Old Rake; New Life

Okay, so you should know that I have a problem.  I can't pass up cheap or free rusty things from the side of the road or garage sales or thrift stores or flea markets or...nevermind, you get the idea.  So here lately, I've been accumulating more than I've been making.  This is a problem for a few reasons.  1. If I'm not making it; I'm not selling it.  2. My workshop (aka: my front porch that is thankfully mostly hidden by a big bush) is overflowing.  3.  The Husband keeps wondering when I'm going to use all this "junk" (aka: rusty goodness).

I got a few little projects knocked out this weekend with some of my treasures.  This one is definitely staying with me.  But I made a couple others to sell.  Here is my apron holder created from an old rake head.

 I'm am in love, love, love.  And here's this little gym in it's state of humble beginnings.  It was the rusty head of an old rake.

 I started with a couple coats of polyurethane to protect my family and my aprons from rust.

 Also, as a side note...here's a little tip that you may or may not know.  When you are painting, staining, sealing, etc., did you know that you can put your brush in a ziploc bag (without washing it) and store it in the refrigerator until you're ready to use it again?  Yeppers!  I do this all the time when I'm doing something with two coats.  After I finish the first coat, it just goes in a bag in the mini fridge in the garage until I'm ready for coat number two.  I'm not sure how long you could actually leave it in there and use again, but I've personally left it in there for over a month and then re-used it.  Just a random tidbit of info for ya!

 So, to get started, I used some old weathered grey-ish colored fence boards from my stash of free wood that I've accumulated from the side of the road.  I have no shame.  I cut four board, using the miter saw, to a size that looked good to me.  You could easily use a circular hand saw or even an old school straight saw.  I laid one out first with my rake on it to get an idea for the length.  Each of the board lengths vary slightly to give it a not-so-perfect look.  Some ends were already jagged and some are straight from being cut.  I just mixed them up a little.

 Next, I needed some bracing.  Here's the piece I used for that--another thin piece of wood so that the piece wouldn't stick too far off the wall when I was finished.

 I laid out the four fence boards to get an idea of how long the brace boards should be.  I would have more pics for you, but my camera is still mad at me and is eating them.  I take them, look to make sure they are there, put the card in my computer to download them, and...nada...they're gone.  Who knows!  Back to bracing.  Once I had the three braces cut, I used liquid nails (from Wal-Mart) to glue them to the back of the four fence boards.  I then screwed them (randomly) on to the boards with a mix of very short wood screws I had on hand.

 Once that was finished, flipped it over and waxed the front and sides with clear wax.  I used two screws to hold the rake in place.  One screw the rake is resting on and the other is going through a hold that already existed (a close up pic to show this = eaten by camera).

I put two saw tooth hangers on the back and here it is hanging on the wall in my laundry room because there is no other place to really hang it.  But the laundry room is next to the pantry, which is near the kitchen, so it works.  I had three crosses there that I've had since we got married (almost 5 years ago) so I was ready for something new.  Those crosses have traveled across the US with us wherever the Air Force sent us, but now this baby is mine to embrace any new travels with us.

 View from the back hallway that leads to the kitchen/dining/living room.

 Here it is displaying my aprons.  And I'd say it's doing a pretty good job of displaying them well.

 Camera phone pic; sorry for the quality.

 Did I mention I love it?  I do, I really, really do!  Oh, and just to give you the apron rundown...the blue one of the left is from Williams and Sonoma.  It was a gift from my mom for Valentine's one year.  I treasure it because it reminds me so much of her and the life she lived.  She was always in the kitchen cooking up something.  That was her favorite room in the house.  The next one is just a waist apron. Two years ago, I moved in with my parents for six months while my Mom was sick and during that time I worked on Friday nights at a local restaurant, Fish Tales (A-MAZING food).  We had to wear an apron so I picked this one up to wear on my Friday night shift.  The third one was a Christmas present last year (2010) from my Mom. Before she passed away, she got gifts, wrapped them up, labeled them and had them ready for us to open for the next few holidays.  So, even though she wasn't hear with me, opening a gift from her helped make the Christmas season more special.  The pink and black one on the right was purchased at a gift shop near home; also to wear at my job at Fish Tales. I love aprons.  I love being in the kitchen. I love to cook.  I love that my Mom taught me to be a good cook.  I love my new apron holder (in case you missed my love obsession with it earlier in the post).

 

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