So I've been looking for a Hoosier cabinet for a little while. The apartment I'm in has almost no counter space or cabinets in the kitchen, so getting one of these old kitchen units was the most sensible choice. Here's the catch... Nobody makes these things much any more... Yes there are a few custom places that will do it, but I don't really want to spend a fortune on this... So I sent my parents off on the mission since they're retired and enjoy hunting down things at auctions... Well, last Monday they got one, and it didn't cost a fortune fortunately... Here's the next catch... It needs some restoration... So I'm thinking to my self, no problem, so long as the tambour is ok, I can handle anything else... So they dropped it off, and naturally, the tambours are shot. (tambour is the group of wood slats that slides in a track like on a roll top desk) (I can do tambour, but its a huge pain in the ass) So, now, I don't really have something useful at the moment... What I have is probably a month long restoration project... By the time I'm done buying sandpaper, paint stripper, new screws, and a couple replacement latches, paint and sealer, I will have spent a ton on this unit... 'Course it'll be quite nice, and serve my needs forever, but damn, what a pain...
At this point, I've got the top almost completely taken apart. The shelves are all stripped as is the face of the unit... One of the upper doors is completely stripped, and the other I have to wait on some special sandpaper for... I've got 6 of 54 tambour slats stripped. The top is really in pretty good shape except for the nasty paint job on it and some missing glass... The bottom is a little different story... Apart from it having been painted blood red at some point inside, the drawer supports that hold the two silverware drawers under the sliding porcelain top need to be replaced. The jar rack on the inside of the lower door is hanging on by a thread, the bread drawer needs to be straightened and a new lid installed, the back panel is cracked, and two legs are loose and missing their feet...
Now with all that wrong with it, and needing to be stripped and painted completely, we still got it for a decent price... I've seen units that I would consider as not much more than firewood go for over a grand... So in the grand scheme of things, I suppose I should be happy, and really I am... The thing is, I really hate sanding... Ugh!
For those that don't know what these things are, here's a little history and some pictures. (mine is actually a Hoosier brand, rather than just hoosier style)
That's cool!
We bought a second or third hand dresser 20 years ago at a yard sale, and when I started to refinish it we discovered that it was solid maple. The grain is so tight that it barely took stain. I wound up finishing it with tung oil, and it's still beautiful.
Posted by: Ted at September 14, 2004 07:07 AMMaple is tough... I imagine tung oil would be the best call there as virtually anything else would just sit up on the surface as you found with the stain... I won't have that issue, the Hoosier is all oak, with huge pores...
Posted by: Tim at September 14, 2004 10:35 AM