Sunday, September 7, 2014

DIY strikes again

There's just no knowing when an idea will strike. And with me, to think it is to do it.  Which is how I found myself, chanting my usual mantra: Ready!  FIRE! Aim! all dressed up for a meeting, up a ladder removing the doors from a useless cabinet, high up, above the refrigerator, I ask you, and empty for years now except for the odd adventurous spider. 

The picture below is of a similar cabinet, above the stove, but that has uses.  I omitted to remember pix before I tore the doors off the other one...



So here's the situation: I had suddenly thought, ah, what if I take off those doors, I bet I can do that without much trouble, and then put some lovely American and other art pottery in there to just see and enjoy instead of looking at two closed doors with nothing behind them, that have been annoying me for years?  

The idea of open kitchen cabinets, always appealing in the mags,  is only good if you have presentable dishes in sets and well, that's the impossible dream.  Taking the doors off my other cabinets would look like an explosion in an international mug factory. But this one I could do.

Pausing only to find the step stool, and locate a screwdriver, then start again on finding I needed a Phillips' head and the first one was a straight slot, I climbed up, very awkward to reach over the fridge but I did get the screws out of the cabinet and as hoped the entire door, hinge and all, came off with no sign it had ever been there.



Wiped it down, including the top of the fridge, which urgently needed someone taller than I to observe that it needed wiping, and at this point needed to leave for my meeting.

Home again, meeting successfully concluded, and I installed a few favorite pieces up there, safe from marauding cats, easy to see and enjoy all the time. 




 Herendt hound from Hungary, Boehm spaniel from NJ, German porcelain birds from I guess Germany, Trenton Delft bowl, lovely antique piece that, and two great Rookwood Pottery vases.  And a pedestal from Rookwood, designed after the manner of, but not by, Shirayamadani. All lovely to see and much better than the previous view.  And what I left on the shelves whence I took them in the living room. are all glass pieces, much happier together than mixed with ceramics.

And as usual, cost:  $.0.00.  I didn't charge for finding tools, unscrewing the doors, putting away all the doings afterwards.

However, I would like blogistas to consider what might be a good use for these doors?  



They're in my outside storage area right now awaiting an inspiration. Note that I've preserved the screws, on the grounds that You Never Know.  Never in my history have I actually used screws that I've saved like this, but, You Never Know.

7 comments:

  1. suggestion: if you had two good mirrors of the proper size, you could mount (glue would work) them on the panels and have two nice natching mirrors with a lovely 'frame' for each one.

    Cut the centers out and use them as decorative if small frames.


    if you left the handles on, and mounted mirrors on the center bits, you could have something to hang in a hall for a last quick look before you went out. The handles would look useful, even though they arent.

    they would be perfect for an embroidery pair of something that had been mounted on hard board, and then glued or hitched in some way to the center.
    I keep thinking, frames.

    two ends of your next bookshelf, held by a board across the bottom and one across the top. Handles optional.

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  2. The addition of a piece of glass cut to fit would create a really nice tray....perhaps remove handle from one and mount on the other to create a means to carry it.

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  3. Brilliant! And those ceramic pieces are an interesting collection. I'd love to see more of the hound :)
    I'm so glad to see others are suggesting creative uses for the doors. I am no help in that department, as attested by the cabinet doors that I saved for about 12 years before admitting defeat. Of course, I didn't ask suggestions because I didn't have a blog then. Actually, I'm not sure we had the internet then! Looking forward to your further adventures.

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  4. Clever girl. I'm, as yet, bereft of ideas for recycling the cupboard doors though.

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  5. That looks really lovely. what a great way to display your ornaments.

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  6. Remove hinges. Add casters at 4 corners. Portable plant stands.

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  7. I'm in danger of needing to tear off more doors to keep up with all this tide of great ideas! thanks all.

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