I Have a Design Wall!

Design Wall Installed!

Yay -- I finally have a design wall in my sewing studio!  See my lonely little block up there?  I'm hoping to get more of those done next week, after the madness of the school theatre production wraps up this weekend.

My design board is a 4' x 8' sheet of foam insulation board from Lowe's Home Improvement, and I decided to wrap it with English Bump drapery interlining because I had a partial bolt of it sitting around.  English bump is 100% cotton, thick like table felt, but with more of a "bumpy" texture to it, so I knew it would be perfect for sticking blocks and fabric pieces even without pins.  I like to use English Bump for all of my silk draperies because it creates a gorgeous drapery with substantial body and luxurious thickness, the interlining provides excellent UV protection for silk, and it's also a great insulator and sound muffler.  I think it runs somewhere between $12-16 per yard, but like I said, I have a bolt of it on hand that I don't need for anything in the immediate future so it's free-to-me!  For my design wall, I also love that the bump is so similar in color to my walls so it doesn't jump out at me.  It's also so soft and smooth, like an expensive blanket, so you might catch me rubbing my face against the design wall like a kitty cat if I'm having a rough day...  ;-)



Close-Up of Fuzzy English Bump on Design Wall

We used a permanent spray adhesive (outside!) to adhere the bump fabric to the foam insulation board.  Then we wrapped the raw fabric edges to the back side, secured them with duct tape, and my husband used industrial-strength Velcro hook and loop tape to secure it to my wall.  I wish it was wider but this is my only full height wall in the room that isn't broken up by windows, and as you can see, I can't go any wider because of the ceiling slope.  I'm going to use a step stool to position things on the upper portion of the design wall when I need that space.  Oh, and one more thing -- the design wall is opposite several windows, but I have ceramic UV film on all of them to protect my fabrics and furnishings from the sun without blocking out my natural daylight. 

Several people have asked me about the UPS (Uninterrupted Power Supply) that I use for my computerized sewing machine, and I'm planning to put together a post about that soon.  I just need to do a little research and fact-checking first to make sure I'm not contributing to the abundant misinformation already out there on the Internet.

What's next for my studio remodel?  Well, now that I've got my design wall, we need to enlarge the cutting area, build in additional storage beneath, and find the perfect surface for the cutting table.  One step at a time...