Organize Your Home Office Day

{type cabinet containing type ~ source}

{side view ~ source}

{repurposed type shelf ~ source}

INSPIRATION 2014 #70: Another holiday I knew nothing about ~ Organize Your Home Office Day! A good opportunity to share a great way to organize laces or ribbons. The letterpress shelves above are not as common to find as those shown below ~ also, as the spaces are narrow and different depths, they can be hard to work with. My sister gave me a shelf like those above ~ I have been using it for thin spools of ribbon, but l like the idea of using it for lace as is shown above ~ using it sideways is another clever solution.

{smaller type drawer}

 {type cabinet filled with bits and baubles}

The type drawers are a great way to organize small bits of ephemera, buttons, baubles and beads. Having these organized makes working with them so much easier ~ plus, keeps your workspace manageable. So, enjoy Organize Your Home Office Day ~ perhaps celebrate by organizing just one small area. If this is not your cup of tea, it is also World Plumbing Day, so you could celebrate that (I don't have any suggestions on how though) instead!

New Addition!

{photo taken by Sandra Bowe}

INSPIRATION 2014 #64: I was so inspired by this cabinet that antique dealer and friend Sandra posted on Facebook the other day, that I had to go and check it out - thanks Sandra! It is lovely ~ beautiful paint color and patina along with vintage hardware. Needs a bit of repair to the drawers, but once done, this will be such a great piece to keep my collections of ephemera, booklets, old photos, sheet music, and even lace all organized. Post with details coming soon!

Marvelous Medical Cabinets

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INSPIRATION 2014 #59: Medical Cabinets ~ one of my very favorite types of furniture!

While visiting Mister Finch's Facebook page today, he shared a photo of a metal cabinet that is available at Ikea. While this is quite a nice piece for the price, I have to admit I am partial to the vintage ones ~ chipped & painted or stripped & bare metal. Antique medical cabinets can be found, but not often and unless you are extremely fortunate, they are very expensive. Below are a few I would love to find ~ love the curvy legs!

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Inventive Repurposing

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INSPIRATION 2014 #49: Still in the organization mode, so I thought I would share a great way to make use of commercial baking pans ~ turn on its side and use as shelves! This image is from oh albatross on Etsy ~ unfortunately, it has already been sold, so you will have to find another. 

I have been collecting these since I first discovered one at a flea market ~ I found that the 'shelves' on the one I first purchased were the perfect size for spice bottles, so I mounted it on the kitchen wall and used it as a spice rack. As I no longer have any wall space available, I use the others as displays in craft shows ~ these are great for showcasing scarves, bangles or just about anything. Actually, maybe I should rearrange and create a whole wall covered with these ~ I have quite a number of them in all different sizes.

Fabulous Find ~ McCaskey Credit Register

As I mentioned earlier, I have begun selling some of the vintage items I have collected over the years. While doing some internet research on McCaskey credit registers, I came upon this magnificent piece here.  I would LOVE to add this one to my collection, but at this point, I am short both space and money.  Isn't it gorgeous?  I have never seen one like it before ~ the upright style nor the color.  This would look great with photos or as is shown ~ the piece is being sold with all of the ephemera as well.

In case you were wondering, below is a more common version of what one of these registers looks like when complete. When I have found them over the years, they are usually in pieces, so they aren't easy to spot.  If you do find one that is complete, it is usually quite expensive and amazingly heavy!

Below are two ads for McCaskey registers ~ these registers were basically the precursor to the credit card of today. In one of the registers I bought several years ago, I actually found the original manual and instructions on how it was to be used ~ it seemed rather complicated to me!

At any rate, I love the look of these obsolete filing cabinets ~ they are wonderful repurposed for use as photo or ephemera holders. I think a wall filled with them would be amazing ~ it would make it easy to change out whenever you wanted a different look. So, while I don't have a whole register to offer, I do have single "pages" at the moment. If you are interested, check out my vintage etsy store.  Below is a vignette of one of the pages in use.

