Cabinet Reshuffle

You may recall from my post a little while back that I have a little bit of a problem with books; the buying, (not) reading and storing thereof. So much so that my bookcase runneth over; indeed, the snug was beginning to feel like an explosion in an unwanted book factory. Since this photo was taken, things have got even worse and there's now a small, but potentially lethal pile to the right of this bookcase.

However, redemption has come in the shape of this little lovely (the cabinet, not the child encased within; we've let him out now so there's no need to call the authorities.)

Hubby actually bought it a few months ago as part of a dresser which we intended to use in the dining room. We were very excited when we heard from the auction house that hubby's commission bid had won, and he dutifully trotted off to collect it. It sat in the garage for a few weeks while we summoned up the strength, patience and general 'being bothered-ness' to heave it into the dining room and find just the right spot for it. So we hefted this section (which is supposed to be the top of the dresser) and we hefted the bottom section (similar width, but slightly deeper) and then we heaved the top section onto the bottom section and as we wobbled and wibbled and it waved around in the air we came to the awful realisation that top + bottom = too high for our room. ARRRGGGGHHHHH. So, in disgust, we threw both parts back in the garage and hubby listed them on eBay so that they would never darken our doors again. However, fate played a part and for reasons too complicated to go into, the dresser never got sold. So we ummed and ahhed and debated putting it back in the auction, until we had a brain wave and though of something that you've probably figured out all along - use the two parts separately! I must say though that the reason we didn;t come up with this plan really quickly is that the base of the dresser actually has holes cut in it that the top half rests in, so using the bottom half separately will require a little more work.

Anyhoo, after a few more weeks in the garage, hubby and I decided to forgive the dresser for being too tall and thought long and hard about where we could put the top half; we chose the landing and we decided that it could be a repository for even more of my books. Huzzah!

And then after another couple of weeks of the dresser top sitting on the landing looking like this

this weekend I finally got around to giving it a really good clean and putting it together. The shelves were a little grubby to say the least; this one was probably the cleanest of the bunch:

I got the feeling from the greasiness that the dresser had been used in a kitchen. Still, nothing that a good rub down with some Ajax cream couldn't solve.

 And now the little beauty looks something like this:

 Give it a few more weeks and I'll probably put some books in it...