Creating a Charging Station

First, get yourself a "helpful" cat. oi.

We wanted to create a charging station hidden in our entertainment center, which for us happens to be a mid-century buffet. We took the bottom drawer and drilled a hole in the back of the cabinet as well as one in the back of the drawer. This is for the power strip cord to go through out the back into the wall.



We then cut two 2" x 2" pieces of wood and screwed them into the sides as supports for our grid board. We also placed a 3" piece directly in the center to give it additional support since our devices are heavy and cause the grid board to warp.

Next, we cut a piece of grid board the same size as the interior of the drawer and put a drawer know into one of the holes as a handle to lift it up and down if we need to plug or unplug any of our power cords.

The final step was to run all of the power cords down the back of the grid board and plug them into the power strip that is below. The grid board serves two purposes. The first is that the divits created by cutting along the edge of the open circles allow for the power cords to run along the back into the below space where the power strip is located. The second is to provide venting for any heat that is created by the power sources.

Whalah! Camera, camera battery charger, video cam, walkie talkies, PSP and phone all plugged in and out of sight!

This is where I work :)

No staging, no special lighting (bad lighting, actually), just an everyday look at the place I call my studio. I love my space in the basement. It's quiet down there and I have everything I could possibly want to work with all tucked in its place. One of these days I'll make some real curtains instead of my vintage pillowcases tossed over the rods and I have a plan in my head for recovering those work chairs. Right now I'm in quilting mode, so those projects will have to wait!


The folded fabrics in a china cabinet. It has doors that I took off when I painted it and never put them back on. It is so much more convenient to not have to open the doors all the time, but the doors are so much prettier. Pretty? Easy? Pretty? Easy? Decisions, decisions.

 

An overall view of the organized chaos. You can see my machines on the wall on the right with the embroidery machine on a cabinet in the foreground on the right. My ironing table is in the center there with the Amy Butler Parrot Tulips in orange covering it. Trying to light this dungeon is my biggest battle. There are ceiling bulbs which don't spread light well, then the pink damask task lights over the cutting table, the Ott lamp that moves around, the wall sconce and then the cabinets have lights in them as well. When I work I turn on every single light to make it workable.

 

A better look at the sewing area with the thread, buttons and presser feet all on the wall. All of my "babies" lined up underneath. Bernina, Elna and Brother. In the foreground you can see the AccuCut station.

 

Like the shadow in this picture? Ever since I got my fancy new DSLR I have a problem with holding my pinky up in front of the flash. I'm trying to retrain myself to hold underneath the lens, but every once in awhile I catch a snap like this one with my pinky shadow looming over the entire scene!