I talked about making my cheap sewing desk here but I took a better picture
. Notice how much room I gave myself in front of the needle. Much more than in most sewing cabinets and I really, really like having that much space for sewing and machine quilting.
I also took a pic of the organized mess that I like to have next to me. Here’s what you’ll see: clockwise from the top, my bin of small scraps and a pile of 12wt. cotton threads (Sulky!), my notes on how to connect the ends of binding (I can never remember and have to look at this example every single time), some bobbin holders that I just love, 2 magnetic pin cushions, nice scissors and a seam ripper, 
a small bucket for tiny bits of fluff, 2 coffee cups – one for tools (seam ripper, rulers, marking pencils, pens, tweezers, etc. and the other one for Q-Tips for cleaning the dust out of the bobbin area. Misc. feet for the machine, lint rollers, Machingers quilting gloves and a tool (from a toilet tank repair kit) that I use to guide big spool thread into the sewing machine.