This pantry belonged to my grandmother and was purchased in the 1930s.
It had fallen into complete disrepair when I recovered it from my mum's garage.
The renovation really was a 'top to toe' project. A labour of love!
Inside the cabinet
Front three-quarter angle
Top of cabinet
Perforated metal at right hand side
Steps
Step 1
The first step was to dust off the cabinet and do a basic clean up to see what could be salvaged and what needed to be replaced.
Step 2
Next came the lengthy process of gently dismantling the unusable parts of the cabinet. The door hardware was badly rusted and the plywood had begun to crack and warp.
Step 3
When removing parts, my goal was to replace them with items that were as near the same, so careful measurements were taken.
Step 4
Ultimately it was necessary to strip the cabinet right back to its frame. At some point my grandfather had re-nailed the perforated metal using bootmaker's tacks, which were incredibly hard to remove!
Step 5
I remade the drawer, with the only original item remaining being the fascia board.
Three coats of hard wax oil were applied and the new handle was fixed into place.
Step 6
After a massive amount of sanding to bring back the original timber, I cut and attached new 3mm plywood panels to the frame.
Step 7
Three coats of hard wax oil went onto the reassembled cabinet and new hinges and latches were attached.
Step 8
Then it was time to cut and fix the new perforated metal. Note: this had to be completed before the top and bottom internal shelves could be put back into place.
Step 9
The final step was to fix the internal shelves back into place.
Step 10
And so it was, we went from this ...
... to this:
