Several decades ago a young bride made a purchase of an old cabinet with thick white paint dripping around some colorful Mexican decals. When the father of the bride saw what she’d purchased, there were words of disappointment in her choice and shock at spending $55 good dollars on something his family had thrown out decades before. So it was in the late 1960’s, while the youth of the day was trying to find their own ‘style’ the humble Hoosier Cabinet was reborn and found a new life in new surroundings.
Our first home was as humble as our first piece of furniture; a flimsy clapboard house with no kitchen cabinets. Hooray for the Hoosier cabinet. It served as a breakfast counter and panty. Before long we moved and the cabinet got a new paint job; antiquing was all the rage and it was an improvement.<br><br>

With it’s new antique paint job the cabinet moved into the tiny service porch across from the washing machine and became the sewing center; holding everything from spools of thread to lengths of fabric and the pull out enameled top served as a perfect surface for the sewing machine..<br><br>

Time moved us to our first home and the cabinet was put in the dining room and served as the bill paying desk with plenty of organized storage for stationary, pens, stamps and bills waiting to be paid Later the new piano arrived and took the space in the dining room, the cabinet moved to the kitchen and served once again, as a breakfast counter and storage for cereals, bowls and all things breakfast..<br><br>

A final move was made to the new house we built here and the cabinet got a final strip down of its antiquing and was finished in its original beautiful oak glory, sure miss those original latches and hinges though. The old Hoosier Cabinet sits once again in the dining room and houses of all things, crystal glassware, table linens, and candles and on occasion root vegetables in the tin bins.
So you can see how one piece of furniture can have many lives over the course of its lifetime. You just need to keep an open mind and re-think, re-purpose and re-use some of your old favorites.