When we finished drywalling and painting in our kitchen, I noticed that there were two awkward, large hooks on the wall near the sink.  No thank you, I thought as I grabbed a screwdriver and took them down. As I dried some dishes a day later, I realized what the hooks were for---dishtowels.  Hmmmm. 

I wanted to find a smaller, more interesting solution for hanging towels on the wall. Garth and I have been on a creative reuse kick in the kitchen, we are trying to repurpose kitchen-related items in cleaver ways. Several weeks earlier I noticed that one of our favorite antique stores had a basket of old silver forks, spoons, and knives for a dollar a piece. Suddenly this seemed like the perfect (and thrifty) solution to my dishtowel dilemma. I picked out a couple of spoons and a small spreading knife and got to work. I clamped the bowl of a spoon in our shop vise and cranked it until it was flat. Next, I clamped the arched neck of the spoon in the vise and squeezed it flat as well. Now that the entire spoon was flattened I used the vise to hold it tight while I slowly, carefully, bent the spoon handle backwards (this way when it was hung on the wall the decorative edge of the handle would face out).

Finally, I used a wood/metal drill bit to drill three holes in the flattened bowl of the spoon. Ta-da! I made a dishtowel hook that was ready to hang. I repeated this process for my other spoon and the spreading knife. Making three hooks took me about fifteen minutes. I took a look on Etsy (because turning old utensils into something else is no new idea) and found a seller out of Wisconsin making hooks and other exciting objects out of old cutlery for very reasonable prices.  If you aren't into trolling antique stores to find your own vintage utensils take a look at JJEvensenArt and support a crafter who is committed to repurposing!

0 Comments