Designing My Dream Office - Knitting in the Park

Mixing Industrial Pieces with Soft Touches

And we’re in! Like, we’re in and getting settled. It tears at my heart knowing that I’m arranging a brand new house while so many have lost theirs. Please know that as I continue to post content, I’m learning, donating, praying, and finding ways to support Ukraine and Her people. As I built my dreams I prayed for theirs. Being pregnant I couldn’t really move anything into our house and it was hard to let go of control, but my family listened to my vision and helped in designing my dream office.

Designing my dream office and craft room in our new home

Industrial Touches:

I went to this fabulous vintage and antique store here in Warrendale Pennsylvania called Farm Howz. I almost hate to blog about it. It’s so good that I don’t want more competition than I already have for Dave’s pieces. But Dave’s a gem of a human and I cannot not shout about what he does. This post is not affiliated in any way. I’m just sharing the diamonds that I snagged from his warehouse. Dave’s aesthetic is more industrial, farm, work-horse type pieces. He gets a lot of store counters and displays, home storage pieces, work benches, farm house tables, and they’re all epic pieces.

If you’re not local to Warrenedale, don’t panic, he ships!

Antique Printer’s Cabinet

This piece is my favorite. It’s an old printer’s cabinet, most likely from the 1900’s. The piece is in great shape! I took it to my mom’s cabin where she painstakingly cleaned it. Then we swung by Rockler Woodworking to get a product to condition and protect the wood. I’ll have to link to this later because I can’t remember the name.

It took about four buckets of water and four coats of conditioner and this baby is stunning! Her deep drawers are giving me all of the storage I need and then some! This piece will stay with me for the rest of my life. I love it so much.

I’ve used the top of this piece to display my knitting bowls, vintage thread, antique cook book, and antique magazines.

Antique Storage Cabinet

This piece has gotten a little bit more “love” over the years. When it came to designing my dream office, I needed yarn storage. I searched high and low for recommendations but got boring shelving and plastic bins. This house and office needed something with a bit more, character. And I found it at Farm Howz! Inside every drawer is an old inventory sheet. At the top of the sheet it features “Wabash-rival letter file transfer record” and at the bottom you can just make out “Rockwell & Rupel Co.” and Chicago. Not all of them are in great shape but a few are legible and contain dates starting around 1902.

The small drawers are keeping me organized by yarn type/skein/color/etc. It’s fabulous! This piece received the same treatment as the printer’s cabinet: lots of gentle washing, and a coats of conditioner. This piece separates into four smaller pieces which are stacked. I hate to do anything to it, but for safety we will brace these pieces together and tether it to the wall.

Right now I’ve stashed my thread and some sewing notions in old tins on top of this cabinet. I’m not sure what will finally come to live on this space.

I plan on doing a bit more sleuthing to learn the history of these pieces. I was so excited to get them cleaned up and into place that I didn’t look around at the bottoms and backs for more stamps, seals, etc. Stay tuned! If you like the furniture DIY here’s what we did to a bedroom dresser.

Soft Touches to Design My Dream Office

My day job involves lot’s fo typing and copy writing so this industrial office vibe works so well. But my other job is being crafty, sewing, knitting, crocheting, the works. So in truly designing my dream office there needs to be elements of softness as well.

My sewing desk is one of these areas. It’s made from a spare Ikea storage piece, and a bit of countertop. My husband cut the countertop down to size and attached it to the shelving unit. It works so well, and it was made from things we already had on hand! I’m still figuring out what to do with the wall space above the sewing desk. I initially thought of using pegboard but I have so much storage in the printer’s cabinet that I might not need it!