Dreams of My Liquor Cabinet

I had an odd dream last night that the high school where I teach had lined the halls with vintage furniture.  I loved the laid back, creative vibe it created! Outside my own classroom door I recognized a cabinet with glass doors and realized the school wasn't decorating the space, they were getting rid of some of my favorite treasures.  It felt like a shame to me, and I was compelled to let folks know how these pieces could be repurposed!

Yep, my subconscious is doing back-flips with the leave of absence I am taking from teaching this year.
In case you need the backstory, I chose to take this year to pursue a photography business and to be more present with my kids.  It's been fantastic.  As folks ask "What's next?" more and more and I adjust back into a full-time teaching mentality, my dreams are getting a little kooky.

From last night's strange dream, though, I do feel inspired to share this cabinet with you!  I'ts been about a year since it came to live with us, but better late than never.

When I was hunting a small cabinet in which to store our liquor and glasses last spring, I kept comparing the ones I was seeing on swap sites to a specific one in my mind--glass doors, elbow height or so, classic color and lines.  That actual cabinet has been part of the scenery of my entire life.

It originally belonged to neighbors of my grandparents back when my mom and her siblings were kids.  Those neighbors were giving it away, along with some other pieces those many years ago, and it has since been my grandmother's and then my mom's, displaying deviled egg trays, souvenir plates from various travels, and other mementos from my family's history.  I eventually decided that I might as well ask my mom if she would be willing to part with the cabinet, and as it had become a bit of a hodge-podge catchall in her guest room, she had just recently been considering letting it go. 

Within days it was in my living room, perfectly displaying Mike's collection of pint glasses, my grandpa's old high ball and shot glasses, and all of our pretty booze.  It's no surprise that whenever I reach in there for a glass I think of what a shame it is that my husband and my grandpa never got to have a beer or a shot of whisky together (Mike and I met a few months after my grandparents passed away).  It's nice to imagine that occasionally, though, as somber as it is.

The rest of the furniture in that space is relatively new, and this cabinet adds some gravity to the room with its age and wear.  It did have a pretty deep gash in the wood, probably from my own kids when visiting Grandma, but a little Old English Scratch Cover took care of that--no big refinishing project necessary.  This is not a paid advertisement, just some words from experience.



If you identify a storage need in your home, maybe for books or games or tequila and gin, consider giving new life to an old piece with just a little polish and a new purpose.

I'm off to ponder the obvious overlap in my dream between my home space and my work space, my desire to share and teach and my desire to be creative, and ultimately the whole concept of purpose and how that changes over time.