Hats off to us!

Happy New Year!  I ended 2020 by giving Herb (a Gladstone bag!) his spa treatment - and then we welcomed 2021 by restoring this leather hat box.  How good does it look now?!

We bought the hat box at a December garage sale for the princely sum of $5.00 - yep, it had definitely seen better days.  It was very nicely made and we believe it might have been a special piece when new.

The box was in pretty good condition inside but I really wasn't sure I'd be able to restore the piece, given all the stains to the outer leather.  However, given the bargain price I was going to have a try!

I've watched many bag restoration tutorials on YouTube and decided to darken the leather with a few coats of Neatsfoot oil - hoping to lessen the visibility of the stains.  After a number of those oil applications, I used dark tan shoe polish to further even out the colour.  Once I was happy with those efforts, Nick was called upon to assist with handle repair.

In rummaging for something else, I found a belt in my drawer.  It was the same width as the mounts for the previous handle and deemed suitable to use for the repair.  I wasn't keen on the colour but thought to flip the piece upside-down and then darken it with the shoe polish.  Success!

Luckily Bunnings was open on New Year's Day and we ventured out to acquire a leather hole punch, some brass screws and extra glue.

Once home again, Nick attempted to punch holes in the belt piece.  Contrary to the belt's claim to be leather, at least one layer of it was not - and the punch wouldn't cut through.

Plan B was to first glue the handle in place, then drill holes and install the brass bolts when the glue had dried. 

Nick took a break to walk the dog and I had an afternoon nap while they were gone.  When I woke later, the handle was finished and looked absolutely splendid!

Nick used six bolts (with 12 washers) to attach the replacement handle - and they cost just under $5.00.  

So for an investment of just $10.00 we have now added a leather hat box to our growing set of monogrammed luggage!  The glue we had was enough for the handle attachment and all other leather cleaning, moisturising etc products were also on hand.  Minimal outlay was necessary, just a lot of TLC and some thinking outside the (hat) box.  Gotta be very happy with that!