Have I Got a Surprise for You!

You've seen pictures of my sewing machine cabinet before.  The actual cabinet measures 44" x 22".  In this picture a five-foot table is at the back of the cabinet, and a 2'x4' table is at the left.  When not in use, I keep those tables stored in their original boxes in the big sunroom closet, but those tables are heavy and a real pain to drag out and set up.  I cannot take them down by myself and get them back into storage, so I don't use them unless I'm working on a large quilt.

At the larger quilt shows, I've looked at those nice cabinets with all the "lift up table tops" (for lack of the proper name) that are attached to the back of the fancy cabinets, and of course, I started dreaming, and looking closely at the back of my cabinet.  I talked to the man who made the quilt racks for my patriotic quilts, and he looked at my cabinet and said he could fix it for me.  YEA!!!  Well, he "installed" it on the back of my cabinet yesterday.  It works great, and extends my working space from 44"x22" to 44" x 51" !!!

 He made two visits to my sunroom with his tablet, pencil, and tape measure, and came up with a plan that we both thought would be acceptable.  The top and back vertical sidesof my cabinet have a 3/4" extension past the vertical backing on the cabinet.  That 3/4" overlap is all he had to work with without putting screws in to the pretty finish anywhere on my cabinet, but he figured it out and got it done! 

He used piano hinges to attach the three pieces of wood.  The top has a very slick white finish glued onto plywood.  (I honestly don't know what it is --- maybe shower surround material?)  It drops down behind the cabinet over the supports I'll explain next.  He put a screen door handle on the back (which becomes the bottom) so I can lift it easily; how 'bout that?  I keep a 1/4" plexiglass on the cabinet top at all times when I'm sewing so I won't ruin the wood finish.  He took that into account when he mounted the white piece so that it is perfectly level with the top of the plexiglass!  With it being the same width as my cabinet, I won't have to worry about my quilts catching in the little corner that was there with the tables!  Yea, again!

This is how it operates.  I lift up on that little handle, then pull on that cord that goes through that little eye hook, which in turn pulls the supports out and away from the back of the cabinet where they store behind the new top when it is not in use.  When I'm ready to close up shop, I just lift on the handle just enough to push the supports back to the cabinet back, and then let the top down, and push the cabinet back to the window wall, just like before!  None of it will show in the room when not in use. 

This is how it will appear in use from my den.  Well, except that little checkerboard table won't always be at the end of the original cabinet.  (Still working on strings!)  You can see here that no "legs" touch the floor; those piano hinges took care of that!

This is how it looks closed down, just before it is pushed back to the window wall.  See those two little strings attached to wood dowels on the floor?  Those are what I pull after raising the top in order to pull the supports away from the back of the cabinet.  As you can see, the supports don't show at all when not in use!  Also you can see that the new top is dropped down below the top of the cabinet so that it will be barely visible against the wall when not in use.

I love the whole thing!  I think he did a wonderful job.  He asked me this morning at church if it was all still standing.  I told him yes, and that I had left it up all night just to test it!  *giggle*  I'll be putting it to use this week! 

Maybe I'll have something more on the string quilt soon.  Just so you know, it is looking really good--my opinion, of course.

---"Love"