One of my fascinations is decorating my house with leather in unusual places. I don’t always have the brain power to switch modes and work with another medium, so anything I need done around the house is usually done in leather, when possible.
A few months back I found this fabulous hotel key case at Second Use – a local salvage yard. I’ve gotten some great things there and totally stalked their website when I was looking for pieces for the studio (more on this to come). When this piece popped up I had to have it – we have so many keys I don’t even know what to do with them. The idea of hanging them in a refurbished antique turned art object was irresistible. So, for $75 (yeah, I probably could have built it for less, but then it wouldn’t have been antique!) I got this:
I loved the old hooks and the scrawled numbers, but the fabric backing was in terrible shape. I unscrewed all of the little hooks, then cut myself a sheet of leather the size of the back, and got to work. I measured and pre-punched the holes for the hooks (I cut down the number since I don’t have 100+ keys – I think I was left with about 48 holes)
This is one of the larger pieces I’ve done recently, so it was a bit of an adventure. It’s bigger than my workspace so I was often working sideways, trying to get everything branded and painted.
When the leather was done I painted the outside of the cabinet and added a little caulk to keep the glass in. Then I glued the leather to the back, re-inserted all the little hooks, and made a set of key chains for all the keys I have (see – there are a lot!!). Here’s the finished piece:
So, what do you think? (And yes, I’ll post more photos when I figure out how to hang it on the wall!)
xo
c
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