Thursday, October 7, 2010

From An Old Floorboard to a Tombstone Cupboard

My thanks to Susan of http://www.betweennapsontheporch.blogspot.com/ for hosting another Metamorphosis Monday and for giving her fellow bloggers a chance to show their stuff!

I sort of put the words metamorphosis and recycle into the same mental category. If I can take an object and turn it into something else rather than dispose of it, I consider it to be recycled...or repurposed as the new generation would say.

My favorite metamorphosis or recycle in our lives is always one that involves the transformation of one of the old, wide, pine floorboards that were taken up from the first floor of our circa 1724 house here on Olde Cape Cod.
Would have loved to save them as flooring, but as we all know...water seeks its lowest level. All the flooring on the first floor of our our house was rotted along with the underpinnings. Some of the boards were 23 inches in width...a treasure in my book. We saved what we could and stored the boards in the garage. Over the years, hubby has crafted many things from the nearly 300 year old flooring, but one of my favorites is our pine Tombstone Cupboard. With the exception of the back piece, the entire cupboard is crafted from an old floor board. Hubby drew up his own design based on my requests. I think the result is spectacular...and a very fitting subject for a post at Halloween time since it's called a "Tombstone" cupboard ...get it?

The cupboard provides the perfect home for some of our old pewter pieces.
Oddly enough,what I most love about it is the group of holes in the door. The only usable part of the floorboard that was wide enough for a door had holes in it where the floor nails had rotted right through. Hubby didn't want to use it. But eventually I convinced him that the holes actually added character.

We painted our Tombstone Cupboard with Olde Century Colors paint in Greenbriar along with Barn Red on the inside.

It's truly one of my favorite things in our home.


Thought for the day: Welcome the unexpected.... opportunities rarely come in neat predictable packages.


Don't forget to check out our online apron shop at
http://www.apronsgonewild.etsy.com/