My Mom taught me to sew when I was young, as her Mom had taught her. As my great-grandmother taught my grandmother. Now I have a new space for sewing, crafting, writing, working, creating. A space filled with heritage and history from these women and so many other special people in my life.

Welcome to my new office.

Spread around the room, you will see my collection of vintage hats. Most of these are my grandmother’s. One was made by my great-grandmother. I remember finding a scrap of material in my Grandma’s stash and recognizing it from the hat. I was blown away that someone could simply make a hat. This legacy of creativity and ability is something that I’m very proud of and try to live up to.

As I was decorating the room and styling the shelves, I realized that the hats needed some support. They didn’t look right just sitting on the shelves and I couldn’t see their details clearly. Of course, my initial thought was, “I need some heads.” But I quickly came up with another solution. I chopped up a broken pipe we had left over from redoing our sump pump outflow. I sprayed the pipes gold and voila. Cheap, simple, fancy hat stands. Creativity and ability, check.

The rest of the shelves are filled with books, photos, sewing patterns, mementos. There’s a pickle bottle Matt’s Dad found that is made by Matt and Steve–their names. There’s a football my Dad bought me when I was a baby. There’s a collection of buttons in a powder box that smells just like my Grandma when I open it. So many precious, special things that I can see and enjoy now that they have a home.

Matt and I installed the cabinets when we set up this room as his office. They provide such great storage for all of my sewing, knitting, wrapping and other supplies. I would like to update the doors and give everything a coat of paint some day, but for now I am enjoying their storage and ignoring their style. This is the first time I have ever had all of my sewing and knitting materials in one spot, and it’s so helpful for projects.

The backsplash is a very long bulletin board. This corkboard is full of things that I find inspiring, beautiful, fun. Cards from friends, crafts from Ellie, even a few notes from Matt. I will be sharing more details about this project in a future post.

The biggest function is the huge corner desk. I have two workstations here, one for my computer and one for my sewing machine. Each zone comes with its own drawers for office supplies or sewing materials. There are also four large file drawers that hold all of our paperwork and even some extra crafting supplies. Above the desk, I have some open shelves for more storage and display. I’ll be going into more details of how I built this desk in an upcoming post because I am very proud of how it turned out (more creativity and ability).

As part of the sewing zone, I have a valet stand that my Dad built for me. When he took up woodturning, he had some signature things he liked to make. One was valets like this. It is perfect for holding in progress sewing projects. Behind the valet I hung Matt’s and my diplomas. They fit perfectly in this space, and I like that Matt and my Dad are both part of this room. So many legacies in this one corner.

A gallery wall on the other side of the room holds more pictures and things that are special to me. The window sill holds a collection of thimbles from Matt’s Mom and other small trinkets. Ellie needle felted a goose to look like my long ago pet Bill and I hung it from the ceiling so it flies over my sewing machine.

The two sets of green metal drawers came from an auction we went to years ago. They’ve been in the driveshed ever since waiting for the right spot. Now, one sits on the counter and the other on my desk. They give great extra storage, and I love their rustic green patina.

There are so many details in this room, I feel like I could keep going forever. There are a few things I’m still hoping to add (Matt chose the cheapest light fixture possible, and it’s terrible), but I love how this room turned out right now. It is functional. It is pretty. And, like all my spaces, it is personal.