Giuseppi & I (Part 3)

Giuseppi and I Part 3 brings us to another favorite piece.  One of which will be handed down through generations.  I figure 100 + year old barn wood should last another 100 years.  Anyway, I have a small wrought iron wine rack that holds 6 bottles of wine.  This, however, is not enough wine storage for me.  The object was to use an old barn wood fence, the larger planks of this barn wood stash, and an old window to make something I could store wine in.  As usual, Giuseppi had no fear.  We got to work.

Making the frame was easy, after we penciled out the measurements.  I had visions of slanted shelves that would hold the wine bottle "bottoms up" as they should be stored, but Giuseppi had a better idea.  He drilled holes in the shelf so that only the bottle necks would slide in and the bottle would be completely upside down thus saving the cork and eliminating the sediment.  Perfect.

It was at this resting point we remembered something very important.  It was our daughter's (Giuseppi's Mother) birthday!  Since she is a big fan of the primitive antiques style we decided to take a quick break and whip her up a barn wood shelf.  I grabbed a couple of pieces of barn wood, a star we had picked out for something because we knew we would have some use for it, showed him what I thought would be cute and no kidding, Giuseppi had this done in less than 30 minutes.  

Now back to the main project of Part 3.  The window would be the key focal point so we didn't want to mess this up.  It was heavier than we anticipated so we had to put our noggins together to come up with a hinging method and the tedious task of latching it.  We set out to the local hardware store and found some hardware, go figure... no pun intended, that matched the rustic motif.  Giuseppi had the measurements perfect and the window fit like a glove.  Once hinged and latched we thought it was complete.  Until, we opened the window and we realized it would either fall to the floor or tip the entire cabinet over if we let go.  Immediately, he thought rope.  I agreed since it would match the rest of the barn wood creations however, when in the closed position, the rope did not cooperate.  Each time we closed the window, the rope would either stick out the side or kink up in front of the window blocking the view of the "pretties" I would have inside on the shelves.  Plan B was a hook and chain.  Bingo.  The chain was heavy enough to fall down inside the window when closed.  My Giuseppi is one smart biscotto!

I knew this piece was going in the dining room and I had the perfect spot picked out for it.  Stepping inside to show Giuseppi where it was going to go, and measuring one more time just to be sure, I realized it might be a little too short.  My vision of my wine collection was much taller on the chosen wall.  We definitely would have to "lift it up".  We wanted an extra row of cubbies along the bottom, but barn wood was in short supply and we still have a few more smaller ideas we wanted to complete.  The summer and our time together was coming to an end.  Giuseppi must go to school.  I made a quick trip to my favorite "Rags to Vintage" and picked up a small table.  While thoughts of just attaching our barn wood creation to the table were good thoughts, just still not the look I was going for.  Our solution was to just use the legs of the small table.  It worked great!  We have now achieved the perfect height.   It looks awesome!

  

Incidentally, the small table served another purpose.  It now rests atop a box, which is actually an old drawer, that holds toys!  A perfectly disguised toy box!  

Waste not, want not.

Giuseppi has since gone back to school and over winter break he went skiing.  I'm hoping spring break might bring him back to finish up with the smaller pieces and a Part 4 for Giuseppi and I.