It is over 3 years since I wrote this post about my intentions to have a cabinet restored. The wheels move very slowly here but I finally took it to a local craftsman a few weeks ago.
These are a couple of ‘before’ photos.
I am very excited to report that it is all done and we are going to collect our ‘new’ TV cabinet on Sunday so you will see the photos on Sunday evening, I hope.
In response to the comments from my Clean & Green post the links to recipes for both the cream cleanser and wool wash are under the tab at the top of the page marked “Recipes – Other”. Unfortunately, the wool wash one does not have any photos as they were a victim of my culling photos some time ago 😦 I do need to make some more again before long so I will take some new photos. Also, I have found that the mixture sets quite firmly so I will be experimenting to make it more like a gel or even semi-liquid. I will let you know how I go.
Since we finished restoring the silky oak dressing table we have been searching for a similar unit for The Duke’s clothes. Many that I had seen on Gumtree (online buy/sell site) did not have enough storage space. I was hoping for a silky oak piece but that was not essential.
On the weekend we bought this piece. The thing I really love are the small, deep drawers at the top. They will be perfect for separating socks and underwear.
The seller had owned it for about 20 years and never restored it. We will need to replace the bases of some of the drawers and do a bit of structural refashioning. The piece is not original as the top left-hand drawer does not match the others and the front of the unit looks as though it was once the back of a piece of furniture. Apparently it has come from Coober Pedy (an opal-mining town in the outback of South Australia) and there is clearly a lot of history so I believe it deserves to be restored. It needs a lot of work but we are confident that it will come up nicely. We intend to replace the wooden knobs with metal handles to match the dressing table.
We do not intend to embark on this project at the moment as we are trying to get things ready before we head overseas in a couple of months. So we have covered the piece with a heavy drop-sheet and left it until we have more time.
The dressing table that we restored is finished. Completely and utterly. No extra bits to be done.
We picked up the mirror last week and then it was a simple matter of attaching the fittings to the mirror and support posts before positioning the mirror.
I am thrilled with how the piece has turned out and I am sure that it will last use for many years.
I do not have photos of each piece but The Duke and I have been busy today, working on 3 different pieces of furniture.
The main piece is a silky oak chest of drawers/dressing table which we finally got around to beginning to stain. We bought it unrestored a couple of years ago and the Duke worked hard to strip all of the paint and sand the individual pieces. The oval mirror which attaches to the top has been dismantled and that was what was holding us back. We needed to have it resilvered and there always seemed to be something more pressing to do. The Duke searched on the internet and found that a large glass and mirror business in the city no longer do resilvering as it is cheaper, easier and more accurate to cut a new one, no matter what the shape or if there are bevelled edges. We will have the frame stained and take it with the old mirror next week to get a new mirror cut and fitted into the frame. Once it is finished it will replace the current pine chest of drawers that I am using.
On the left-hand side of the photo is what was originally our TV cabinet which was used by our daughter for a few years and then found its way back home. Today we have sanded and undercoated it and the finish will be gloss white enamel and it will go in the guest (Air BnB) bedroom instead of the small decoupage desk which is there at the moment.
Finally, there is a pine blanket box standing on its end in the background. We plan to use this as a storage box on the verandah. It will hold BBQ supplies and tools and will be painted ‘Woodland Grey’ which is the colour that we will be using for a lot of the exterior trim as well as all of the fenceposts. We have had this box for over 30 years but it has been superseded in our bedroom by an antique cedar chest. It had heavy rope handles which we removed and are replacing with metal handles. We bought them some time ago from Paddington Hardware along with all the new handles for the chest of drawers. The holes where the rope was attached needed to be filled so I sanded a piece of an old broomstick and cut it into pices to plug the holes. We overfilled them with Plastibond and tomorrow will sand the box including the Plastibond.
It may take us a couple of weekends to finish them all but I am looking forward to taking photos of the finished articles to show you.
It is Friday evening and we have a long weekend stretching luxuriously in front of us. Not too many plans and some time to achieve interspersed with time to relax.
One thing I have pencilled into the diary is going to the Maleny Wood Expo. We have lived here over 6 years, yet have never attended this event. We always seem to be on holidays or away for the weekend.
I do have a particular reason for wanting to go this year.
