My DIY sewing machine table

Ever since me and my boyfriend got our very own apartment and me a WHOLE room for my sewing, I've been dreaming of sewing machine table where the machine is lowered inside the table.

When I placed the order for my new Janome 1600P-QC, I knew I needed a new work desk that's sturdier. And thus the search for new table started.

After many days of visiting each and every used furniture shop in my town, I finally found a used oak dining table with and extension flap already hacked to it. WIN!

After I had my table I needed to explain to my boyfriend how to hack the table. Of course I knew he wouldn't get me and my over the top dramatic explanations, so I hit the web to dig up some examples.

I think the first ever DIY sewing machine table I saw was this one by Badskirt on IKEA Hackers. I really liked how professional the outcome was but was a bit iffy about the bolt heads sticking out from the table surface.

My table from the left side-ish

Before we (read my boyfriend) started to cut holes and screwing things together I had to make sure we have a solid plan... well at least an idea how the table should look like, so I hit Google search hard and heavy.

First blog that came up on my search, that I hadn’t visited yet was Quilted Cupcake.

Her husband drilled a hole for the knee lift, so thats where we got the idea for that. But the best part is - her blog guided me to Blue Dinosaurs. Now her post about DIY sewing machine table came WITH PLANS! Yes PLANS!

After reading many more posts about DIY sewing machine tables, we decided to cover the whole underside of my new table with the old table top and use old tables legs for reinforcement frame under new tables work surface. We did the reinforcement frame to reduce vibration of the table.

My table from the right side

After making sure le boyfriend understood my vision, I gave him permission to start building. We measured the table and my new Janome from every angle and came to conclusion that we didn't need to build an adjustable surface for the machine. Well apparently in this family two heads aren't better than one head - somewhere along the way someone made a mistake in adding numbers up and my machine ended up being too low in the table. Before I could work myself up to a full blown panic attack, the boyfriend ever the clever one came up with a solution - lets use our old doormat under the Janome matt. Guess what? The door matt gave enough lift for the machine! (I of course gave the old doormat a good scrub or two before using it under my Janome :3 )

Here's the opening for the machine with door matt under my Janome matt

It took two coats of primer and three coats of silk matte furniture paint to get the table finished... almost. Only thing left to build is some sort of collapsible legs for the extension flap. And now that I've been using the machine with the table, it feels as though the whole table could use another 10cm lift because it seems to be a little too low for my tall frame.

This post is in NO way sponsored by Janome Inc.