Rainy days # 1

I keep on putting off my posting sequel about Sicily, because with such a bad weather it's really hard to look at the photos taken when I was on holiday and don't feel miserable...
Yes miserable weather till now, no plan to go back to Italy at the moment and plenty of energy to spend in the house restoration.

before - outside

Therefore I'd like to share a couple of projects I realized recently.

There was that old box that was of my husband grandmother, apparently she used to carry around her stuff, when as a young girl she used to work as a cook. It must have been forgotten for many years before it arrived at our house, when it already looked battered and well worn out.
My husband kept on telling me that it was originally used to keep a dinnerware completed with all the necessary cutlery, not the modern versions with no serving dishes that you can find in the shops today, but rather an ancient version plenty of dishes and serving tools that nowadays we don't even know what they are made for. So I started to look at that old box with renovated interest.

before - inside

It was covered in a thick material painted in a sad brown colour, which at first looked like a well worn out leather. Cover it again in leather would have been too costly, so I went for some material in neutral colour, which perfectly matches the colour palette of the house. Ripped off the old material I discovered a nice sturdy wooden box with quite a strong personality, a real pity to cover it up! But the inside was a real disaster, in order to be used it really needed a complete restyling. When I bought the material to cover the box I matched a bold toile de jouy in cream and black with gallantry

after - outside

after - inside

 scenes, because I really wanted something that stood out from the severe shape of the wooden box.
I completely covered the inside with the toile, trying to give continuity to the pattern An inside shelf at mid height  was missing, my husband cut a thick piece of MDF to size and it fitted perfectly as shelf, I covered with the same toile and...voila' it's finished! Perfect to store table linens and possibly a new dinnerware, still undecided between transferware or botanic decor.
Do you like to recuperate old family piece of furniture? Have you done any recently?

ML