Sunday afternoons, a great time for preparing for the upcoming week, a lazy nap or a leisurely walk around the block but....it's also a great time to make stuff. You know, break out the drills, the spray paint, the glue gun all the tools of the craft savvy to create a masterpiece. My Sunday afternoon was just that, creation time. I've had an old sewing machine cabinet that belonged to my aunt for a long time. It even still had the old White brand turquoise-y color sewing machine in it.
The cabinet itself was an old Singer brand, with the heavy, ornate iron legs and pretty carvings in the drawers and sides.
It has long since the day lost it's treadle and had been painted a harvest gold color and "antiqued" a color and process of the times back in the 70's. But for all it's problems it has always held a spot near and dear to me. My grandmother sewed and although this was not hers, it is exactly like hers (sans the paint). I remember her sitting at that machine and making the most beautiful clothes for Barbie or a baby doll or even when she sewed a tent for my brother and I. I remember her making matching Christmas outfits for all 10+ grandchildren (and our baby dolls). So this sewing machine cabinet, although not of great monetary value, tugs on the heart strings every time I look at it. The problem was that it was shoved in the back of the storage room because it had no purpose, it really is quite useless as anything other than a old-time sewing machine cabinet......until this past weekend.
I had been trying to figure out what on earth I was going to do with this cabinet, when I finally decided to start by taking the machine out. After that was accomplished, I decided a wine rack. I know it's probably not the first thing that comes to mind but I had been wanting one and it seemed doable. First I described my idea to my handyman on call and made a list of materials needed. I wasn't sure what to make the wine holder "tubes" out of, but I knew I wanted it to look kind of industrial-ish. So at Lowes' (which by the way can be a very evil place, it looks friendly enough but it makes you have thoughts of craft gluttony and I have think if Lowe's and Pinterest had a love child it could be a twin to Satan) - anyway - I found the perfect material- 1x1 garden fencing. I also got a bull-nosed stair tread board, dowel rod and spray paint.
The friendly folks at Lowes (or Home Depot, I forget which) cut the board to the right size and the dowel in half and I was ready to roll. My strong and patient helper cut the tiny, tomato cage wanna be's and fastened them together for me while I sprayed the board and dowel rods. I used a brushed metal spray paint which I thought would look much better than a glossy black. Then after the wire wrangler got all the tubes put together they got a quick spray of black and we were in business.
I really like the way it turned out, I had visions of putting something in the belly part of the cabinet that would hold ice but re-thought that idea when it dawned on me, wine doesn't need ice (unless you are my mother......that's a whole other blog post) so I decided a shelf was what it needed inside. I can store all kinds of wine stuff in the drawers, the corkscrew, the fancy stoppers that kind of thing.
I also have this fancy little do-dad.....not sure what it's supposed to be but I found it at a junk shop and decided it is a wine holder. So it got a coat of paint and some chain to make it just that.
I love this little cabinet and the cool thing is that we didn't change the integrity of the piece at all, nothing is permanent. So while some people got a Sunday afternoon nap, I got a new piece of furniture with all the memories still attached.
No comments:
Post a Comment