Vintage sewing machine stand find

When we cleaned out one of the old sheds, I found an old vintage Singer sewing machine stand. It was in poor shape. The roof had been leaking for may years, as a matter of fact, there was not much left of the roof at all when I found this sewing machine. Possibly it had been sitting in the same spot for 50 years. Tar had been dripping on the side and everything was rusty.

The veneer was pretty well gone and the top was missing as well. Then it stood on my veranda for a few years, not sure what I wanted to do with it.

I had covered the hole with some loose planks, and in the summer months it served as a plant stand.

Other times I would trow a table cloth over it and then it served as a side table, a bit heavy to move so it just stayed mostly in the same spot. Then when we were screening in the veranda, I had to move it. That’s when I decided I had to try something to make it look better.

Getting a duplicate

A year ago I had bought a similar sewing machine stand at a garage sale for fifty dollars, and that one was in good shape. I had gone with my daughter to this garage sale when I spotted it. The thing was that we had only brought my car to the sale, however, I was convinced this sewing machine stand would fit in the trunk.

Well in the end it sort of did, but it cost us quite a bit of fitting and re-fitting, before we had it stowed away, and then the trunk would not close of course. One of our friends had a cord with which we held the trunk lid close and so we did get it home. Getting it out of the trunk was a whole lot easier….

Taking things apart

Taking things apart is usually easier then putting it back together. In this case it took me some trials and error before I finally managed to get the wood part taken of the cast iron stand. I love the integrate metal work of the frame. So far I only cleaned it up a bit and have not put any new finish on. Not sure I will, I rather like the worn rusty look of the stand as it is.

But I wanted to have a top for it, the husband was busy, so I could not ask him to cut me a nice piece for it. Then one day in the basement i found a cut out from a double sink, I tried it; and it fit perfectly! I was so happy because now I was able to use it. This cut out has served me in the past for baking, cutting fabric, and during canning to put the hot jars on, now it is a table top! I’d say it is wearing it’s scars proudly:

I used it again as a plant stand:

Dressing it up

I have a bad habit, according to the husband, of always moving things around. He can never find anything when I do this, but sometimes you find things just don’t work so well anymore, so a need for change is called for. Or don’t you agree? Anyway, I ended up moving things around on the veranda, I did not like the way the coffee table stuck out in the middle, so I decided to move this into the corner, where I would be able to use it for my laptop. There also was room now for a lamp, which with the rapid shortening of the days is starting to become a necessity already if one wants to be able to see in the dark.

The Singer plant stand was moves into the place of the coffee table, and i added a lace table cloth to further perfect the look.

What do you think? I am quite happy with how it looks and how functional it is.

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