Here's how it started out - a two-by-three foot tiny coat closet. I had my electrician hang the chandelier, then I primed the closet using grey primer, because that's the color you're supposed to use if you are painting walls a dark red. White primer will show through and make the walls look pink, and don't nobody want that.
Here it is with the walls done. Floor fan is helping the drying process. So far, so good.
One cannot properly accomplish a project like this without music. I chose some really good 1960's/70's orchestral stuff, like what my mom used to play on the radio when we were cruising around in her Country Squire station wagon.
Once it was dry, I un-bagged the chandelier and starting taping off the door frame. The door itself was removed completely to keep the typewriterbrary open to view on a permanent basis.
Every project has to have a challenge - at least one - and I found out immediately that all the shelving brackets I had bought were completely useless, because the struts underneath were exactly where the typewriters on the shelf underneath that would need to sit. FAIL.
I had to come up with another way to mount the shelves.
Next came the installation (after cutting them to size) of the melamine shelves. The higher up ones I started with were fairly easy, because I could do this standing up.
Here it is with all the shelves installed, plus the cool little miniature oriental rug that I bought which exactly fits the floor!
Next up was figuring out how to put all the typewriters in there so they all fit. Took a bit of doing, but finally I got the configuration right! When I finished this project, we had 21 typewriters. Now we have 22, but luckily the newest one fits underneath the bottom shelf.
Next, I installed old-fashioned library label frames and wrote labels for each typewriter which show the year, make, and model of each.
The very last part of this project was coming up with a way to keep dust off the machines (dust will kill a typewriter faster than almost anything) while still leaving them visible.
The answer: A wine-colored organza fabric which is simultaneously see-through and also catches the light of the chandelier beautifully, making the whole thing look like a gothic waterfall.....
ET VOILA!!
THE TYPEWRITERBRARY!
I only have a turquoise typewriter.
ReplyDeleteLinda - one turquoise typewriter is worth ten of any other color!
ReplyDeleteWell, I have to say that that is an extraordinary achievement. It's the fact that you get them out and use them that really fascinates me.
ReplyDeleteThat's the best part about having them - using them! This is why the "typewriterbrary" was so important to me. I can grab one to use without having to go through the "which typewriter is in what case" song and dance... ha!
DeleteHow very creative, I love your collection of vintage typewriters !
ReplyDelete~Jo
Thanks, Jo! Good to see you over here again - I know I don't post much, so it's kind of you to remember me.
DeleteWell done. Very inventive. I don't myself yearn after typewriters, but I have far too many pieces of glass in various forms, so I understand the collecting gene. I quite like dusting them (fortunately) but would not enjoy dusting typewriters (and it wouldn't really work, would it?).
ReplyDeleteHi Pam! Sure, you can dust typewriters. A soft microfiber towel for the outside and a compressed air machine for the inside. Works a treat! I find that preventing them from getting dusty in the first place is much preferable, however. Same with my vintage glassware collection - I keep them in cabinets behind glass. Dust is one reason, and cats are another - 8-)
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