Some months ago, I serendipitously came across a rather wonderful item. Some have remarked that such an item has already made its mark upon our home, but i disagree. One can never pass up the opportunity for another haberdashery cabinet.

Such opportunity came via an idle browse on Gumtree for ‘cabinet’, as i pondered the most suitable article to accomodate ever-more stuff in the guest room. High ceilings call for tall furniture, hence deciding to sell the quirky but vertically challenged ‘man-wardrobe’, originally purchased for our attic-room in Hailes Street. As it happened, a very pleasant mechanic in backstreet Leith had decided at that same time to clear some space in his workshop, and placed this tempting picture on Gumtree.

Intrigued, i called up and took the measurements. Perfect in all dimensions for the space i had, in particular a decent height of 7ft 4in. Overlooking the obvious problems (12 missing drawers, terrible condition, enormous), i went down to visit. Tucked away in an attic up a precarious flight of stairs, the cabinets looked worse in person. Covered in oil inside and out, and with a lot of damage to the woodwork, naturally i made a deal there and then. Apparently, they were originally from an old wool shop in Leith, which closed in the 70’s and this guy had taken the cabinets off their hands as a favour.

Some months and no cabinets later, after numerous failed attempts to contact the seller, i assumed they were wholly lost to me. But after calling by one day when passing, i was relieved to discover they had since exited the attic via the window and were awaiting my collection. Furthermore, all but 1 large and 4 small drawers had been found in various locations around the workshop. I swiftly arranged for collection, ignoring the puzzled looks of the man-with-van as i handed over my £50. I guess he had assumed i should be the one getting paid for taking them away…

I spent most of that day cleaning the frames and drawers. To say they were dirty would be rather an understatement. 20-odd years of storing engine parts had certainly taken its toll. Some of the wood will never be parted from the oily coating. Once they were house-ready i moved them into position in the white (guest) room. Thus commenced stage 2: the deep clean.

I considered for a short moment not painting the cabinets. I was quite taken with the marker pen annotation of each drawer, and the enitrely un-self-conscious chippy paint effect, achieved over years of abuse from unsuspecting metal objects.  

I tried (fruitlessly) to remove more oil and grease, but gave up and decided to only store things in the oily drawers that wouldn’t mind getting oily. Next step was removing all the fixings, for steeping in dishwasher powder. A great wee trick and handy for any metal items you want to make good and shiny. Then i borrowed malkie’s toothbrush (kidding) for a final scrub.

I decided to paint them the same tone as the other woodwork in the room – F&B Strong White. It has grey and lilac undertones, and contrasts well with the mahogany woodwork. Maybe one day I’ll go for a fabulous and daring colour but for now, I wanted to remain with the white room palette. In an ideal world, I suppose i should strip them but that we would be a project of epic proportions, and not one i would have the stamina for at the moment. So, here we can see evidence of classic Lucy project work – don’t wait til its finished, just start using it for storage half way through and risk getting paint on all your stuff. Oh, and a wee cuppa perched nearby.

Fast forward another couple of months. Having attached all the fittings, the next job was to clean the glass. I used a razor blade to remove car spray paint, oil and ancient paint. Finally, the top 4 drawers are missing forever so i boarded up the bottom of each space and will use that for larger books. 

A joiner is making the final 3 drawers for me, but i suspect that may be a while in happening, so as far as i’m concerned, job done! Phew….