Sewing Cabinet or Desk? Which is Better?

Although it is possible to use a sewing machine on a standard office desk, it isn’t necessarily the best choice.

When looking to buy a desk for your sewing machine, there are a few things to keep in mind: durability, workspace, and storage.

If you buy a desk lacking in any of these areas, you’re bound to face problems eventually.

First is durability. Although a small serger may be fine on a glass desk, large specialty machines probably wouldn’t be safe.

If you’re willing to pay hundreds of dollars for a quality machine, you’ll want to make sure it’s stable.

Second is workspace. This is one advantage that sewing desks have over the competition: they take out the guesswork.

Do you like to have it all your material on the desk when you’re sewing? Then you’ll want a sewing cabinet that’s fairly wide.

Next, how much storage space do you need? Although office desks come with drawers, they are usually much larger than what you really need.

Since many sewing accessories are very small, a sewing cabinet is geared towards storage for small items; instead of having two or three medium or large drawers, you may have four or five smaller ones. These will be just the right size for all your thread, bobbins, straight pins, etc.

Finally, there is one feature found in a sewing cabinet that isn’t available with office desks: the ability to “hide” your machine.

Desks like this work by having a hole in the center of the desk. The machine fits into the hole, gets bolted securely in place, and is flipped over and under the desktop for storage.

To cover the hole, a hinged foldout leaf flips over onto the desktop to provide a solid surface. This is a great option for people that don’t sew often or don’t want a machine sitting out in view all the time.

Of course, if you find an office desk that fits your needs, there’s no reason you can’t use it for sewing.

Just don’t neglect sewing cabinets as an option thinking that they are expensive compared to regular desks. In fact, the opposite is usually the case.