Walnut 2012 ~ Part 1

{gorgeous green wicker hamper}

I cannot believe it has been more than 2 months since our trip to the Walnut Antique show AND it has taken me this long to do a post! Well, it has been a busier (and terribly hot & dry!) summer than I expected ~ or maybe the older you get, the more quickly time passes? I did take quite a few photos this year, so I will break them up in a couple of posts ~ the first being a theme of one of my favorites ~ drawers, cabinets, containers & organizers ~ or things that one can hide all their junk (or in my case, treasures) in! I really do love drawers and cabinets ~ if you'd like to see more go here.

I now wish I had looked at the price of this metal bucket for gathering olives or grapes ~ I love the look of these and just recently saw them for sale in an ad from Tuesday Morning for $50! The double decker metal grocery cart also caught my eye, but it was already sold ~ thereby preventing me from even considering it!

This large slatted wood bin would also make a great storage place for toys, quilts or just about anything ~ perhaps an ill-behaved child? We were interested in it as it was sturdy and made very well ~ the woven wire, canvas handle and metal hinged corners were nice touches. Not showing are the heavy duty wheels ~ a great industrial piece!

Then there were the drawers & cabinets ~ the dealers at Walnut always have lots of these to offer and drool over. Since I don't have ANY space left in my house, nor do I usually have a vehicle large enough for any of these pieces, I have no choice but to just take photos and dream about what could have been!

{primitive piece with surprisingly ornate handles ~ a nice juxtaposition}

In the right setting, this Tom's Toasted Peanuts cabinet would be so cool! It had just the right amount of paint loss and variety of colors on the fronts ~ plus it would hold lots of stuff. Wouldn't it be great in a boys' room as a place to keep clothing or books stashed away?

Now this was just a sign with an illustration of a hoosier cabinet, so I had to include it since it sort of fits the theme and I did like the sign.

My favorite and most impressive of all was this amazing four-sided revolving millinery store cabinet. I would DIE to have such a piece, but it was expensive, large and in pretty bad shape. I cannot imagine what it must have been like when it was first made ~ it had most recently been used in a hardware store to contain small pieces and parts, so much was taped over and broken or removed to accommodate the hardware.

In the top photo, if you look carefully, you can still see a few of the drawers have spool racks in them ~ the bottom photo shows a bit of the lovely craftsmanship and detail of this once most lovely piece of furniture. I'll bet some lucky person took this piece home and perhaps it will be restored to its original beauty ~ or at least cleaned up and enjoyed!

{carved wooden strip detail}

Above is a spool shelf I saw at Walnut. While I wasn't wild about this specific piece, I did like the detail of the doorknobs used as finials. One of my big purchases this year was 144 wooden spools ~ I plan to design a long spool shelf for behind my sofa, so I have been gathering research in addition to the materials needed. Now, I just need to carve out some extra time and figure out how to coerce my boyfriend into helping since he is the furniture maker in the household!

{beautiful antique boye sewing needle store display}

The last two combine two of my favorite things ~ organizers and sewing items. I am always drawn to these items and am amazed there is such a great variety, most of which is still affordable ~ it really makes them hard to resist! More to come........

Crown Center Antique Show 2012 ~ Part 2

As promised, another post on the Crown Center Antique Show ~ I did end up taking quite a few photos, so it made sense to do two postings. Shown above is a closeup of a store display/fixture that contained a variety of curtain fixtures to choose from ~ pretty ingenious and so well designed - the majority of this piece was made of printed/painted metal, so much of the wood grain visible is painted, not wood. Makes me wonder if the company supplied these displays to the retailer or if the retailer had to pay for them? These days, no one would spend the money to make such an item ~ everything is used temporarily and then tossed out.

{Boye curtain fixture store display}

Couldn't pass up a shot or two of this chest of drawers handmade from spools and cheese boxes ~ I love this sort of thing! Ingenuity and drawers ~ what could be a better combination?!

