Almost Made the Trash, Now It's the Hardest Working Piece in the House

by Country Design Style-Jeanette

3 Materials

$70

8 Days

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Late last year I stopping at our local Habitat for Humanity ReStore and found two {yes TWO} old pump organs. I bought both for $50 each. They both were in bad shape and could not be refurbished. One I took apart and used the pieces for many DIY projects. Taking apart an old organ is not easy. It's even harder if your plans are to keep the organ in one piece. That was my plan for the second organ. It took months before I tackled the last organ. At times I tossed around the idea of having the trash people pick it up.
So glad I didn't!
Now it's the hardest working piece of furniture in the house!

almost made the trash now it s the hardest working piece in the house, how to, organizing, painted furniture, painting, repurposing upcycling, shelving ideas, storage ideas

This is the organ from the ReStore. This is not a tutorial post, just an inspirational post. All I can say about repurposing an old organ is that you will be surprised at the number of wires, small pieces of wood, flathead screws, and felt {yes, FELT} there is inside an old organ. I suggest when faced with any large DIY project to stick to it. If you need to step away for a bit, that's okay. Just don't give up completely.

With all the "guts" removed...and FELT, I started reworking the inside. The keyboard area was lowered to desk height. Cubbies were made to fit inside. They can be removed if I want to turn it into a bar or wine cabinet in the future.

I added two shelves in the bottom of the organ. The bottom shelf is where the pedals were. I made a little door with leftover pieces. The top shelf was just a panel. I turned the panel into a door. I'm using bins to store office supplies. The shelves go to the sides of the organ.

Here's the organ all painted and ready to fill. I used a chalked Rustoleum paint in country gray.

Filled up and ready to go to work! So happy I persevered and didn't trash it. There's more on the website and a link to sanding and waxing tips too.

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4 of 18 comments

Hillela G. on Jul 20, 2016
So unique and pretty!

1 Reply
- Country Design Style-Jeanette on Jul 21, 2016
  Thank you, Hillela! It turning into a great piece for our home.
  
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Jan11259144 on Sep 16, 2016
Thank you for posting this! We inherited an organ just like this one about a year ago. My husband started taking the top off to move it and oh my goodness it was quite a job. It is in our garage and everyday he says he's getting rid of it and I say no just wait and I'll figure out what we can do with it. So thank you for helping me. It's starting to cool off here in SC and we have a project to do!!! I can just hear him now!! Bless you!

1 Reply
- Country Design Style-Jeanette on Sep 16, 2016
  Janice, I was in the same situation. We had the organ sitting outside under a tarp for months. I almost called to have it taken to the dump! I'm so happy I didn't. I just worked a little each day on it. Now I have a great piece and it holds a ton of office supplies. I hope you share your organ here on Hometalk when you're done! Enjoy the process of DIY.
  
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