The sewing room makeover was another project I worked on specifically to share in my book – . For that reason, I haven’t shared the full reveal on the blog yet, even though this room makeover was finished in 2020. A few photos of the room are shared in the book, but it’s nice to share more detail about the makeover here on the blog so that I can share links to tutorials, projects, and sources. It just tells more of the story for those who are interested!
So, let’s start this room makeover by looking at what the room looked like when we moved in almost five years ago.
It’s a pretty basic room with cream walls and trim and beige carpet. We added the chandelier, swapping it out for a typical builder-grade fixture. I knew I wanted to make this room feminine and like a little jewel box, so a chandelier was a nice start.
I also brought an antique French daybed frame from my PA studio to use in this room. While it’s a sewing room, it’ll be nice to have an extra guest room if we need it. It was important to me that this room makeover could be versatile. I also found a beautiful European pine wardrobe on Craigslist when we first moved in and that was the perfect addition for storing fabric. You can read about that find HERE.
I painted the bed frame and ended up reupholstering it a couple of times…first in a cheery yellow fabric and then in the blue and cream toile to match the walls, which felt much better for style anyway. I like trying different things, but I’ve learned that when it comes to upholstery (stuff that is a pain to do and redo), I should just stick with the tried and true.
To give the walls some detail and make this little room special, I added a chair rail and picture frame molding. You can find a tutorial for that HERE.
The real statement of this room, though, is the starched fabric wall treatment. Yep, that is not wallpaper but fabric. It is held to the walls with regular liquid starch used for laundry and ironing. The beautiful thing about this treatment is that it doesn’t use a paste that has to be stripped later. It just stays in place until you peel it off. You can even wash and reuse the fabric. If ever I want to change it, it will literally take minutes to pull it off without any damage to the walls.
I stripped and waxed a little antique pine chest to use as a bedside table in this room (you can read about that makeover HERE.)
And I also bought and painted an old wooden kitchen chair in Farmhouse White milk paint so there would be a pretty chair sitting in front of my sewing machine.
To maximize storage in this room makeover, I also hung an antique medicine cabinet above the sewing desk to store spools of thread…
…and added a shelf to the closet to provide better storage for bins, bulky items, a scrap basket, and upholstery supplies. You can read more about the sewing room organization and tips HERE.
And here is the finished sewing room makeover…
I love how this room turned out. It just makes me smile when I’m working in there. It’s become the sewing/cat room since we keep the cat food and litter box in there. It’s an out-of-the-way room that is an ideal place to keep the cat accouterments. It is a bit of a dog room as well since Sebastian likes nappy on the daybed. I usually keep an old quilt over it to keep his hair off of the white bedding and pillows.
My mom and I made the bed crown when she was visiting in the summer of 2020 to help me with projects for this book. She’s a great helper on big sewing projects because I’ll pin and sew and she’ll iron and trim threads. We can get a lot done quickly when we work together. The toile fabric is Festin Bleu by STOF and I was able to buy all of the fabric I needed for the walls and bed crown on sale for around $300. It was a huge bang for the buck! The inside of the bed crown is lined in dark blue linen that I bought on sale. All of the bedding and furniture is secondhand.
The little pine side table now stores my knitting needles and crochet hooks. The cabinet is filled with spools of ribbon.
Project pouches and scissors are tucked in the drawer.
Bolts of fabric are kept in an old basket next to an antique child’s rocker that belonged to my Oma when she was a girl.
The wardrobe holds fabric and yarn inside and on top. It is a workhorse!
You can see how we added shelves to the antique wardrobe in THIS POST.
I just love everything about this antique wardrobe. It’s one of those pieces that I can see using in a variety of ways for as long as I have a place for it.
Here are a few other shots of the sewing room makeover…
Oh, the possibilities!
As with the studio, the sewing room is also getting a little tight with all of my tools and materials! This isn’t a room we really needed, but it’s been nice to have the extra space to use for more of my creative endeavors.
Do you have any questions about the sewing room makeover that I didn’t answer?
Absolutely stunning. My question is where do you cut out your fabrics or patterns? I have a large sewers cardboard cutting mat that can be laid on a bed as a flat surface or floor.
I usually lay it out on the floor or the kitchen table. For larger pieces, I’ll work on the floor of our master bedroom.
Beautiful!
You have done an amazing job and seems like the perfect room to let your sewing creations come to life.
Marian, this is a beautiful room ! Always love the warm pine wood finish with this blue fabric toile color. You always do such a great job and I remember when your mother helped you with this room and many of your other rooms.Thank you for the encouragement to me to clean out my wardrobe !
It’s a beautiful room and everything is stored away so nicely. I need to work on mine, it’s a mess. I need to read about how and what you use on your wall for that material, it’s a great idea.
A cat has adopted us the past year. I’m hesitant about letting her in the house. We had one that clawed the furniture. Are your cats declawed? Thanks.
I was very nervous about that with these cats, but neither of them has scratched the furniture. They are not declawed and they use their cardboard scratcher toys. One will stretch against the wall and cabinets, but she’s a small cat, so she doesn’t do much damage.
Dear JoAnn, Please don’t declaw any cat. It’s better to not take the cat in, to let the cat live outside. Declawing is a horrible torture for cats and leaves them totally vulnerable should they ever need to defend themselves, or catch food. It’s an extremely painful act, it’s been compared to cutting fingers off.
