Good Morning!
Did you all have a nice weekend? Ours was busy, but somehow relaxing at the same time. We braved the freezing temps (I swear my calendar says it’s May, but this feels like March weather) bright and early Sunday morning for a trip to the flea market – after getting home around midnight the night before, mind you. We take our flea marketing pretty seriously 😉
Sadly there were not many treasures to be found. Jordan snagged a few tools and I found a cute copper pie plate looking dish (I think that’s what it is, I really have no idea) and that was all. Oh well, sometimes that’s just how it goes, you know?
I may not have scored many treasures on yesterday’s adventure, but I did pick up a few fun finds a month or so ago when a set of vintage metal shredders caught my eye at an antique store. I knew I wanted to bring them home, I just wasn’t sure if I wanted to hang them as-is on the wall somewhere, or try something creative, but at $10 for the set, I couldn’t pass them up.
I decided to give creativity a go and I’m pretty excited to show you what we did with them over the weekend, because I think they turned out pretty cute…
We turned them into bud vases! 😀
As with most projects I do, I completely forgot to take a picture until they were all put together – it’s almost like I totally ignore the fact that I have this blog sometimes. Geesh! But I can kind of walk you through the basic process in case you want to try this yourself – I think these shredders were a popular kitchen staple back in the day and are probably not hard to come by.
I knew I wanted to hang them with twine, so Jordan drilled two little holes in the top of each shredder and we simply fed the twine through and secured it underneath with a tight knot.
I rounded up an assortment of basic glass bud vases that I had on hand (easily found at any dollar store, thrift store, etc.) We tried a few different shapes, but liked the tall round ones the best. I chose to hang each vase on the back of each shredder, but you could always hang them on the front too – it looks just as cute.
To secure each vase, we used stainless steel wire. Jordan is a welder, so he had a roll of stainless steel welding wire in the garage, which is very strong, but not the easiest to work with. He said a more flexible (and less expensive) stainless steel wire is available that would probably be easier to use, but we didn’t have that around the house and opted to use what we did have.
We fed a piece of wire through the holes of the shredder at the top and bottom of each vase and secured them tightly in the back.
And just like that your vintage shredder is now an adorable hanging bud vase. I have one hanging near the kitchen sink and the other two on a wall in the dining room for now.
I love finding old things like this and dreaming up new ways to make them relevant. Sometimes my ideas don’t exactly turn out the way I had them pictured in my head…or even close to the way I had them pictured in my head…but then other times they turn out even better than I had planned.
This is one of those “better than planned times”. 🙂
So what do you think of our little “shredder vases”? Can you think of another fun way to use this old kitchen tool?
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Oh how cute!! I love them. At first I thought the vase would eventually slip out from the wire holding it to the grater but then I saw that the grater has a built in convenient shelf! :o)
Tania
Thank you, Tania! The wire is extremely strong and they’re still very secure – but they do kind of have a little built in shelf just in case. I actually set the vase right on there beforehand and it sits there on its own…although I wouldn’t suggest leaving it there unsecured lol. 🙂
Very cute. I stolled through your house (via your house tour) while having my morning tea. I love your decor, and really loved your ladders. Thanks for the inspiration!
Thank you so much, Ann! I’m so glad you enjoyed your tour. 🙂
How clever! How charming! How adorable! Excellent idea!
Thanks, Judy! Glad you like them. 🙂
I love these bud vases. Great idea and so simple. I suppose you could put a little sand in the bottom of the vase with a taper candle if you wanted a change from flowers. Unless that made it to heavy.
I LOVE that idea, Donna! I don’t think it would make them too heavy at all. I may just have to test it out. 🙂
Another great idea, I love these as well, and you said you weren’t very crafty, I beg to differ!!!
Keep them coming, and don’t forget Mom’s love these ideas for her house too!
I’ll be sure to keep my eyes open for another shredder. 😉
Adorable, Tonya- I love them!
Thanks, Kate! 🙂
What a creative project!
Thank you, Jenny! 🙂
Well look at you go! You are on a roll of fantastic creativity…these are brilliant! I personally have never seen shredders, (we call them graters) this shape. I’m going to be on the lookout for this style from now on as I love your project. I have a super old cylinder type grater that I turned into a lamp base years ago for my kitchen bench. It’s quirky and makes me grin 🙂
Your lamp sounds darling, Min! We should always surround ourselves with the things that make us grin. 🙂