This post will show you my heirloom door project and show you how you can add a few new or old items to make a functional workspace.
Ranches are full of many wonderful things beyond animals, feed, and family ties. Ranchers get good at ranching by saving old things for use in some future project. Old baling wire is saved for mending projects decades later. Old appliances are refashioned for a new purpose out of practicality rather than fashion. Old building materials are used over and over in fences, shelters, and finally, sometimes burned to ash. Farms and ranches are the original up-cyclers, far before that was a hashtag or buzzword.
That said, I love old things. On our family ranch where I grew up, there used to be a house in what is now the front yard. In that old house, my great-grandmother lived, and a few items from that old house have been saved in various buildings. In the “storehouse” as opposed to the granary or hogshead, has been stored the door that went from the dining room to the bathroom. It’s a bit narrow, white and chipping paint, and as genuine farmhouse fabulous as a girl could hope for. This door and the clawfoot tub that will make it’s blog debut someday soon I hope is what I have wanted to feature in my home for a long time.
So a door all alone, without an entrance to guard, is sort of a tricky item to display. I had to put it where it would be useful, where its whole shape would be visible, and where it would be accessible. I planned on attaching shelves and hooks and making a sort of vertical buffet, to lend a hand to a sort of furniture-less dining area (which is really part of the living room in our small home).
I had the pleasure of visiting and purchasing my shelves and hooks at the lovely Pretty in Paint store in Medford, Oregon. If you’re ever nearby, definitely check them out. This is a family owned business with a gorgeous supply of home furnishing for both the DIY girl or the ready-made purchase. They carry chalk paint (which totally transformed my dining room table and my entryway- that’ll be another blog post!), fixtures, pillows, knobs, rugs, tables…it is just my favorite.
I got 2 galvanized shelves, one sort of woven looking galvanized basket that I originally thought I might put on the center of my dining room table and instead decided to screw to the door as well, and several hooks. One hook is a flying bird- a swallow, we’ll say- , several aged white hooks, and a few that I’ll call barn wood brown.
After we decided that we’d place the door near the dining room table, I decided a few low hooks could welcome kid’s sweatshirts, and the higher ones could hold extra towels (those worn, white gems were my Great Aunt Nadine’s). The shelves hold the cloth napkins, a very antique tools with wooden handles on the very top shelf, and the bottom basket holds extra silverware, cookie cutters, and a pot holder. I wanted the few extra items I always need at the table at hand. I might also hide DVDs or other things I don’t want my kids to see on the top shelf. Don’t tell 🙂
The door is screwed into a stud and I just LOVE the way I was able to make something gorgeous and old work for me and my little home.
The rope and wire contraptions are from my favorite online retailer of all things mason jar related, Mason Jar Lifestyle. They sell anything and everything you could want to accompany your mason jar including mason jar lids of all kinds from decorative to lunchbox-able, cookie cutters shaped like mason jars, and more. They have been exceedingly generous to me and my Wildflower readers and I’m giving away the rope and wire mason jar hangers so you can suspend your very own mason jars full of…whatever gems you like. I filled mine with antique spools of thread (because the colors! swoon!) but you could do whatever you like.
I’m sharing this rapid-fire giveaway on INSTAGRAM (I’m at @adomesticwildflower) from October 19th at 8am to the 21st at 11pm Pacific Time. Go to Instagram, follow me @adomesticwildflower and @masonjarlifestyle, turn on notifications (touch the three dots in the upper right hand of the account, and TAG three mason jar loving friends in the post. Sorry, this giveaway is only on Instagram. I can’t wait to see who wins!
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