Thursday, February 21, 2013

Sweetheart Cabinet

(Apologies in advance...this is another one of the nonsensical posts I make when I want to talk, but I don't really want to bitch and moan and dwell on crap around here but I don't have anything else good or nice to talk about at the moment, so....)

This is a Scheirich Sweetheart Hoosier-type cabinet made in Louisville, KY (date unknown).
Apparently these cabinets were originally painted with a Pennsylvania Dutch or Folk Art design:

See: C. Dianne Zweig

Via

Several years ago, my Mom was redecorating the kitchen of their N.GA Mountain home and she'd wanted a Hoosier cabinet to put in it. She found this Sweetheart-Hoosier type of cabinet, which was painted at the time just red & white.

(Everyone else calls it a Hoosier cabinet, but it has "Sweetheart" stamped on the back and for some reason I can't recall right now I got in the habit of calling it the "Sweetheart" cabinet. Maybe it's just sweeter to say.)


A while later, they redecorated the kitchen again, and she asked me if I wanted the cabinet.
'Course I did!


I had *almost* the perfect place to put it, in the add-on old pantry/ laundry room - turned entry/mudroom, except the space just wasn't quite wide enough.  I had to get J to move the doorway over about 4 inches.

Mom had painted all the red parts a Sage green to match her kitchen, and it took me forever to get the red paint I wanted to paint it back to what I thought was the original color.
I see now from original pics I may have went a little wild with the red, lol.
Oh well, I like mine better anyway.

The problem was, I could not match the red of the enamel bordering the table/counter thing. I bought can after can of different shades of red, but they were all wrong!
Finally, I got J to remove the table/counter thing and we took it to Home Depot and they put it in their color match machine and made us a custom paint.


I keep my kitchen-related antiques and other things of interest (probably only to me, though) in it.
There's an old bundt cake pan, vintage cheese grater, old red & white enamel coffee pot, old Folger's coffee jar, old snuff can, an Aunt Jemima syrup bottle, kitchen scale, a couple of S&P shakers, Chicken egg timer, Honey, and some other stuff, and several vintage and interesting Mason jars.

My Mom's maiden last name was Mason, so I enjoy keeping unique jars with neat pictures and/or "Mason" imprinted on them.


The letters in the top right window is our last name made in a farm theme. The "C" is cat with it's tail curled up and around, the "R's" are roosters, the "O" is a bag of oats, the "K" is a tea kettle, the "E" is like a chicken coop with a hen and eggs.

The bunch of grapes-looking picture hanging from the right handle is actually blueberries. It was attached to a blueberry bush plant I bought a couple years ago and planted out back (but obviously need to relocate somewhere else in the yard because they aren't growing well).  It has a blueberry cobbler recipe on the back.

The Postcard in the left side window we found at a State Welcome Center, but I can't recall exactly which one at the moment.  We used to be able to take multiple vacations every year, and we'd always stop at the State Welcome Centers for info and fodder for my scrapbooks (that I have yet to make).
This one has a picture of a peach (Georgia being "The Peach State") and says "Let us eat peaches and die!".

The quote is attributed to no one, and I didn't find anything when I googled it, so I assume some postcard creator or marketer thought it would attract people to want to eat peaches?

I found it amusing, but at the same time, thought it had to be one of the strangest things I've seen in a long time.

In the bottom and drawers I keep some of my "Stockpile" stuff I get when I do my coupon/deal shopping.

The biggest challenge is keeping it cleaned off. It's the first flat surface when you come in the door, so as you might imagine, pretty much everything gets sat down on it.
I'll also tend to sit things on it that I intend to do something with, like magazines that need to go Recycle, or stuff I want to give my son or his GF next time they come up.

4 comments:

Danielle said...

LOVE this! What a great cabinet.

Melissa said...

Thanks, Danielle!

FlipFlop Mom said...

Thank You for this post. I just inherited a hoosier cabinet just like this one!! I was told that the top shelf was cut and that I could replace that piece if I wanted to. I see that I'm actually missing the flour sifter!!! good thing I peeked at your blog!! Mind was painted a little differently than yours but I don't think I'm going to change that. I'm going to leave the original character to it!! THANKS!!

Melissa said...

Thank you, FlipFlop Mom, for letting me know this post was of interest/aid to you.

I don't blame you for wanting to keep the original character of yours. I try to do that as often as possible, too. I see a lot of good ideas where people have taken vintage things and spiffed them up with paint, but in the end I can't bring myself to do it.

I don't know what my cabinet looked like before my Mom got it, if it was already painted or she painted it, but the parts I painted red, were green when I got it.

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