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Craft Room Organisation – the Work Triangle

By October 24, 2019October 29th, 2019blog

Ever wondered why your craft space isn’t working well for you? Maybe you haven’t got your quilty triangle (aka the work triangle) set up properly?

I first came across this work triangle idea when designing the kitchen space for my last home when I did a major renovation… but it works just as well for our craft spaces as well. FYI the kitchen work triangle includes sink, cooktop and fridge but our sewing work triangle is the cutting table, ironing board and our sewing machine.

How it goes is the three most used spots in your craft space should be set in a triangle…. so you can access them all easily and quickly (and without walking around things, over things or tripping on piles on the floor!!)

I love my craft room…… it is the first time I have had a separate space for my sewing and I LOVE being able to close the door and leave all my projects out just ready for any five minute gap in my day.

The other thing I add into my work triangle is light…..I only have one window in my craft room so getting my work triangle of sewing machine, ironing board, cutting table AND getting the best light coming in from the window is not easy.

My craft room has been rejigged a LOT since we moved into our home 6 years ago.

The first iteration of layout I really liked but having my sewing machine right up against the back corner really made it hard to see and hard to quilt and sew larger quilt tops!

And let’s not talk about how behind the cutting table became a dumping ground!

I really do wish the room was about another metre wider…… 😀 Size really does matter! I have quite a few immovable things in the room… a fireplace, wall heater, a wardrobe that, as the movers put it in there, jokingly said that it would be staying with the house, as it is so HEAVY and only just squeezed into the space.

With each change around there has always been something that hasn’t quite worked for me. And I think it is that I haven’t been able to achieve a good work triangle in my space! I can only seem to get two out of the three.

Another attempt : I moved my sewing machine into the centre of the room which solved the light and quilting problems….but this now meant my cutting table was in that dark back corner and that was even worse!

So I queue up the ‘moving furniture’ song playlist and a day of re-arranging furniture begins…..

So at the moment my cutting table is also in the middle of the room. The ironing board is off to the left next to the sewing machine, so at least I have two out of the three things in my quilty triangle! So I am living with this layout for the time being.

But I have started thinking about how I could change things around again……. 🙂

I have created a full video tour of my craft room and all the components so you can see in more detail what I am talking about!

And I’ll also be doing a more in depth look at my cutting table and my sewing machine in future posts.

What is it about your sewing space that you love? Or hate?

2 Comments

  • Vanessa says:

    I’ve also got a single narrow window – and have decided to have cutting and sewing facing that wall, with ironing off to the left. Plus a big standard lamp to help with light in the back reaches. We’ll see if this arrangement lasts . . .

    I love the idea of a furniture moving play list!

    • SWL says:

      I have multiple lights around the room to ensure that light, no matter what time of the year, is reasonable…. nobody wants a cutting accident because they can’t see!! Since this post I have found my sewing triangle that has worked well for me! I might update the post with some new pics! 🙂

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