The Showcase Table

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I acquired this lovely old piece (does it even qualify as vintage) back when I was in college along with a stereo system and giant speakers (and an earache) – but we are not here to talk about those now. As we were saying I had a giant collection of cassettes, being the music fan I am and this was the perfect storage for the time.

Now since we do not use cassettes anymore, it was basically taking up space in my house. Aside from lots of dust, it was in good shape and the wood was beautiful. I did not want to get rid of it, since I love to repurpose anything old, but I did not know what the perfect solution would be till my husband came up with the idea of a table. Of course, I would need the right base.

As I may have mentioned, I have a basement that is chock full of  old decrepit stuff. This chair had been my father-in-law’s many years ago and had seen better days. I don’t know if you can tell from the picture, but the back rest was broken and it was not an easy fix. Aside from the obvious sentimental value, the wood was in good condition and it was worth salvaging.

I knew it had a sturdy bottom and I decided to focus on that, instead of trying to repair a chair that was on its last legs. And that’s about all that it had left – legs.

​With my husband’s help I cut off the top part which was splintered.Then I set about removing the fabric, and all the nails that held it in place.  There were quite a few that had been nailed in over the years.

I sanded it down and then applied my homemade furniture wax. You can see how much richer it looks. This would be perfect for my table base.

Next, I had to take care of the cassette holder. I cleaned it with some oil and vinegar and then the next day I varnished it with 2 coats. I should point out that I have removed some slats so that I can place my collection of sea shells inside and use it as a display. But I still had to find a way to screw the top to the base. After much trial and error, and of course with the help of hubby, we were able to screw the top onto the base.

​Finally, I topped it off with a piece of beveled glass. The cost for this project was minimal, just the price of the glass, since I already had the varnish. Here we have my collection without the glass.

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This is a unique piece, one that I was very happy to have completed. By combining the chair and the cassette storage unit, I was able to create something more than the sum of its parts. I wanted to preserve this piece, because it reminds me of the earaches I had gotten from listening to my loud music.  But mostly because it has special meaning for my husband who fondly remembers his dad sitting in that chair.

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