigsaw and I assembled it myself. It also did not need a totally flat floor, which suited my aged flooring. I love it.

Keep the cables off the floor and put in double the number of power points you think you will need. I have two for the machine that come from the ceiling, they have a special surge controlled circuit. The ceiling in this room is low with a skillion roof, Australia is hot and I am a bit of a green freak so I don’t do air-conditioning, I also wanted to get lighting which did not distort the colour. My electrician advised me to use energy efficient florescent tubes – the colour would be fine and they don’t add much to the temperature. I have reasonable cross ventilation.

I really let myself go with the paint. It is basically a green suede finish in the long room has a silver and verdigris feature wall and the smaller rooms where I keep my library, fabric wadding and do cutting etc have feature walls of purple.

[marycontrary]

We are just finishing up my studio in our walk-out basement. It's approx. 16W x 23L, with a little bit of an "L" at one end where it's 19W. That's where my sewing area/cutting table/ironing area is set up in an L shape. I can sit at my sewing machine and look out into the room to the sliding door and out to the patio.

1) Flooring -- we put down a nice laminate over dimpled plastic product called Delta FL. It raises the laminate about a half inch, protecting from the moisture and cold of the concrete. I love it! In addition, I have a 5 x 7 area rug in my sewing corner. Also, I found a 2 x 12 woven indoor/outdoor rug that fits perfectly along the wall at the front of my 12' machine. My drafting chair rolls perfectly on it if I want to sit and freehand.

2) Outlets -- didn't have the option of an outlet in the floor, but would if I could. There are 2 outlets behind and one beside the longarm and could have done with another at the side. Should have planned better for the TV, cable box, stereo, turbo winder and auto quilt advance all being in the same area.

3) Lighting -- I love my lighting! Put three zones of recessed lighting for a total of 12 cans in the room, with each zone on a separate switch -- four lights over the Freedom, four in front of the wall with 10' of fabric and storage cabinets, and 4 over the cutting table and chaise in the corner. In addition, we put a suspended track light, also on it's own switch, over the sewing area that has 6 adjustable halogen lights that can be directed individually toward my sewing machine, serger, bookshelves and design wall. Put florescent bulbs in the recessed cans. They do take a few minutes for the gases to warm up and get bright, but worth it to me in the energy savings and coolness of the bulbs.

4) Other suggestions -- don't skimp on storage and shelving. You'll always need more than you think. We finished off a storage closet under the stairs that can hold a few upright rolls of batting, vacuum, and a multitude of sins in a relatively small area. We also put a light in that closet, cause it's pretty dark in there! It's nice to be able to close off some things from view. In the room, four 30" wide cabinets along one wall hold my fabric (at least most of it). Another good storage idea is inexpensive plastic storage drawer units that fit under the longarm table. I also placed three short bookshelves along the wall within my sewing area, behind the sewing machine. Gives a nice surface for tools, baskets, and quilty nicknacks, as well as storage for books. Like Joan, I found that having the back of the longarm toward the center of the room provides an additional useful surface when sewing and cutting.

5) Things I wish I'd done differently -- my space is pretty new and I haven't actually used it much yet, so I'm sure I'll find things besides that extra outlet at the side of the machine. I planned out and obsessed over where everything would go and what lighting and flooring to use for over a year. I looked at pictures of studios and read everything I could about others spaces on this forum. With all the great ideas and practical experience of the members here, I'm sure you'll end up with a wonderful space!

[nanashark]

We will be building a home next year, so I can design my own studio. Right now it is in the basement, which works well, except part is linoleum and part carpet. I hate it. I planned to put in hardwood floors or tile, but now think I will look into the cork floors you have mentioned. Does the cork have "holes" in it or is it solid? Has anyone put in bamboo floors? Thanks for your tips.

[Guest Linda S]

Wow - this is an oldie but goodie. Anyway, my studio floors are 'soft' wood - fir. They've worked well over the past eight years, but I do have the cushioned puzzle matts in the area under the machine. If I had a brand new studio to design, I would use one of the new flooring options like bamboo or the Pergo-type. Having a nice smooth floor is the best for picking up pins (I use a telescoping magnetic stick), vacuuming up stray threads, and keeping the area clean for your quilts and/or your customers'. Also, these floors are generally of a floating design, which allows you to put insulation or even heating under them, thus making your studio more moderate in regulating temperature. Bamboo is also a great renewable resource. Apparently, it makes a heck of a floor, so if you can get a good price on it, I'd go that way.