New life into an old box...

I thought it was about time I wrote a post, so here it is and as the title says I'm breathing new life into an old box, an old work box / sewing box to be precise.

Now some people will says that old pieces of furniture like this should be left as they are, and for the most part I agree but not always.

Here's the work box - 

It is a nice little work box on barley twist legs, has the added bonus of a storage drawer and a second shelf so it's useful and structurally sound although old rickety joints are easy enough to fix.

The finish or rather whats left of it is not so good, so it needs removing, which is what I'd just started to do in the picture above.

Before that I took out the old lining, now some will say I should have left it and had it been in in good condition I might have, however it had some staining same goes for the drawer lining, it also had an aroma of old so it had to go.

Removing the lining - 

Was probably quite nice in its day.

The lining came out easily enough, although it did leave some of the old card backing in place so to remove that I used a bit of warm soapy water and a scraper much in the way you do when removing wallpaper, so basically wet the card and scrape off.

Like so - 

It's a bit sticky.

The glue used can get a little slimy and sticky but I've found that it will wash off with soap and water and once done you're left with clean wood, which can be sanded and stained, or re-covered.

I also took out some of the woodwork as it needed replacing because I removed the lining.

Wood out - 

Was never meant to be seen, so they cut costs and used what they had.

With the clean up done it was basically sanding and a fair bit of it, which I did by hand and not using a powered sander the main reason is that over the years I've found the types of finishes used in the early part of the 20th century (which when the box dates to) kind of heat up with the friction of an orbital sander and once they do they clog the sanding pads quite quickly, so I just used some 80grit sandpaper and a cork block, it didn't take long and saved on materials, I could have used a chemical stripper but I try to avoid those where possible.

Top sanded back to bare wood - 

Roughly 10 minutes work.

Sanding revealed a lovely oak top, most likely quarter sawn oak, once the top was done it was just more of the same, so I started with 80grit going with the grain and once it was done I used 120grit and once I was happy it was pretty much done.

All sanded - 

Ready for some wax.

The only repair needed was replacing the wood divider that sits between the bottom of the box and drawer, I used a thin piece of reclaimed oak for that.

And it's all done -

Ready for a new life somewhere.

Once I'd sanded it I wiped it over to clean the wood and then I waxed it with an oak coloured wax which once dry I buffed to a shine, then I coated it with a clear wax and again buffed it to a shine, overall I'm pleased with the results and the box is ready to live on, it is still a useful and compact piece of furniture, some people may say it's not fashionable, it's brown furniture I disagree.

It's a lovely antique oak work box that belongs in a nice room in a house and not in the bin or on a bonfire.

Thanks for visiting.

Cutlery canteen up-cycle...

This is a project I completed a while ago, but I was pleased with the results and it was better than putting the box in the bin, it's worth thinking about other uses for things before chucking them out, especially when peoples finances are, shall we say stretched.

During ww2 the UK government at the time introduced the 'Make Do And Mend' campaign (amongst others) and perhaps in the world we currently live in it's something we should re-visit, anyway, below is a video I made of me re-purposing an old cutlery canteen.

Here's the video -

Turned out nicely, and had I not converted it, it would have ended up in landfill, which would have been a shame.

Thanks for visiting.

Re-purposing some old boxes...

I recently got round to doing something with some boxes I picked up a while ago, there were originally used in the printing industry, and they held monophoto negative plates and other plates.

As everything these days is digital there was a chance the boxes would have ended up in landfill, but I've given them some tlc and turned them into artists boxes, quite pleased with the end result.

You can often find things like this at car boots, flea markets and local market places and boxes are always useful and can be quite decorative, I've added some pictures of some of the boxes I've renovated at the end of this post, sometimes it's not so much renovating the boxes as it is repairing them and making them usable again, maybe repairing splits in the wood, or fixing hinges and if it stops them going in the bin then that has to be good thing, I've also found that old boxes despite any faults are more often than not better built than things you can buy these days.

Here's the video of this particular set of boxes - 

And here are some others - 

This one was an old letter box, probably from the 1950's, a lovely Oak box that just needed some tlc.

The box in the image on the right was another one used in the printing industry, this box held large glass plate negatives, it's a great size for a bookcase as you can see.

So there we are some good sturdy boxes saved from the bin, has to be a good thing.

Thanks for visiting.