Thursday, May 30, 2013

Re-purposing a Card Catalog

The public library is no longer the only place for the card catalog as is evidenced by the many MANY stylish spaces that use these pieces.

I feel that the apothecary table (made popular by Pottery Barn, and then made REALLY popular by that episode of Friends) was the beginning of making these types of pieces with many little drawers popular for home decor.  If you don't get my reference to Friends, you HAVE to watch this clip...

While the card catalog isn't super functional for someone looking for serious storage (let's be honest, you aren't going to store linens, plates, or anything much larger than an index card in these bad boys) they bring a lot of character to a space, and for smaller things (art supplies, kitchen utensils, crafting materials, etc) they could prove as functional as they are lovely!

They look great in a hallway... as is evidenced by this photo...

And here, the card catalog brings a "cool factor" to this otherwise traditional kitchen...

Here, a smaller natural wood finished card catalog serves as small buffet tucked into a corner of this simple dining room...

And it fits in quite well with a rustic / urban living room - aren't all those brass handles fabulous??

And while it clearly works well in urban spaces, it works equally as well in a country-chic bedroom...

A quick Craigslist search just now proved that these are not easy to come by.  Not a single listing matched what I was looking for...

Wouldn't it be kind of cool to try to mimic the look of one of these cool card catalogs on a double-doored cabinet, using small drawer front facades, and loads of brass pulls?

Ooh, I'm having some good ideas!!!

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