The Wedding Gift, The hospital trolley & a round the world trip.
This is how my good mate Andy pitched the refurbishment and customizing of two pieces of furniture to me. A set of drawers that his parents received as a wedding gift 45 years ago and an old hospital drug trolley.
“I like these drawers except for the curves, chop them off can you? And make it modern, give it a stain to get rid of the orange colour. This old drug trolley I want to make into a drinks trolley, can you give it a freshen up?”
“Oh and you have some time, cause I’m off around the world for two months, see you when I get back!!”
It was a loose brief at best, and easier said than done, however it was great to be trusted by my mate to put my own interpretation into the pieces, although if I’m honest, a ticket round the world sounded like the better deal!
Cutting the curves was relatively straightforward; dulling down the orange colour was a challenge though. I threw every trick in my book at it, yet the orange kept creeping back through, so I resorted to a staining process that involves many layers and a lot of sanding on each layer, the end result is an aged patina and the orange vanished. Success!
Once we had cut the curves we were left with a gap so we filled it in with raw steel box section and took it down the industrial path, chopped the legs and added a simple black kicker to complete the transformation.
The drug trolley was a simpler brief so we stripped it bare and re-sprayed it in a modern white, cleaned up the chrome and reassembled. I couldn’t leave it there so added a few subtle details to really personalize it for Andy. A timber tattoo as a drawer liner and my favourite, a copper history plate that also acts as a magnetic catch to hold the door closed.
The best thing about this job was catching up with Andy when he returned and hearing about all his travels over a whiskey served straight from his revamped trolley, cheers!
“I like these drawers except for the curves, chop them off can you? And make it modern, give it a stain to get rid of the orange colour. This old drug trolley I want to make into a drinks trolley, can you give it a freshen up?”
“Oh and you have some time, cause I’m off around the world for two months, see you when I get back!!”
It was a loose brief at best, and easier said than done, however it was great to be trusted by my mate to put my own interpretation into the pieces, although if I’m honest, a ticket round the world sounded like the better deal!
Cutting the curves was relatively straightforward; dulling down the orange colour was a challenge though. I threw every trick in my book at it, yet the orange kept creeping back through, so I resorted to a staining process that involves many layers and a lot of sanding on each layer, the end result is an aged patina and the orange vanished. Success!
Once we had cut the curves we were left with a gap so we filled it in with raw steel box section and took it down the industrial path, chopped the legs and added a simple black kicker to complete the transformation.
The drug trolley was a simpler brief so we stripped it bare and re-sprayed it in a modern white, cleaned up the chrome and reassembled. I couldn’t leave it there so added a few subtle details to really personalize it for Andy. A timber tattoo as a drawer liner and my favourite, a copper history plate that also acts as a magnetic catch to hold the door closed.
The best thing about this job was catching up with Andy when he returned and hearing about all his travels over a whiskey served straight from his revamped trolley, cheers!
