PIMMS O'CLOCK

Got any petrol?  What about loo rolls?  Or a nice bit of frozen chicken?  The world has gone bonkers brawling over fuel in local filling stations, whatever next!  

Welcome to the post Covid, post Brexit, and probably soon to be post Boris world if Keir Starmer gets his way.  This is modern Britain where impatience, hostility and hatred festers under a scab of selfish lawlessness.  It’s every man, woman or whatever for themselves especially if you’re after premium unleaded or KFC.  Common sense it seems has been firmly flushed down life’s loo. 

To diffuse the stresses of modern life, the doctor (via a telephone consultation) has prescribed furniture recycling as the NHS can’t afford to dole out medication to the masses any more preferring instead to take a ‘watch and wait till we’re all dead’ approach before it actually does anything.  It’s going to take more than an infusion of National Insurance contributions to resuscitate this Lazarus, you can be sure of that. 

Meanwhile back at the freezing ranch (can’t afford heating you know!), it’s Pimms O’Clock – that is it’s time to get my snazzy cocktail cabinet recycling project off the ground.  Since cocktails are likely to be cheaper than diesel by the end of the week, it pays to have somewhere nice to store your margaritas and mojitos while the rest of the world argues over who’s getting the last chicken drumstick in the Tesco freezers.

Art Deco bow fronted cabinet

Purchased from Ebay

 

Here's how I’m jazzing up the cocktail hour:

Before you begin, give your cabinet a jolly good cleaning to remove all traces of dust and grease.

Wallpaper the back face of the cabinet.  This part is a bit tricky because the wallpaper has to be stuck on from the inside of the cabinet.  Use standard wallpaper adhesive to glue into position then to protect, seal with Modge Podge, PVA or satin varnish etc.  Leave to dry for a couple of days.

Clean cabinet thoroughly to ensure all dust removed

Wallpaper the back face - stick on with wallpaper adhesive

My cabinet has been through the wars and sustained a number of injuries.  There's no shelving, a glass panel is missing from the door, one of the decorative battens is missing at the front plus there's a whole host of scratches and dinks in the walnut finish.  With a bit of care and TLC, all of these defects can be fixed.

Shelves were created using a cardboard template to follow the shape of the interior.  Cut shelves from MDF then paint/varnish in your preferred colour.  Luckily, although the cabinet did not have the usual glass shelves, the shelf pegs were still in place making it easy for me to position the new ones.

Vintage looking lock added

Decorate your key with a nice tassel purchased from Ebay

The cabinet had an old lock fitted but no key making it difficult to smoothly open the door from the outside.  You can buy old style vintage lock and key sets from Ebay or online but I found one almost the same size and type in a local hardware shop.  Unscrew old lock plate inside the cabinet and refit with new one.  Hey presto!  Nice working lock and key without spoiling the outside of the cabinet.

 

Furniture crayons to touch up scratches

If you are not painting your cabinet a different colour, minor scratches and dinks can be disguised using furniture crayons in a matching colour.  I like the original walnut veneer so am doing my best to keep it as authentic as possible and these crayons diminished the worst of the scratches quite a bit.

Repairing the door is going to take a bit of thought but as always, I have a cunning plan that might do the trick.

Using a piece of modelling timber purchased from Hobbycraft, I've created a paper template of the batten on the other side and flipped it round to make a mirror image.

Making the missing batten

I've applied a few coats of stain and varnish to the batten to try and get it to closely match the walnut veneer.  Now it is ready to glue into position once I've fitted the replacement perspex panel into place.  Fingers crossed, it should look like this once finished.

Looks as good as new

Project progress has ground to a halt while I source a supplier of clear plastic sheeting that can be cut to size as a replacement glass panel for the door but watch this space for a photo of the grand finale.

Cheers, me dears!  Make mine a porn-star martini, shaken not stirred.