Marvellous Meatsafes

I'm a little excited to share with you my most recent Furniture upcycle...

B and I decided when our lease came up at the end of Oct. that we would move. Aside from the fact the neighbours had been kicked out (thank goodness) our property manager had it in for me. Not B. Just me. Not that I minded because I really didn't have to deal with her but it certainly made things uncomfortable, especially around inspection time. So, with a little assistance we found a really lovely home a little off the coast. 

Heavily pregnant B and I moved all our worldly belongings to our new home and settled in. I have often put thought to buying and knocking down the back rooms to give us more yard and going up for all the things that we need but I have gone against that as I might as well build on a block if I am going to start thinking about renovating and really... I do it in every house I am in.

Over the last few months I have stared at my kitchen living space and felt like one wall was very bare and screaming for some love and attention. So love and attention it got. 

For those of you that have read my blog you will know that I upcycled the buffet on the left and I also upcycled the coffee table. Before I did my little meatsafe upcycle, there was nothing running along that right wall so as you can imagine it was looking a little bare to say the least. B bought me the rocking chair when I was pregnant with Isabella (somehow it has avoided my desire to paint everything white). So I popped that in the corner (keep your eyes peeled for another post about this chair). I then searched and searched from something to run along that wall... It took me weeks but BAM! There it was. A vintage meat safe.

 

Apart from the harrowing car ride to get the item (that is a WHOLE other story) which ended in me blubbering in my mother in laws arms.... It was perfect. The previous owners had obviously attempted to "restore it" (using a nail gun mind you) and it showed some signs of neglect... Not only in the paintwork but the wood... Overall though it was in very good condition for its age.

I purchased and collected this item while my mother in law (MIL) and father in law (FIL) were here and my father in law is one of those people who cannot sit still (like father like son) and as an added bonus is a very handy person to have around with things like this. So we had a discussion about what I wanted to do (replace the top of the cupboard- again they used a NAIL GUN... Tut tut) and off he set to the wood reclaimers up the road.

He came home with some beautiful tongue and groove floorboards. Yes I know they are floorboards but they are unique and vintage and suited this project perfectly.

 

We started by removing the top of the meatsafe and leveling it up. Once we did that FIL cleaned up some of woodwork, removed the doors and cut the floorboards to length. He then sanded them back a little. Once that was done out came the orbital sander. Now sadly I am one of those people who like a clean surface but b's orbital sanding pad is not attaching to sandpaper pads very well at the moment (oops!) so I just gave the entire surface a light going over so that I had a good surface for painting.

 

I used an aerosol undercoat from Bunnings (there are a few) and then used my trust Taubmans Accent Satin paint in Dulux's USA Antique White (this is the same paint and colour I have used for all of my other projects). After each layer I gave it a light (hand) sand and then wiped over and applied another layer. In total I applied two coats of paint to this project. It helped that it was already white. 

 

I then sanded back the top until the timber was "clean" but I didn't want to go too nuts because I like the character of the timber. While I waited for all of this to dry I worked on the doors. I removed the mesh, tacks, handle and hinges and sanded the surface. I applied the undercoat and once that had dried I applied two coats of paint. The mesh was in good condition, I would suggest it was new so once the paint dried I reattached the mesh with the original tacks. I then reattached the hinges and the doors to the meatsafe. I decided I didn't want to reattach the handle so I ordered more of the crystal door handles like on the buffet from eBay (they arrived today - yippee!)

 

I gave it a quick wipe, put it in its new home and filled it with my recipe books that I had hidden in my glory box.

 

 

Voila! My new and improved meat safe.

I am totally in love!

Keep smiling

Lauren

xxx