Oaky-dokey

"Nobody does oaky anymore", said a woman quoted in last month's This Old House magazine. She was commenting on how fantastic it was to be surrounded by the warm wood tones she had recently brought out in her nice craftsman home. I hear that! We've become addicted to 'oaky', probably a common addiction with all you other bungalow-ers out there.

So we couldn't resist this giant, glass-door enclosed, display cabinet type thingy when we saw it a year or more ago at a local antique shop that was going out of business (actually, consolidating into the new one across the river). We got a deal on it at the closeout sale, thinking we might use it in the kitchen, but we were really just obsessed with the pretty gorgeous ray & flake we saw in the more than 1" thick boards.

Well, it sat it in the basement, waiting its turn, and though it didn't end up in the kitchen, we recently realized it would be great in the hallway - so we started a-fixin' it up.

The back is made up of antique crate boards, which are no flimsy things - these are at least 1/2" thick boards! And there are great old ads on the back - what the heck was an 'Apollo Chocolate'?! Sounds like something I need to try.

We cleaned it up, put in some handy concealed roto hinges (see leevalley.com) in place of the cut off nails they used as pins, and added this gorgeous brass latch given to us by our friend Heather - which is absolutely perfect on it, and covers an old hole in the door. Thanks Heather!!!

Later I'll put up a fabric backdrop and we'll figure out some shelves. But it's just so nice to have 'oaky' to look at every day!