Wednesday, February 1, 2012

Okay... so I lied....

I had the best possible intentions and truly meant it when I said "I will not bring another cabinet into the studio."

Well..........
Now tell me, who can possibly resist a printers cabinet with 30... count 'em.... THIRTY drawers?! I think part of it is I just love 'rescuing' things... things that other people might consider junk. I love the challenge of cleaning it all up and giving it a new life. So I think under those circumstances it's justifiable .... don't you? Of course I could blame it on the Biff (Janet) who went along with me to look at it. She just kept saying "You've got to get it!" until I weakened and gave in.

It's funny, my husband never says a word (maybe he's scared of me?) when I bring home something that looks like it's definitely had a better day. He just totes it in the house and asks where I want it. 

So here is the new/old printers cabinet that I rescued this past weekend.
During the big clean-up


It was so filthy.. I think with about 60 or 70 years worth of dust... that every single drawer had to be dry mopped outside in the wind, brought in and vacuumed, scrubbed with oil soap and lined with new paper. If you notice, there are very cool little porcelain buttons going down the left side numbering all of the drawers. Love!

Of course my favorite is #3
I can't even begin to tell you how many times I dumped the dirty water and started over.
Ughhh 
Here I have scraped off all the paper labels. I tried to salvage what I could. One of the drawers was actually labeled 'NY Giants'. I would imagine they did their printing and kept their type separate.
The handles are all original and rather rusty, so I'm one at a time taking them off and dremmeling them clean.


A full day's work and now the 30 drawer baby is in place and getting full. I thought I would stage art projects in the higher drawers and store finished pieces in the lower ones. Can you spot the only 2 handles that I've done so far?
I'm lovin' it!

My name is Canace and I'm addicted to neat old cabinets...

7 comments:

Seth said...

What a spectacular find. I would have bought this in a second!

Robin said...

What a find! I've been looking for a Hamilton Printers Cabinet and they are few and far between. Another blogger said you could put the handles in a bag with some amonia to soak for about 10 minutes and it will make them clean up a little easier. Very cool piece!

Hugs,
Robin

Janet Baskerville said...

It looks great and I am really happy that it found you! :)

Elizabeth Johnson said...

Oh I'm so envious of this!!! Its wonderful!

QueenBe said...

What a find!! You are so lucky to have scored that! Good for you for saving an otherwise forgotten relic. I love print drawers and wouldn't have been able to resist, either!

Cherie said...

Send a paramedic I've fainted ... envious, green and all that jazz but most of all Oh Soooo very happy you've found each other. xo

Jeanette Janson said...

You are the bomb...I am totally jealous over this cool cabinet!