Wednesday, July 11, 2012

Something Old is New Again


What do you do with 4 antique glass doorknobs found in the basement of a house? You give them to your most talented father-in-law and he makes something really cool for you.

That’s what I did.

In 2005, when we purchased our little house by the lake the inspector told us we’d need to demolish the basement due to vermiculite, which could contain asbestos. In the process a set of doors was discovered with four matching beautiful glass knobs. The first question was why were these gorgeous knobs on doors leaning against a wall in the basement? I grabbed them and headed upstairs to replace the metal knobs on the bedroom doors with the glass. And they didn’t fit. The second question was now what do I do?

I have blogged about my wonderful father-in-law before. (http://thebeadedpillow.blogspot.com/2010/11/my-father-in-law-hes-best.html) His name is John, or Jack…Jack of all trades. A while ago I designed my dream bead rack and he built if for me. He put my craft room work station together, too. More recently he, with help from my mother-in-law, recovered the bed bench to match my new room at the lake. (Together they watched a “how to” video by Nate Berkus to make sure they “did it right.” )

One of the projects at the lake house this summer was dividing the master bedroom in half creating another bedroom. By making this change, however, the new room does not have a closet. (Do weekend guests at the lake really need a closet?) As it turns out this is the bedroom my in-laws stay in when they visit, and although they don’t need a closet, they like to hang their jackets up, at least.

I had given Jack the glass knobs on Mother’s Day along with some suggestions on creating something functional yet pretty. Here is what he made:



Look closely and you'll see that he even covered the screw holes with tips of a dowel rod that he painted white.

Now, I said there were 4 glass knobs. Well, on the other side of that sconce light there is a little door that leads into an attic. It had a small plastic knob. Now it has a very fine glass one.

4 comments:

Kim@Snug Harbor said...

The house I grew up in had those beautiful glass knobs. We called them "diamonds." Jack did a nice job and what a great idea for them.

Della said...

Very nice jacket rack! What a neat idea for the glass knobs.

Unknown said...

Isn't great to have someone that is so handy who also creates beautiful work with left overs? You are lucky to have a wonderful and talented father in law :D

~Lavender Dreamer~ said...

They are real treasures! I love what you've done with them!