Spoons Glorious Spoons!

Okay, I threatened to do it. I talked about it for months. I even had all the materials ready to go. Then I finally took a deep breath and made it happen.

I drilled holes through antique spoons and attached to my kitchen cabinets as part of our renovation.

There, I said it, I did it..... yes, I DRILLED HOLES through the bowls of antique spoons.

But.... hear me out. They were just sitting in a drawer. Now, they are on display. Granted, they are now useless as spoons. But I wasn't using them anyway - they were in a drawer..... (am I trying to convince you or myself here?)



So, the first step was to decide which spoons would go there. I had a few tablespoon or serving spoon sized ones, but way more of the regular teaspoon sized ones.

I laid them all out and picked the ones with the designs I liked, some of the handles are so beautiful.

Then I bent the spoons a bit so the bowl and handle would be on the wood and there would be space to 'grab' the spoons in the middle, like a regular handle.




Here you can see the bend in the spoons to make them more like a handle. They bend pretty easily, I used a pair of pliers to help a bit and bent them slowly so not to break them or bend them too far.




We bought a special drill bit for this project that would drill through the metal without breaking. The spoons were pretty easy to drill through, but I'll admit I should have used some kind of vice to hold the spoons. Putting a dimple with a nail where I wanted the hole might have helped keep the drill bit from moving around a little before biting into the metal (some of my holes are not dead center like I wanted).




Here you can see the age of the spoons, the worn tarnished beauty of the spoons is why is really wanted then on display somewhere!



I used the bolt (that I was using to attach the bowl to the wood) to test each spoon as I drilled the holes to make sure I was getting them big enough. I used a really thick piece of wood behind the spoons to drill into..... I didn't want to drill into my new floor or counter!

Also, I vacuumed each time I drilled a set of spoons. The metal shavings are really sharp, I managed to get one in my thumb and it hurt! So, right after drilling the holes, before I moved and disturbed the dust I grabbed the shop vac hose and got those little shavings taken care of!


This one doesn't have a fancy handle, but it is my favorite spoon. The right side of the bowl of the spoon is extremely worn down, like this was the only serving spoon for a family so it was used a lot and for many many years. If spoons could talk!


To attach the spoons to the doors I used the hole that was already there from the little knob handles I took off when I painted the cabinets. I really didn't want to drill into the handles of the spoons - that would have really messed up the beautiful handles.

My solution was to drill two holes close to the sides of the handles where it touched the wood and put wire around the handles. So far, it is holding tight!



Here you can see the tiny holes and the wire that is holding the handle of the spoon to the door. Between that and the bolts, the spoons are tight to the door.



The drawers were a little trickier. Since they had holds in the middle from the knobs that were previously on there, I had to fill those holes before I primed and painted them.

Then, I had to drill all new holes for the bolts and wire. This required just eyeballing where the spoon would go and making marks.

Each spoon is different so measuring wasn't going to work, I just put them where I thought they were relatively straight and centered and went for it!



This is what it looks like all put together. Between the random tile back splash, the funky curved counter top and the spoons as handles I think my kitchen is finally 'ME'!

I'm extremely pleased with the outcome. This kitchen is only about nine years old, but now it looks loved and lived-in and..... it looks like it is mine!

So, take the plunge. Look around in boxes and drawers and see what beautiful pieces of history you have hidden away that can be upcycled into something usable for NOW! Upcycle Life!!



Kitchen 'Before'. It was really tight (we added a pantry) and just no me with all the light wood and boring silver knobs on the doors.... but don't worry. I saved all the knobs, just in case I can upcycle them into another project!




'Kitchen After' - um, yes, that's me.... in my grubbies because I had moved on to another renovation project.... the music room!