The most important aspect of designing and building your closet room is to measure your space very carefully. Next, you have to decide which items and how you will store them. 

I did A LOT of purging. I got rid of things I knew I would never wear again. I love the look of closet rooms where there is an entire wall devoted to shoes. 

But I have more hanging clothes and only 121 sq ft of space, so the clothes needed to take priority, and the shoes would have to go low. 

Being consistent with hangers is always a key touch. I plan to complete the entire closet in white wooden hangers gradually over time. But for now, the majority of the closet is done in white plastic tubular hangers. But most importantly, they're all white.

My main goal was to create a system that was affordable, attainable, pretty and most importantly -- functional and organized. I went with a wire system where I could buy customizable parts and pieces to suit my particular needs. I found the Closetmaid system does an amazing job, just as a high-end one would -- but without the high price tag and custom contractor installation cost.

For all intents and purposes, I can sit back and declare this closet is done. It took about a month off and on of working in it and adding odds and ends

A lot of people put scarves and belts in drawers, baskets or cubbies. But I wanted to see mine. I can't wear what I don't see!

I used pool noodles to stuff my boots. 

The closet in the room holds all of my coats.

When I moved into my new home, I was struck with the decorating bug. One of the first things I've decided to do is window treatments. I knew I didn't want kitchen curtains, so Roman Shades was the direction that I was going in. But have you seen the prices of custom shade? Yikes! So just like my philosophy about clothes, "Why buy it, when you can make!"... is my current thought process. 

Roman Shades are sophisticated, decorative and provide a high level of privacy. They can be made in  many fabric choices with a variety of embellishments. I chose a basic slatted Roman Shade style for my kitchen in a great black and white print that I found at Joanns. I searched high and low for a tutorial to create mine. Each one was more complicated than the other. And the easy ones weren't REAL Roman Shades. There were cheat versions where fabric was glued or stapled atop mini blinds. And even some where fabric was just tossed over extension rods to give you a Roman Shade look. I wanted the REAL thing!

So I decided to combine all of my research to create what I feel is a surprisingly easy to make step-by-step tutorial that even a beginner can follow. All you need are a few tools and you can easily create and install your beautifully crafted, professional looking shades!

See how I create a beautiful Roman Shade over on the WeAllSew BERNINA Blog!

It was only a year ago that I was posting a sewing studio update. A lot changes in a year! Three weeks ago, we moved into a new home and that meant a new studio. I had a love/hate relationship with the thought. I hate packing and unpacking. But there is no one, not even our professional movers that I would entrust with packing my sewing things. I needed to know where every single bobbin was going to be.

In the last 12 years, I have sewn in so many nooks and crannies of my home. I literally got in wherever I fit in. I started out in a corner of my bedroom. That became an issue quick when Michael was ready for bed and wanted the lights off... but I just had to get in a few more stitches! Plus, that wasn't exactly a situation where I could leave things and spread out. And then I took over the dining room. Again, not ideal. So a few years after that, I decided that since we had a huge family room to simple create a living room/dining room combo and just keep the dining room to myself. That was better for space. But still, it was always near the front door. I still had to keep things in order. 

So as soon as my children started leaving the nest, that's when I finally got to have a true designated sewing area that was all mine. No family traffic flowing through. Just mine! I fell head over heels in love with bedroom converted sewing studio. But I packed so much stuff into that room that I almost immediately grew out of it. We had toyed around with looking to move because we were no longer bound to the area because of the school district. For the first time in over 20 years, we could finally live anywhere that we wanted to! Joy! My new set up is pretty similar to the previous. The differences this time is obviously a lot more space. I'm in the basement and there are no windows. I'll take the space over the windows any day! And I'm back to ecru walls. I'd changed my wall color last year to a very cool pale gray. I may go back to that one of these days. No promises... That move wore me out and I can't even think about moving things around right now.

I added a basic shelf from Home Depot. The rails, s-hooks and basket are from Ikea. And I found the wire baskets on the shelf at the thrift store.

My machines are BERNINA Activa 130, BERNINA 350 PE...

BERNINA 1300 MDC and my Brother embroidery machine.

Having my thread at arm's reach is a must!

I like having patterns that I want to sew for the season nearby.

I replaced my iron a few months ago with the Sapporo SA-SP527 Gravity Feed Iron from Amazon. I also use a Wide Top Ironing Board.

I'm still using my cutting table, it's the Home Hobby Table with Drawers. We removed the casters and put it on risers. I'm pretty tall, so my table needed to be raised from the "average" height. Mine stands at 37" high. 

But now that I have a lot more space, I'll be upgrading this one soon. It's just out of proportion with this large space. I'll be creating something custom for my needs.

I'm not a fan of blank spaces on my wall. I wanted something reflective of my style. I'm completely obsessed with Oliver Gal's fashion prints. And maybe one day I'll splurge. But today, they're completely out of my price range, especially for the amount of space I wanted to cover.  

So I decided to find similar, inspired prints on Etsy that are printable. And I framed them in 11"x17" frames.

I don't know if any of you longtime Vogue Magazine readers remember back in the day, when they would publish these Manolo Blahnik illustrations in the back of the March and September issues. Well, I collected them for years! I framed them and I had them around the top of my closet. But I thought I'd put them out in plain view since I have the wall space.

Since this basement was meant to be a den, there's a fireplace down here. I think it adds a bit of glamour and drama to the room. Am I the only one that hates a naked dress form? Since I haven't had time to sew anything, I decided to dress my girl in something fabulous! This is Vogue 1288 made in gorgeous sequin pailettes. She really dresses up the room.

I have my favorite sewing books out on display. You can check out my sewing library here.

Mirrors are so freaking expensive! I was so lucky to find a great deal on this one from Home Goods!

And the full pattern collection lives here!

I love this cute little shoe! It's a daily reminder: "For we walk by faith, not by sight." - 2 Corinthians 5:7.

And even though I don't have windows, I can always just stick my head around the corner!