{old type drawer}

I love this type of drawer as well ~ for me, I use these as working organizers ~ I do the same with muffin tins. When I am embellishing the brooches I make or other craft projects, I often will keep buttons or beads in this sort of drawer so that I can see all I have to choose from. Since they are stackable, it makes it a little easier to see what you have at a glance just by rearranging the stack.

{old mirrored and wire wrapped glass bottles}

I assume these are wine bottles, but not really sure ~ I just thought the imperfection of the mirrored bottle in combination with the wire wrapping and printing was just beautiful. It was disappointing to see that one had been changed into a lamp ~ there goes the antique value!

{spectacular crystal and beaded chandeliers}

{Painting of priest in gorgeous frame}

This piece reminded me of Prior Phillip from the Pillars of the Earth series, which we just happened to finish watching last week ~ while I enjoyed the miniseries, I liked the book better. It is a bit of a disturbing painting, but I still like it and think it could look great displayed with other religious themed items ~ wish I had the wall space!

Fabulous Find ~ Vintage Sewing Basket

Today I thought I would post about this lovely vintage woven sewing basket ~ I think it may have been green at one point, but was painted black and comes apart in several sections. Recently at an antique show I saw a similar basket and as the dealer is a friend, we had a conversation about these sewing baskets ~ I mentioned the one that I had has a flower and bird decoration added ~ so, this is for you Nan!

I always love going to Nan's booth at any of the shows she does as she always has a lovely assortment of buttons to search through and many beautiful and unique sewing treasures. Make sure to go to Sparks/White Cloud and the Walnut Antique shows (see links at right) if you want to see for yourself ~ she and her husband are usually at both of those shows.

{different compartments}

{side view}

So, I have three of these baskets ~ the other two do not have any added decorations and they are all painted black. They are similar in size, but there are no manufacturers markings anywhere, so I am not sure if these were made by hand or how old they might be. So, how many of something do you have to have to call it a collection?

The Wooton's Patent Desk ~ The King of Desks!

Those of you who have been following along for awhile know about my fondness for anything with multiple drawers, nooks & crannies ~ here and here. When a woodworker friend of mine posted a photo of the Wooton Patent Desk on his FB page, I was totally smitten ~ I have never seen anything like this anywhere! I wonder if you came upon a piece of furniture like that shown below if you would even think to open it up?

Imagine finding this inside ~ I think I just might have a heart attack ~ especially if it was at a price I could afford! Guess I will keep an eye open from now on!

{images from here}

I did a bit of searching and located a few other examples that are shown below. I also found out a bit of history about the Wooton Patent Desk. This sort of desk was produced by William Wooton from 1870 through 1884 ~ it was called a "secretary desk" and its function was to organize any sort of office paperwork. These desks were expensive at the time (and now!) and only the wealthy could afford such a piece of furniture. The craftsmanship and details on these pieces is just amazing ~ I especially love the different ways the little drawers were designed ~ ie. the addition of numbers or the drawer pulls.

{images above from here}

{images above from here}

I love that this piece of furniture was advertised as "The King of Desks" ~ I can't imagine that there was much competition! Another of the advertising slogans used for the Wooton's Patent Desk was that it was "A place for everything & everything in its place" ~ nice to know where that saying originated!

{image & more info here}

{image from here}

Great vintage photo above that shows a Wooton desk being used in an office ~ must have been a successful business to be able to afford such nice office furniture. Below is a book on the desks ~ might be fun to take a look at to learn more and see other examples.

{buy book here}

So, how do we go from the Wooton's Patent Desk to that shown below? Granted, the cabinet below would fit most budgets, but after seeing a Wooton, this just doesn't cut it ~ plastic or vinyl drawers ~ UGH! Paperboard boxes with metal pulls would improve this considerably ~ even if it increased the price. What do you think?!

{image from here}