I came across an antique hardware cabinet over a year ago and fell in love with it. Being too long for any wall in my 1840's cottage, I had to forget about it. Then I saw it again this summer and realized ... I'm super-stupid. It was made of wood and wood can be CUT. So cut it I did. Here are the results.
Listen, I know you are all interested in what this cabinet looks like after being cut down, but mainly what you want to know is Did the pig's head stay? Yes. It did.
I am pleased to report he's happily keeping watch over my kitchen as he always has, perched above my new, old antique cabinet; which is now 13" shorter than it was 2 months ago.
What kind of sorcery does it take to shrink a solid wood cabinet down by 13"? Just chuck it in the dryer. Just kidding, that would never work. The sound of it clunking around in there would make you a crazy person.
The resizing of this early 1900's cabinet required the skills of a rather talented Polish man to hack away at it.
It was cut down the centre and then pushed together again. The seams were disguised and aged, and the cabinet was given new supports to maintain it's structural integrity.
So there's a seam down the centre of it that you really can't see. In fact I don't think I've noticed it even once.
Had I wanted a completely invisible repair, they could have taken the entire cabinet apart, made it shorter and put it all back together but that also would have taken a lot more time in the dryer and therefore a lot more money.
This isn't exactly a fine piece of furniture. It's rustic. So a seam down the middle isn't going to take away from its beauty at all.
If You Had to Change it, Why Buy it?
That's your question, right? I bought it for a few reasons.
- I loved the original metal numbers on every drawer.
2. It's only 13" deep which is rare for a large cabinet. 13" is what I had space for.
3. I needed more storage.
4. There was just something about it.
A lot of times we can't put our finger on why we love something so much. That was the case with this cabinet.
I loved how my white brick wall looked before with my collection of rolling pins hanging on antique french curtain tie backs but ... I needed room for STUFF. You can see how the wall looked before in this post.
For now every single drawer is still empty. Partly because I still haven't washed the interior of all 54 drawers and partly because I really have to plan what I'm going to put in those drawers and how I'm going to remember what's in them all.
O.K., this is PROOF at how bad I'm going to be at remembering what's in all those drawers. I just this moment realized I do have something in one of the larger lower drawers - I have the far right one filled with dry cat food and a scoop. I just lined the drawer with some waxed paper and poured it right in.
See? Cat food. And horrifically ugly knobs. But I'll deal with those later.
Taking a look at the cabinet head on, you can see that the cabinet doesn't look like it was altered at all in any way.
For reference, this is what it looked like before it was cut down to size.
Two side by side sets of small drawers and one large drawer were removed right down the middle. An interesting note about those drawers. If you look closely you'll notice one drawer doesn't have a number on it like the rest of them do.
Further inspection shows that this drawer has NEVER had a number on it. There are no holes or patched holes on the inside or the outside of the drawer.
The drawer is drawer number 13. That's how superstitious people were back in the day. I plan on keeping my evil eyes in the drawer.
Just the storage on the shelves of the cabinet has allowed me to clear out a full cupboard and shelf in my kitchen by moving things around.
This might not be how it stays, this is how I put things in there quickly during my mad rush to get it presentable before Thanksgiving guests arrived. I picked the cabinet up just a couple of days before I hosted Thanksgiving dinner for 15 people.
My ironstone and perpetually tarnished silverware has never looked better.
I'm going to live with the cabinet for a little while before I decide on knobs for it. The knobs on the lower big drawers are what irk me the most. They're plastic as far as I can tell and weirdly deep. The knobs on the little drawers are a mix of old and tarnished, which I like, and new and plasticy and shiny which I do not like.
Nor does the little pig.
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That is so beautiful. Amazing, job well done to the Polish Man. Look at "junk stores", yard sales for the knobs. Sometimes you find amazing things. What a wonderful piece of furniture to have anywhere in a home but perfect for the kitchen. To remember what is in the drawers try a list taped or tacked to the side of the piece.
Just perfect.
It's great now, but I hope you don't have a passive aggressive family member like me who likes to mess with others by shifting their shit around from drawer to drawer. Don't piss your sister off is all I got to say.
Simply - BRAVO!
The pig. Ah, the pig. He is the best part of the room! But the cupboard is nice, too.
I originally commented that this may have been an apothecary cabinet but I am now thinking that it may have been a index card holder for library cards...…..hmmmm!
Two months to go until Christmas and your kitchen has a built in advent calendar. But, come spring, the Easter Bunny better budget an extra hour to deal with that bad boy/girl?
It is beautiful, inspiring and so many opportunities for mischief.
Well done! I love it! Congratulations!
Good on you for having the vision that this would work in your kitchen. It's like it has been in your kitchen since 1877. And......Mr Klotz is a master.
Gorgeous cabinet! Now all you need is a laminated spreadsheet, cross-referenced by drawer # and alphabetical contents.
Love it.
Beautiful cabinet.
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Oh my! I think it actually looks better smaller- more harmonious. Your craftsman is really gifted👍
I suspect I got my other email address auto-banned from comments by saying this last time, but my immediate response is the same. You say 7 inch cubbys, I hear ᴆildo storage. Lots and lots of ᴆildo storage.
Anyway, that piece is fantastic! Glad you got it back in time for Thanksgiving!
Oh My Goodness! As if I wasn't already jealous/envious of you & your amazing life.... Between this cabinet & your choice for your next sofa (my "dream/someday" sofa), I definitely want to be you when I grow up. (At 60, maybe I shouldn't wait any longer and just DO IT ALREADY!)Thank you for being you and constantly inspiring me.
So if I read this correctly, you picked up the cabinet, installed it, and decorated it while madly working on your floors? In the days leading up to Thanksgiving? That you hosted? And you still seem sane and witty. You've been cloned, right?
Yep, you read that correctly. I'm thinking of simplifying Christmas this year though, lol. ~ karen!
What a stunning piece, Karen. Your 'guy' did a perfect job cutting it down. I would have seen it and fallen in love with it as well. I have an old oak library card catalog. Heavy as sin...took it off the metal legs, made them into a bench, and put industrial wheels on the cabinet. It's in my workshop and holds tools and other odds'n'sods.
Wow, that man is a true craftsman. I have to admit that I was a little bit nervous when you did the original post and announced that you were going to have it cut down, but it turned out beautifully!
So I'm kind of a little obsessive about some things so I have to know, did you reorganize the drawers so they are still in numerical order? That is what it looks like you did from the photos as far as I can tell...which makes my OCD happy. Did you run into any trouble with drawers not wanting to fit in their original slot when you reorganized them?
What's really cool is that the cabinet looks much better now! The symmetry of the three lower sections just makes more sense. Cool beans!
Love, love, love the cabinet! I see white porcelain knobs on every little drawer - not sure about the others! If you ever want to sell it and I can afford shipping to Texas, let me know :)
It is absolutely beautiful! I do have a random question though -- Now that the middle section came out, are there missing numbers in the middle... or did you readjust all the drawers so that all the numbers are still in order with no gaps (other than 13 of course)? Like, are 6 and 7 missing or just schooched over?
Just rearranged the order of the drawers. ~ karen!
That.Is.Spectacular.
So well done! What a master woodcrafter your Polish man must be. Not that he's "yours." You know what I mean. It's really a piece of a lifetime.