The Yarnoire search continues

 I've been looking for fibre storage for ages.  Specifically, I've been looking for what I've been lovingly calling a Yarnoire.  An armoire cupboard of sorts, to hold lots of fibre and hide it adequately.  I'd probably hide it from myself with the put it in a safe place syndrome, but currently, my homework fibres are starting to be decorating elements in my living room.  The big problem is that I don't want a cheap mds armoire and my tastes are way out of line with my budget.  It seems I can zero in on every single armoire which starts at $1600 and goes way up from there.  There are obviously very few deals where I've been looking.  While open shelving works, Kevin, the exploring, naughty kitty also likes open shelving and bats the fibre bags down to play with them, hence the desire for a lovely closed armoire.

We were wandering through a thrift store the other day and I took  a quick gander down the line of dining tables and 1980's hutches.  There was this little chest of drawers with tacky hardware and a coat of teal paint.   It was pretty enough and I opened the drawers and it seemed sturdy.  I had hubby check it out and he declared it sturdy enough as well.  The drawing point for this chest of drawers, besides needing fibre storage, was the price.  It was priced at $35!  It was obviously wood and not fibre board or mds.   After thinking about it for about 2 1/2 minutes, I went and paid for it.  One of the workers helped hubby load it into the back of the truck, when I was told that for a little chest, it was really heavy.   It's not really that small either, but it looked tiny when it was dwarfed between two huge and ugly china hutches.

A good look at it in the daylight shows that we might have gotten a deal with this purchase.  It really

is heavy.  While there is a very thin sheet of plywood on the back, it covers up the original wooden slat back.   Two of the 3 drawer locks are there, though metal plugs have been put in two of the lock key holes.  I checked the drawer joints as they can tell a lot about how a piece is made. I had to look up this particular joinery type because I'd never seen it before.  It turns out it's a peg and scallop joint or a Knapp joint.  It was patented in 1867 by one Mr. C. Knapp.  It was a mechanized alternative to  hand made dovetail joinery.  By 1890 it had fallen out of fashion as mechanized dovetail machinery had been developed, which appealed to the Colonial Revival style which was fashionable at the time.  By about 1900, the dovetail had completely replaced the Knapp joint.

It's said that joinery of this style easily dates a piece of furniture. So I'm guessing that this is an Eastlake style chest from the latter part of the 19th century.  It's probably Oak, though I don't really know anything about identifying wood. I'm going on the fact that I read that much Eastlake style furniture was made of oak and walnut.   You know, oak is light coloured, walnut is dark.  At $35, it was a  real bargain.  I've priced replacement hardware, both originals and reproductions.  It's going to cost me more to replace the hardware than the price of the chest itself.  There there is that teal paint.  That might be a job for next spring.

I'm still looking for my Yarnoire though.  As pretty as this little chest is, it won't hold all the necessary fibre.