It's been over a year now that we picked up a vintage laundry hamper at an estate sale. I think we got it for like $5 if that - but it was in a bad condition and certainly hadn't been looked after too well. Joe remembered when I revamped a wicker laundry hamper from a charity shop and thought i'd enjoy doing another one. How right he was.
Yet until moving I didn't have the space to clean, paint and air it, so the nasty top was covered in a piece of material and it was hidden away somewhat. Until now. The hamper dates from the 1950's and was manufactured by Detecto of New York - a company famous for manufacturing scales. These aluminum hampers were often advertised as being "the lifetime hamper" and by the late 1940's were retailing for around $9.95 with the small print of "slightly higher west of Miss".
Yet until moving I didn't have the space to clean, paint and air it, so the nasty top was covered in a piece of material and it was hidden away somewhat. Until now. The hamper dates from the 1950's and was manufactured by Detecto of New York - a company famous for manufacturing scales. These aluminum hampers were often advertised as being "the lifetime hamper" and by the late 1940's were retailing for around $9.95 with the small print of "slightly higher west of Miss".
Many came designed with hand
painted decorations - ones that were often floral but this one had a
repeating circular design with gold trim. Sadly at some stage it had
been (badly) repainted in a pastel green (actually it doesn't look as
green as it really did in those photographs) with questionable staining
inside. As for the lid well that had a mix of the green and cream paint -
delightful! Originally it would have stood upon four little legs, sadly
they were hacked off.
Now this revamp really didn't end up has planned. After striping off the green paint I'd intended to repaint it a bright, simple white (after finding some left over paint in the garage - perfect) but after getting 3/4 through the removal process, I noticed a somewhat pealing protective coating - which you can see coming off in the photograph below. Now, if you're a perfectionist when it comes to vintage, doing what I did - removing it was probably a no no, but then again, the perfection part of the hamper went when someone else painted it horribly.
Removing the layer left behind a lovely off white, clean surface one that makes the design really stand out and one I'm not going to touch. Cleaning up the gold trims - one of which was painted over (sigh) the rest was more of a repair job - gluing, repainting the inside of the top and the handles. Speaking of which the handles were a pain, being fastened on with fancy vintage hinges I couldn't remove them so spray painting them was never a option. Sigh. As much as I didn't want to, the answer came with painting them white then using some Martha Stewart gold glittery paint to add some extra gold into the piece. Jazzy!
It's fitting that the hamper now finds a use within a 1950's house, it's clean, it's beautiful and functional - something I always love my vintage pieces to be. While the revamp certainly didn't go as planned - it comes to show you have to expect the unexpected when it comes with working and revamping vintage pieces. Sometimes they still have something to reveal.
Revamped anything yourself lately?
