Tuesday, February 5, 2008

Meanwhile, back in the pantry...

...the quest for the perfect hardware continues. The old adage, they don't make 'em like they used to rings true for almost everything around here. The cabinet hardware is no exception. The hardware on the cabinets in the dining room, which used to be in the kitchen, has obviously been replaced at some point. So we can't really know for sure what it looked like to begin with, even after getting down on my hands and knees for a super close inspection of the blemishes left behind by the first set. But we can look at the hardware on the china cabinet. It's most certainly original and the coppery finish matches all the door hardware in the house. Of course we can't just run down to the local big box store and pick some of these puppy's up. No, that would be too easy. People crazy enough to tackle an old home restoration are also crazy enough to spend hours studying the hardware here, the hardware in the pictures of my Aunt's pantry and surfing the internet for WAY, WAY too long to finally have come up with these.

Not an exact match, but as close as I can get it without mortgaging the farm. Er wait, we already have a mortgage. Well, you know what I mean. Glad that's settled. Now I can get back to important stuff, like blogging and reading other peoples blogs.

Which brings me to a question Scott over at Bungalow Monster asked. His eagle eye noticed that the beadboard backing didn't cover the entire back wall of the pantry unit. That's because one of the things I noticed about my Aunt's pantry is that it sure would be nice to have an open shelf/counter space available to set things down. Especially since this is also a mudroom area, I'm thinking keys, mail, etc. So we decided to give it more of a step-back cupboard look. Similar to what's in the picture here.


The beadboard in the upper part is structural, giving something to nail the long boards to. Otherwise too many cans of beans in the middle of the board could send the whole thing crashing down. And we don't want to spill the beans now do we?

4 comments:

Jennifer said...

I like those cabinet latches and hinges!
That cabinet will be so nice to have in the mudroom... are you going to build it from scratch or find an old salvaged one to put in?

Bungalow Monster said...

I really like the finish on the hardware. Good find. I sometimes wish I would have gone with the patina'd finish in our butler's pantry.

You're doing some nice stuff here!

Sandy said...

I miss that kind of latch. They make me think of days gone by. Sigh.

Anonymous said...

I have the same ones as the first picture on my original cabinets in my house.