Midnight Blue Chest of Drawers Transformation

This item was a slightly more tricky number than normal.
I collected it from a lady residing near Brick Lane who was uncluttering her house.  It was, of course pretty filthy as standard, however, it also needed a lot more attention that I had anticipated.  You can see on the photo that one side is quite badly damaged, so I needed to rebuild this section before commencing with the decoration.  Additionally, the chest of drawers had been cut from a dresser, but not very well so the other side needed a good few millimetres shaving off one end to straighten it out.

Now, it was ready for makeover!  I wanted to create a dark blue themed item, as I have just sold my other dark coloured bedside table.   I like to keep a mix of colours and styles in stock and I haven't made a blue item before so thought it might be a nice challenge.  I am rather pleased with the result.  The piece of furniture is actually quite tall and thin, so therefore could easily fit into a living room space, rather than just a bedroom.



http://www.cottoncreates.com/products/midnight-sky-small-chest-of-drawers

Upcycling Sewing Table - The Transformation Process

Cotton Creates offers a Bespoke Service and this post gives an insight into how it happens.

This particular item hasn't undergone the full Cotton Creates Transformation Process, because it is infact going to reside in my home, and therefore, the first couple of stages have been omitted (one would hope I know what im looking for!)

Plan
Source a small table that could be used as a key table in my home.  Luckily I was home in Sheffield for Christmas which is a haven for antique goods, definitely preferable to the over-scoured London town.

Discovery
And here is the pretty little item I found. A Victorian sewing table, perfect to turn into a key table.  As you can see, it still contained the original interior, however it was in very poor condition so sadly needed to be removed.

Pre-creation


A chisel, hammer and file later and this was it's current state. As you can see, the interior lining was well and truly stuck down with copious resin. Which, so my dad informs me, back in the day would have been made from melted down horse hooves and bones.  I discovered that the table had a number of scuff marks, at which point my mum disappeared off into the kitchen and appeared with this bottle of Topps stainer and polish, from the depths of the cupboard with a price sticker of 19p on it....

Completion

Then, fabric, ribbon, glue and staples later here is the finished item.  Ready for it's new home.

 

preparing the wood

i kept away from that machine

tyre cutting is heavy work!

skate rink venue

Furniture Jam

Last weekend, Cottoncreates took part in an ethical furniture workshop.  It was run by Electric Pedals on behalf of the London Festival of Architecture and the aim was to create ethical seating solutions from discarded stuff like old furniture, motor and bike parts, wood, metal.   Upcycling in it’s element. The seats were to be used in the evening for a bicycle powered cinema experience in the White’s Grounds Skate Park under the nearby arches - unfortunately i had to leave before then so missed seeing the finished seats in use.

Dressed down as much as I know how  - in new shorts, tights and top (clearly not quite as suitable as others who turned up in their old jeans),  I didn’t know quite what to expect but rocked up at 11am to find a concrete area, empty aside from a couple of the guys from Re-fuze along with a multitude of machinery, tools and random scrap materials.  The workshop filled up as the day went on, and attendees, many of which were trainee architects got stuck in designing their own uniquw seats.  I didn’t think it wise to attempt the generator powered saw so stuck to de-nailing bits of wood, and cutting the metal wire out of tyres.  I’ve become a big fan of the electric screwdriver so i’ll definitely be investing in one of those for my projects!

Charlotte from Electric Pedals did a great job of keeping the day together and I would definitely go back to other workshops they run.