My Cutting Table

For years I cut all of my sewing projects on a standard cutting table purchased at JoAnn Fabrics. It served me well. However, in the last year as I acquired more fiber stash for both quilting, sewing, and knitting, I began to run out of space to hold it. I know, I know, "so stop buying!" Wait, did my husband get to you too? 

Overflowing stash not withstanding, I knew I needed something more functional to hold my current WIP fabric and yarn, books, tools, and various other items that were taking up space on the floor under my cutting table and around the outer edges of the room. Then I saw several quilters on Instagram were using the smaller IKEA-style bookshelves with cubbies from WalMart or Target to make their own cutting tables with built in storage space! Lightbulb/A-ha moment right there for me.

Off I went to my local Target and I picked up 4 of the ClosetMaid cube organizers in white. (First time I went they weren't on sale, so I waited a few weeks and got them for $39.99 each vs. $59.99). They measure 36" x 36" and each cube is 12" x 12".

Then I waited for my wonderful (and handy!) husband to get in the mood (with a little "help" wink-wink from me) to put them together and go with my "vision" for cutting and storage bliss. He was like, "yeah vision-schmision, lemme knock these out before golf season starts" and rapidly put them together over a weekend.

Here are some pics of the table-in-progress (taken by DH):

 

He used L brackets on the inside corners and mending brackets on the inside backs to hold the 4 shelves together in the rectangular formation I wanted. You can see that layout in the picture (sorry it's fuzzy!) above.

He then went to Home Depot and had them cut a piece of laminated plywood to the exact measurement of the top. He secured this with screws into the top four corners of the bookshelves and used the little white caps that came with the shelves to cover them up.

And voila! Here is the finished table:

 

Finished measurements: 37.75"w x 62" l x 36.75"h

We also put some 3/4" iron-on white laminate around the top (Band-It brand - Home Depot!) to give it a more finished look.

I couldn't be happier with my new cutting table! It fits perfectly into the space I have, and I am taking full advantage of the extra storage space.

CGM

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