Early access: a Singer frame gets a reclaimed oak top

This one's up here first for the club before it goes public on YouTube tomorrow. I took an old cast iron Singer sewing machine base and some solid vintage oak from a borer-ridden mid-century dresser, and turned them into a hallway console. I didn't buy a single new piece of timber.What's in it: Why I left the frame rustic. It got a good clean and a bit of TLC, but no strip and repaint. The natural wear is the character. The plan, using a very rough drawing on contiboard: oak boards running lengthways, pallet style, sitting on two cross bars, all screwed from underneath so you never see a screw. Pulling the drawers apart and keeping what I could. The fronts were fine, but the backs were full of borer, so those went in the bin. The cross bars came from the under-drawer rails of the same dresser, and one of them still has a hole in it. Once you strip the varnish, it turns out to be quarter sawn tiger oak. A shortcut worth stealing: I flipped the boards and used the untreated undersides as the top. That meant no old finish to fight, no blotchy colour, and just a loose sand. Getting the spacing right: 570mm centre to centre to line up with the frame's fixing holes, then pencil marks for the gaps. There's also the moment I thought I'd made a boo boo with the screw-from-below plan. Finishing with linseed oil and nothing else. Saw, screws, a bit of sanding and some old oak. That's the whole kit list. If you've got a Singer base sitting in a shed somewhere, this is your sign.Would you have stripped and repainted the frame, or left it like I did? Tell me below.

Country/region

Viewing By Arrangement Only.