28 Days Project, Day 7 and Day 8: Workspace skirt & valance

The story behind the project: We reorganized the dining room last summer. I usually use the dining room table as an actual sewing table, which means there's fairly little "work" area to lay out fabric, etc. I thought it would be nice to have some extra space, so I made a work table/side table (under the pretense that we may, someday, use the dining room to dine again) out of two filing cabinets and a slender wooden door, purchased at the ReStore store and painted white. I LOVE it. It provides the storage of the file cabinets and even some extra space between the cabinets. It was always my intention to make a skirt for it, to cover up everything and make it look cohesive, but then summer ran out, and work started again, and it just...never happened.

The materials: fabric, thread, furniture tacks.

The process: I cut a long piece of fabric into two lengths; I wanted an overlap in the middle, to make accessing the materials underneath easier. I basically just make two large rectangles of fabric with hemmed edges on all sides. Then I tacked it to the edge of the door/table top. I had enough fabric left over to make a simple valance to hang in the dining room, too. The rod and clips came from IKEA. It just requires a simple piece of fabric, no pockets for a curtain rod or anything, since it is literally just clipped to it. Simple! I love that IKEA mentality. Love it.

The outcome: I love the table skirt. It turned out exactly the way I had envisioned, and we really will be able to use that sideboard as a food-serving area, if that's ever required. I am less enamored with the valance, and I'll probably change that out. For some reason, the solid blue doesn't look good on the window. However, it is nice to have some sort of curtain there, since that side of the house gets all of the afternoon sun and can get really warm in the summer when I refuse to turn on the air conditioning. I'm thinking maybe a simple white.

The cost: I don't remember where I got the giant piece of fabric, but it must have been cheap or I wouldn't have bought it. The tacks were 99 cents, and the curtain rod and clips were under $10 at IKEA. Definitely a worthwhile project. The space is on its way to feeling complete, and I'm eager for that.

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