Transforming Two Vintage Storage Pieces

Two monsters met last week. 

Two giant vintage beastly beings.

A 7 foot vintage gun cabinet transformed into a storage and display piece, and a 1976 Dodge Maxivan.

 I had lucked out on the gun cabinet and scored it at a local barn sale. I lucked out on the van on Craigslist.

 It took more than a month for both projects to take flight, but last week they did.

 The gun cabinet weighs more than the van, I do believe. And at 7 feet high by 5 feet wide? Well let's just say it's almost as big as the van.

 After bringing the behemoth from the barn sale to the workshop in mid September, a friend and lovely customer decided she wanted the gun cabinet transformed into a country china and display cabinet.

And so, the van was purchased to take the cabinet to her home. Ok, well, it was also purchased to do local deliveries during our rainy Pacific Northwest seasons...but, that doesn't so much fit into the story.

Here is the cabinet in our customer's home after Persnickifying:

It started out as this:

The before

I built shelves for the interior out of whitewood I had cut down to size. The shelves were installed and painted. I used solid oak shoe moldings cut to size to mount the shelves so heavy dishes and serveware would be securely held:

The clear glass on the large cabinet doors was turned into looking glass by spray with Krylon Looking Glass. That way the dishes could be stored inside unseen and imperfections in the old glass would be looked upon as charactered instead of flawed:

The exterior and inner shelves were painted in Annie Sloan Old White and then Annie Sloan Florence, with clear and dark wax and a whole lot of sanding sponges:

And the best part about this big beast is its sensitive side...the open display side that shows off our customer's antique bottle collection. 

Yay!

So there's the gun cabinet...reformed. So what is the "Pickle", you ask?

We transported the huge gun cabinet inside The Pickle.

The Dodge van is a "Maxi Van" which just seems like a cruel joke for a lady driver such as myself. I mean, for seriously. 

So, The Pickle is the chosen name of this two tone green, white walled, spoke wheeled beauty.

Behold, The Pickle:

She's so big that my dad remarked, "Man, you have to take a break walking from one side of this thing to the other!".

Yeah, she's huge. More bus than van.

And after a water pump, fan belt, transmission service, and tune up she still leaks water from the radiator and has no working gauges.

BUT! She does technically run and her tendency to be a pickle is what makes her The Pickle. Soon she will have some sort of advertising on her, but for now...she just brightens up my world by being the exact same age as I am. And by being an absolutely terrifying adventure at every turn...not unlike every single part of owning this business.

Thank you for reading my little guest post and thanks to Rachel for having me over! Check out Persnickety's Awesomeness Emporium on Facebook and check out our little tiny blog.

Stay awesome!

Mandi

Don't you just love Mandi? I do!
She's got so much amazing talent.
If you are local, Mandi has been offering up a drab to fab furniture painting class.
I can't wait until my schedule frees up a bit so I can take it.
You should take it too. Check out Pernickety's on Facebook to find out more about the class.