Thursday, September 15, 2016

Peculiarities of Older Houses

When we bought our "new" house, it came with several features that were probably quite modern and classy back when it was built. Now they are dated, undesirable, and in a some cases, useless. Take for instance our built-in, fall-out-of-the-cupboard-when-you-open-the-door ironing board.

This one is not ours but it's close to it. The Writer removed the ironing board (made of wood with heavy black iron legs) from the cupboard before I could get a photo, but this is what it looked like. It was dark and dusty and old.

 

Maybe if I looked like this when I ironed the two items a month I iron, I would have kept it.

(By the way, do real people sit down to iron? I stand and move all around the ironing board to get the best angle on the piece I'm ironing. Maybe that's just me!)

 

 

 

 

 

Now, what to do with this odd space, only 3 1/2 inches deep.

 

 

 

I got an idea!

It's now very useful. Unlike in a deeper cupboard, you can see what you have.

Another peculiarity of the house: see the smoke alarm on the right? It is at the beginning of the hallway which is 20 feet long. In that 20 feet of hallway there are three smoke detectors and one carbon monoxide detector.

To be sure to be sure!

 

13 comments:

  1. Hmm!! the grate way to repurpose...:) nice idea.. I was also wandering, who could iron sitting on a chair.. ? :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. How do you iron standing up? Neat recycling of the cupboard.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I love it! I love it! That's absolutely perfect! I think I iron something maybe once a month. I purposely buy clothes that don't need ironing.

    ReplyDelete
  4. That made me smile, a great use of space and so easy to see what's in there.

    ReplyDelete
  5. It's always interesting to see the oddities in houses. I guess the previous owners were afraid of possible fires. I like what you did with the former ironing board space. I do sit from time to time when I iron. But these days I iron so very little and I stand. Have a great weekend.

    ReplyDelete
  6. This made me laugh, I have never seen a built-in ironing board! You made a very clever change of the strange cupboard.

    ReplyDelete
  7. I stand when I iron. Love what you did with the space! Perfect!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Great reuse of wasted space. I perch when I iron, and always when there's something on tv to watch - it's one of the few times I'll watch television. And it doesn't happen often - I save up until I have a pile.

    ReplyDelete
  9. I cannot sit and iron even when I was on crutches I could not sit and iron and that was back when I had to do Uniforms with heavy starch..yuck. I like permanent press just fine, I have a couple of things I need to press so I put a towel on the counter:) You made great use of the space in that cupboard! Love the knotty pine!! :)

    ReplyDelete
  10. What a great idea, I have never heard of an ironing board cupboard but come to think about it when my ironing board falls out of the cupboard it brings with it a paraphernalia of mops and the like… it does look very smart now as a secret pantry… It would be where I'd keep my chocolate :) Beautiful wood surrounding the cupboard!
    Wren x

    ReplyDelete