Repurpose Industrial Spools

by Ann Whitfield

3 Materials

$15

3 Days

Easy

I don't often see the medium size Industrial Spools for sale. I found 5 at Goodwill and grabbed them up before they were gone. Not knowing exactly what I was going use them for, they sat around for a while. Whatever I wound up doing, I would have to clean and sand them so I began there.

The beginning of the project.

I used a knife to clean out the gunk from the ridges and the undersides.

The underside. Very dirty.

I began to clean out the gunk from the space between the wood and the brass as well as the underside. I used a knife to dig out the gunk and Brasso to clean the brass areas.

Works fast.

Sanding was next. I used 100 grade and sanded until the imperfections were gone and the wood was smooth. I also sanded the bottom and used the Brasso to shine the Brass. I decided to paint the spools each a different color using acrylic paint. I began the first spool with Hookers Green covering the entire spool. After it dried, I went over a few areas with a Light Green to give it some depth. When that dried it gave the spool a look of leather. I liked the way the colors turned out. I added the Gold on the base for contrast. I continued to use two or more colors on the brown spool, Raw Umber, and Burnt Sienna, and the purple spool was painted in Brilliant Purple, Dioxazine Purple, and a light violet.

Green spool with faux yellow flowers.

I tried a few different items to create a catching table setting. The brown spool was used as a candle holder with a very pale yellow candle. For the purple spool, I inserted a nosegay of roses. However, I have some butterflies on tall wire holders that I also think would look great with the table setting.

Purple spool

I tried the butterflies. I think the wire on the green butterflies needs to be trimmed. I'll use a simple wire cutter and use that later for a different setting.

Butterflies.

I'm sorry that you can't see the entire spool. You will be able to see them all in the next picture in the final setting. I did not make the Birdhouse. However, it works well.