New studio bench - at last!

It must be three years since we had the garage converted into a combined studio/utility room.  It has always been an untidy mess because I could not decide what I wanted in the way of furniture and storage facilities.  The space is not huge and as we have almost no storage space for the things you would normally put in an attic or cellar, there are also a lot of general household bits and pieces that live here.  Finally, I was allowed this studio on the understanding that John could have one corner of it for his DIY.  That's the back left hand corner in this photo and, as you can see, it still needs further tidying up.

The black shelves from B and Q hold general household things although the set on the right are 'mine'!  I already had several large underbed storage containers which had to go under the bench.  They contain all my wadding, large pieces of fabric, the remains of my 'wedding dress shop' remnants box etc.

I keep most of my sewing supplies in my bedroom/dry studio in the house.  This studio is where I do 'wet' work as they say.  The wall shelves are new and will be a great help for smaller bits and pieces.

At the utility room end I have two sinks which is wonderful.  It is so good not having to walk from one room to another with pots of dye, dirty Thermofax screens etc.  The lights are two daylight fluourescent strips.  The ceiling is very low but there is nothing I can do about that.   The wall to the right of the picture is the former garage door and is mainly glass: the door and two windows, so the light situation isn't bad.

The table is our old kitchen table and the yellow thing behind the dryer is my printing board which is MDF covered with an old blanket.  When it is in use I cover it with a drop cloth made from a genuine WWII Utility sheet that belonged to John's grandmother.  When it is suitably covered in leftover marks it will make some good recycled items.  John built the new bench from MDF with metal supports screwed to the wall and bannister rails from B and Q holding up the front.  Many years ago he built us a kitchen on this design (but without bannister rails) so he used the same principles here.  I think he rather enjoyed the whole process once I had decided what I wanted as  he has spent the last couple of days wondering what else he could build!

While he has been doing this, I have started on the wedding present quilt.  That's some of the blocks lying on the table.  It needs a lot.  I have made twenty but I know I will need at least fifty.  I have two unfinished from yesterday so I am going back to this work now.