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Walls That Work
Are you fully utilizing
all of the wall space in your workroom? If you have open spaces of wall which
are not being used, you are wasting opportunities for storage and work area.
Pegboard sheets and/or homosote sheets can easily be installed on a wall and
used to store finished treatments without rumpling. They also provide adjustable
work areas to dress and finish treatments.
Pegboard wall.
Pegboard is available in
any home improvement or lumber store. It comes in 4'x8' sheets. You can utilize
the full 4'x8' sheet or cut it to fit your wall. It can be painted to blend
with the wall. A pegboard wall in your workroom serves several uses:
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1. Dressing and finishing
of treatments.
The brackets on
the pegboard can be set at a height which is comfortable for you to
work when pinning and dressing treatments on boards or poles. This flexibility
is especially nice in a multiple employee workroom, allowing for different
heights of employees.
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2. Hanging out cut
pieces.
Once long pieces
are cut for panels or shades, they can be hung on poles or boards suspended
from the pegboard wall. This is a simple method to store work in progress
without crumpling it. Be sure to monitor the weight on the brackets
as you add pieces to a pole or board. The pegboard does hold quite a
bit of weight, but you do not want to cause the brackets to rip out
with too much weight.
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3. Leveling of roman
shades.
The pegboard must
be hung level. The grid of holes on the pegboard help you to verify
your roman shade is square and strung level. Hang the roman shade on
the board and step away to view it. The grid of holes on all sides should
align with the edges, top and bottom of the shade as in this illustration.
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4. Storage of finished
items.
Using different
lengths of brackets, you can stack many finished items. Smaller items
are stacked under larger items. The treatments are allowed to hang naturally.
This also allows you to monitor the treatments as they hang for a few
days. Often, when first hung, the treatments are stiff and may not drape
as perfectly as we envision. After hanging for a day or two, you will
find that they look better and more relaxed.
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If your workroom
is small with no spare walls, consider hanging the pegboard in an adjoining
room (utility room or garage) and using it just for storage of finished
items. It keeps them off the floor and tables and out of reach of dirt
and rumpling.
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5. Inexpensive, flexible
storage.
A pegboard wall
can provide support for instant, inexpensive storage shelves if needed.
Use the brackets to support 1x4, 1x6 or 1x8 boards as shelving for workroom
supplies.
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If mounted near
a machine, the board can be used to hang spools of tapes, cords, buckram,
etc. which are easily unrolled when fabricating. These storage options
can be adjusted as often as necessary to accomodate different projects
or workroom needs.
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The beauty of a pegboard wall is its versatility. Once mounted in your workroom,
you will wonder how you ever managed without it.
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a pegboard wall, screw 1x2 boards flat against the wall as illustrated.
The pegboard sheet is then mounted on the front of the frame and screwed
into the frame pieces. To ensure the pegboard is level, screw it first in
the center of the frame, and do not screw down tight. Tilt the pegboard
until it is perfectly level, then insert screws around the entire frame
and down the center. |
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Homosote wall.
Homosote sheets are sold in all home improvement and lumber stores. Homosote
is a gray board that is made out of paper. It comes in 4'x8' sheets and is 1/2"
thick. It has many uses as inexpensive bulletin boards, bases for model railroads
and in construction for deadening sound to name a few. In the workroom, it is
an excellent bulletin board for patterning and pinning asymmetrical and arched
treatments which require templates. Templates, patterns and fabrics can be pinned
directly to the homosote with T-pins or office push pins.
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The homosote wall
primarily serves one unique purpose. When designing a treatment for an
asymmetrical, arched or otherwise odd-shaped window, the template can
be pinned to or drawn on the face of the homosote. This makes it very
simple to measure, pattern and pin the treatment in the shape it is to
hang.
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The wall can also
be used for storage of some finished items. Valances, swags or panels which
are not mounted on a board but need to hang out until they are installed can
be pinned directly to the homosote board and allowed to hang naturally.
To install the homosote
wall, you can use the full 4'x8’ sheet or cut it to fit your needs. The
homosote sheet is screwed directly into the wall. Screw loosely first in the
center of the sheet, then tilt it until it is level. Screw all around the perimeter
until it is secure.
The board can be painted
if you wish. You can also draw grid lines throughout the wall and/or draw ruler
guides around the perimeters.
Return to the Sew Easy Windows articles Table of Contents page.
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