This cabinet is solid silky oak. It was made by my father in the 1950’s from a rather large and outdated (at the time) sideboard. There were drop-down doors on the front originally but they have long since been removed. This has been at my parents’ home for as long as I can remember and when my mother was moving into a small unit I decided to bring it home.
I had no real idea about what I would do but I had a vague notion of being able to reuse the timber – possibly into a small coffee table. However, we recently moved our television from the wall mounting and wanted something to stand it on so used this piece of furniture as an interim measure.
The idea has formed to keep it pretty much as is but the green paint on the inside will need to be removed and I would like open shelving in the middle section to house the DVD player and PVR. The side sections need doors and will be used to store DVDs, CDs and associated peripherals.
Now all I need is someone to do this work and return this lovely piece of furniture to its former glory. That is where the wood expo comes in – I intend to take some photographs of it and hope to find a craftsman who is willing to create the vision I have for this cabinet.
Here is an image of a silky oak tree (Grevillea Robusta), the source of the timber used in this cabinet. The tree is native to our local area so I am hoping I will find someone who has access to a supply of the timber as more will be required for the shelves and doors.
We have often moved and re-purposed furniture in our home but I have never considered undertaking a major restoration such as I am considering. I think it will definitely be worthwhile.
Durable, solid timber furniture that is handed down through generations is much more appealing than the latest mass-produced import.
Today we have been at home doing the things that are part and parcel of our lives.
The Duke has spent the day sanding the piece of furniture he is restoring. Apart from a little more on the mirror frame it is now all ready to be finished with a clear lacquer. We have new handles for the drawers and also the mirror attachments.
I have been sewing. Here is the bag I have made for Miss O for part of her Christmas gift. It is the same style as this one that I have done for Izz.
I also made 2 more reusable sandwich wraps. I had made 2 for Miss O and Izz a while ago and recently Belle asked if I could make a couple more as they are a great success. She also wanted some smaller wraps for putting pikelets or small muffins in for their lunches at daycare.
These are the sandwich wraps.
This is a mini wrap. I will give it to Belle to try before I make any more.
This evening I used pumpkin, cabbage and broccoli from our garden in our meal. While the oven was on I made a batch of pear and passionfruit muffins for snacks. The pears were over-ripe and needed to be used and the passionfruit had been frozen from when they were cheap at the markets.
Despite the cold and the rain we have had an enjoyable and productive day.
I now know why I live where I live and do not trawl the shopping malls for ‘entertainment’.
This morning we dropped some things off to Missy and then headed off to Paddington Hardware and found these handles.
We had to order some more of the larger ones as they only had 2 in stock.
This is the project for which we need the handles.
Here are the small jewellery drawers that go on top and the supports for the mirror.
The Duke has started stripping the brown paint off the drawers so you can see the silky oak timber. Here is the mirror.
The Duke then mowed Belle’s yard and our final stop was Westfield Chermside, a large shopping mall not far from Belle’s place.
I am not keen on shopping malls but I had a specific plan. I wanted to go to the Early Learning Centre to buy a wooden puzzle as part of Izz’s birthday gift. We could not find a park so The Duke dropped me off and I thought I would just quickly duck in and get what I needed.
As I got to the bottom of the travelator I turned into the main mall and was confronted by wall to wall people. It looked like the week before Christmas. According to the media there is a downturn in consumer spending, so were all these people window-shopping?
I battled the crowds and eventually reached my destination. It is no longer called the Early Learning Centre but Kids Central and there is nowhere near the selection of toys and games available that there were previously. I found this puzzle which was $15. Unfortunately, like almost everything else these days, it was made in China.
I have heard various retailers whinging about the rise of online shopping and how it is eating into sales and profits in traditional retail outlets. Other perceived issues include opening hours and the value of A$. I don’t know about other people but the crowds and inconvenience would drive me straight to online shopping.
My experience this morning reminded me that I would be better off searching the internet or trying to find wooden toy craftsmen in the local area.
If you are interested in the issue of ever-increasing consumption and consumerism and have not read Affluenza it is definitely worth a read. It will open your eyes.
I am very pleased to be home again, in the relative peace and quiet of our rural acreage. I just sighed with relief that we made it out of the mayhem.
organised castle 