Sheet Music Cubby

I love working with wood...paint it, cut it, dril it, attach things to it, distress it, wax it...it can be reinvented in so many ways.

This little project involves my stash of vintage sheet music and a little cubby shelf picked up at Goodwill. It didn't start out so beautiful:

but primed and painted, a little glazing and distressing and it's transformed:

I always knew I'd be putting a back on this so it could be used as a tray or even put on the wall for display. 

I cut out some hardboard on my husband's table saw. Super easy, but stay safe with safety glasses and keep those fingers away from the saw!

The back got a nice decoupage treatment with teh vintage sheet music - so pretty!

The backing got glued to the cubby shelf and the whole shebang got a waxing. It gives the whole piece a subtle shine that was impossible to show in before and after photographs. You'll have to take my word for it. It was sooooo much easier than brushing on polycrylic or even spraying on a finish - hands down the easiest way to add a finish to a wood project!

I decided to put handles on either side to make it more of a tray. I had something in mind for handles, but couldn't find them. I waffled a little because screwing in handles meant the screws showed on the inside. Glueing them on didn't seem sturdy enough and since I had these handles on hand, I painted the screw heads and they don't stand out too much.

How about setting this on your coffee table or ottoman as a place to hold the remote, pens and paper for making those lists, your lip gloss and other odds and ends needed for happy tv watching?

Or on a shelf or wall to display those special vintage items?

I'm on the lookout for more of these cubbies to make more of these...I might just have one started already...

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