Knob Job

 

Ok, maybe get your minds out of the gutter for a sec. 

This is all about re purposing something cool and random into something cool and useful.

Re purposing items may be a hot trend but oftentimes necessity is truly the mother of invention.

With a side order of fortuity.

 

Our story begins with a Craigslist dresser that I wanted to give an aged grey French look. 

He was named (in a moment of wax fume impairment) Francey Pants le Buffet.

Say it like Phoebe from Friends' last name.

Boofay.

Anyway.

In great shape, this piece had only one problem:  it was missing the hardware on the center cabinet door.

The missing cabinet pull...where did it go? Was it eaten by a dog? Was it eaten by a frog? And by "frog" I mean that in the ribbit sense, not the derogative for French citizens sense.

 

 

Since this piece was being painted to look, like, super old, I wanted something super old and cool for the cabinet door.

*Sidenote on this piece. It was a different look and project for me at the time. Four different paint colors and all kinds of antique gels and dark wax.

 I looked at it one day and thought, "You remind me of something".

But what?

 I'll tell you what.

 Acid. Washed. Jeans.

  I convinced myself, convulsed, and was mortified. I kept stepping away and trying to "new eye" myself into a different conclusion but just couldn't. I needed a true new eye.

Enter friend, fellow painter, and shop contributor Denniel. I told her the piece reminded me of something but since I didn't want to cloak her fresh eyes in the same bad denim I kept seeing, I didn't mention what I was seeing.

"Hmm," she says. "Well....", she says.

"It kinda looks like an old gravestone," she finally says.

Cue the choir and hallelujah!  I'll take death markers over acid washed jeans any day.*

Ok, back to the point. 

 I could not for the life of me find a store bought knob or pull that worked.  And a one hole center set up is tricky for mounting.

I looked through everything in my box of tricks and found... nothing. Then, mayyyyybe something. 

Not a knob, not a pull.

But this:

An antique iron match holder.

 

 I had purchased that little fella at an estate sale earlier that month and hadn't put it in the shop yet.  So there it sat, waiting for a home.

Wouldn't it be cool if I could use it on Francey?? 

I looked at the back of this old black beauty and found that it was actually two pieces screwed together.

 

So what else is there to do but unscrew the screw?

 

 

Now THIS, this would work!  It just needed paint. 

 

 

And I could use that original screw to attach this piece to the cabinet door.

 

Lookie, a hole!

 

And it attached like a charm, the curves even matched the shape of the door!

 

 

Now this looks like it was meant to be.

 

 

And voila!

 

 

 

Francey Pants Le Buffet was complete.

 

I'm happy to report he found a lovely and immediate home with a fantastical family.

Awesomeness.

 Now to find the perfect piece to utilize the other half of that match holder...

waste not!

 

Mandi

 

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