Please look into it further, educate yourself as to how it effects the cat. I’ve been a cat lover my whole 65 years and know if a cat has scratchers available they will use those. Please JoAnn reconsider. Sincerely, Madonna Reilly
I’ve had 5 house cats in my lifetime and I always have a cardboard scratcher for them. I even teach them how to use it. I’ve never had furniture troubles. But, once they know about the outdoors, they may not want to be inside very much.
I’m a real fan of those cardboard scratchers. The two furry girls I adopted last year have shown no interest in revamping my upholstery despite the fact that my late furry girl did quite a job on one of my wing chairs.
They really love the cardboard scratcher and I’ve replaced the insert in the centre of the toy at least 3 times in the last year. Long may it keep their interest.
Oh my goodness! This room is gorgeous! I love every single detail. I have never used fabric for the walls before, but I will now.
I love the fabric on the walls and I’ve read about that type of treatment before. I’ve always wondered how it is trimmed out at the ceiling, baseboards, windows, etc. Can you elaborate?
I share a detailed tutorial (and a free video with purchase) in my book, but I trim it just like I do wallpaper. I used a straight edge and a very sharp blade in a utility knife. That creates a nice, straight edge and then I’ll smooth down any fraying or threads with starch.
Thank you! I have your book I just haven’t gotten to look at it yet. This should spur me to dig in.
Wonderful. I am really intrigued with your starch wall treatment. Could you expand on the steps to accomplish that look?
Thank you
Do you have a tutorial on how to put the fabric on the wall with the liquid starch? I didn’t see anything regarding that step for this room. Thanks!
What a beautiful room to create in. I’d be in blue and white heaven! How do you handle the cat food and litter box when you have a guest stay in that room.
What a lovely room! I love toile and do use it in my home but I try to use it sparingly or else the whole house would be toile…I love it that much.
I love this sewing room/ guest bedroom! I would like to know more about using starch to adhere fabric to the walls. Could you please explain in detail, step by step, the process of how you put the fabric up on the walls? Would any fabric work, or does it need to be a certain type of fabric? Also, did you apply the starch to the fabric before adhering it to the walls, or apply the starch as you went along, a little bit at a time?
Such a beautiful room! Can you tell me what white paint you used on the walls please?
It’s is just Benjamin Moore Aura, the white right out of the can. Satin on the trim.
You’ve created another very special room –both beautiful and functional! So nice to have this dedicated space for sewing and storage. The starched fabric walls, bed and bed crown, and that armoire are all really special. Any guest who stays here will have so many beautiful things to look at and enjoy!
Your room is beautiful — my question is regarding the doors on the closet/room. I’m wondering if they are solid wood or composite. I ask because we live in Arizona and have a small condo in Minnesota. I’m going to be changing out the doors in MN (and painting them) and my contractor is concerned composite doors will warp (we have them in AZ but of course there’s little humidity in AZ). Your thoughts?
Our doors are solid wood, but we also do not have a problem with moisture in our house. Our house actually runs very dry, so we have a whole-house humidifier to run during the winter.
What a gorgeous and extremely functional room! I love every detail. Especially the toile. I’ve used toile in bedrooms in small doses before. Your “wallpaper” idea has encouraged me to be more courageous. I do have one question. What kind of sewing machine do you have? I’ve never seen one like it.
Thanks for your inspiration and for sharing your creativity.
LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this room…. So well done.
I love your sewing room! Such a sweet place to create in!
What a gorgeous room! What kind of machine do you have?
I am intrigued with the fabric solution for wallpaper (primarily for the ease in removing and kindness to the wall). Once the starch was applied, was it quite heavy to hang? Also is the starch diluted? Did you dip the fabric vs. brush on? Thank you!
I want a post on this too. I also want to know about pattern matching and finishing raw edges.
This room is gorgeous! Did you refinish the pine side table and wardrobe?? If so could you share stain color and finish you used? I love the light yet warm color, so perfect.
My daughter gave me your book for Christmas! Love it.
What a beautiful room!! You have inspired me to clean out my wardrobe and better organize my sewing materials–no pun intended!! I am already in an early Spring cleaning mode, so this project will get added to the list. Keep inspiring us.?
It would be a joy to be in such a lovely room. I love every little detail.
Thank you for mentioning the shows; Portrait and landscape artist of the year. I’m enjoying it so much! I would never have known about it, so thank you!
Such a great post with so many good ideas! Can’t wait to try the starched fabric on the wall. Also – I love your book “Feels Like Home”. It’s such a fabulous resource.
Can we talk about those sweet embroidered pillows?? Love them!
This room is lovely in every way. What a great idea to also add a space for guests of an afternoon nap! I too was wondering if you would consider putting a full tutorial on your blog of how you installed the fabric on the wall? What a fantastic idea and I really like that it is reusable! I just may switch from a wallpaper idea to fabric. As always, thanks for sharing this inspiration. 🙂
I’d like to have a closer look at the footstool near the bed. Is the top quilted? It has very pretty colors.
This room is beautiful. I love your style and colors. You have inspired me to kind of copy your style in my home. You are so talented and I can’t do all the things you do but I can search for similar items. Thank you for such a wonderful blog.
Just stunning! I’m so glad to have your book to pour over the directions on applying fabric to the walls!
Did you make the bolster pillow on the bed?
Yes, I did!
I love your sewing room. My question is where did you find the antique upholstered and wood chair that is next to the sewing table. I have been looking for something similar for my main bedroom.