UPcycled – Vintage Frame Thread Holder

When I first set up my craft/sewing room I set out on the hunt for the run of the mill mini rack spool holder for my small collection of thread. Unfortunately there is not a variety of thread storage available at the big name stores. Not to mention they are not cheap! I caved and bought a small wall mountable one. Can be seen here on the wall to the left of the fabric covered corkboard.

Its a sad little thread holder…. it didn’t make me smile. My collection then started to grow to contain the large cone spools. I had no choice but to stack them in the deep dark bookshelves… where they got lost.

After re-flooring and painting the room (super late post to come about that whole process), I am finally getting to organize the room the way I really like it. I volunteered Heather to help me build a gigantic custom thread holder to store all of my thread, luckily she didn’t put up a fight. We had talked about framing the whole thing with molding of some kind but with the cost of intricate molding, I thought was going to have to postpone the decorative part of the project.

Now let me tell you… Heather is a fearless Craigslist shopper! She will hunt down a bargain and negotiating prices. While she was out purchasing an old picture frame when she came across this gem…

She didn’t hesitate to snatch it up for me! (That’s a good friend). When I got to see it, the skies parted and I heard angels singing from the heavens! It was uhhhh-mazing! The detail in the wood… oh, the places this frame has been…what it has probably seen! We both knew it was going to be perfect for the thread holder.

Guest starring as our little helper was Olive the black lab.

We diligently measured the frame and drew out a mock up of the shelves to determine the amount of materials that would be needed. A trip to the hardware store for lumber was an adventure in the pouring rain but we were not going to let anything stop us!

Time for tools! We were going to use the Kreg Jeg and I was really excited about getting to meet this little guy.

Lots and lots of precise cuts made here.

Kreg Jeg time! It was super easy to use and I knew the shelves were going to be super sturdy with these joins. (see the other awesome sister frame in the background?? $10.00 CL find!)

We have the beginnings of a thread holder! The top shelf is narrower than the 2 lowers because that’s where I want to be placing my smaller spools. Large cone spools will fit perfectly on the bottom half.

We carefully placed the old frame onto the newly built shelving. Look out those details!

Once we knew the fit was going to be perfect, we added some wood glue and brought out the nail gun. Looks good to me!

for info: no eyes or fingers were lost during the photographing of this project =)

A few carefully placed finishing nails secured the old frame to the new wood. She’s gorgeous!! And the fact that it was something we put together ourselves made it even more amazing!

After the exciting building day I couldn’t wait to get the paint on her. I am not a very patient person, but I was going to be forced to wait for a free day to tackle the paint job. We were all in need of some rest. Including Ivy who held down the fort back at home during the build. This is how she soothes herself to sleep…. I dare not take the toy away from her til she is snoring.

Fast forward to the first sunny day after some rain… I laid down some old fabric to catch some overspray (keyword “some”, I came to find out). Ivy continuing with QA duties…

Time for primer!

She’s looking good aleady!

The raw wood was soaking up A TON of primer =( . But its better than having to use a lot of the main color. This was going to be a long spray painting day…

Finally, time for the guest of honor….. I bring you Rustoleum’s Lagoon! The prettiest turquoise spray paint in all of the land. I promise!

This color proved difficult to photograph. Its a lot more turquoise then how it shows up here after the 1st coat. In person it is much more rich and has a deeper undertone.

Coat #2…. we’re getting there. My hands were starting to ache from going thru 4 cans of primer and paint.

The detail in the frame was showing thru exactly how I envisioned.

It was time to bring her inside. I carefully placed the frame on the wall with some secure hardware and began the painstaking OCD process of organizing the thread spools.

In the morning… there she was greeting me as I came down the stairs…