Last year my winter project was preparing for a wedding. This year's project wasn't quite as big, but at times, just as intense. I found an old Hoosier Cabinet on Marketplace that needed some TLC - and a lot of paint removed.
Over the course of 7 weeks, mostly on Saturdays, I worked to remove the paint, finding a beautiful wood underneath two layers of cream paint. My tools included Cirtristip, two heat guns, saran wrap, paint scrapers, putty knives, tons of paper towels, and anything else I could think of to remove the paint.
As I worked to restore the cabinet, it began to remind me of life. This cabinet was made in the mid- 1920's to be put in a kitchen to help with the lack of cabinet and counter space. It included a flour sifter, sugar bin, spice rack, and was designed to centralize everything a lady would need when she was working in the kitchen. Over the years, someone decided to paint it, the accessories were removed and discarded, and it was moved to a laundry room in the homeowner's basement.
When we are born, we were created in God's image. Through the years, we have been "painted" - living in the world and in sin has changed us. We've try to fix ourselves by adding a fresh coat of paint, trying to change ourselves, all the while growing further from Him. When we turn our lives to Him, He begins to strip us down, slowly taking off the layers we have added, restoring us. It can be a painful, trying process. Some things in our lives need to be removed, some need modified. Sometimes we want to give up. But through the process are restored into a beautiful, new creation. We still hold our scars, dents, scratches, but all are part of the new beauty. A new creation that the Restorer can use in a new way.
The cabinet is a Hoosier Cabinet made in New Castle, Indiana. Based on some research, the model appears to be made between 1925-1928. It was made for Miller's Furniture in Hagerstown, MD. The store was located at 31 S. Potomac Street and later moved to 42 N. Potomac Street. I don't know for sure if the person I bought it from was the original owner. The son remembers it being in their home in the 1960's.
I did most of the paint removal. Chris did the sanding and was the expert when it came to the stain and polyurethane, cleaning up my messes, and putting it all back together. He helped A LOT! There's no way I could have done it without him. I decided not to restore all the original pieces. The interior shelves on the top section were replaced because they were in bad shape.
The flour sifter, sugar bin and spice rack may be added later. Plans are to add the tambour doors on the middle section. But for now, it is a beautiful piece in my kitchen. Each time I look at it, I'm reminded what it looked like before and how it looks now, the time I got to spend with Chris on the project, and that God can take our lives that are messed up and ugly and turn it into something beautiful!
