When I spotted the cabinet from a distance at the auction house, I instantly thought of my handyman/friend Robert who’s just begun converting old stuff into something new.
He had asked me to be on the lookout for old gym lockers after having seen some revamped rather nicely on the web. I’d come across a set of two that had a boy’s name plastered all over them, but they were not what he was looking for.
This low cabinet was inspiring to me, and I figured that he would appreciate it, too.
Someone had used license plates as the cover for its drawers, making it lovely piece of furniture that would spark conversation. As I approached the cabinet, I saw that the license plates appeared to have been shellacked for protection. In fact, the entire cabinet had a shiny finish. It obviously had been a plain old cabinet with a wavy lower edge and curvy legs that had been converted and restored.
The license plates were Texas, from the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s. Three plates were for farm vehicles, and all were still in good condition. In the center front of the cabinet were two pullout drawers, and on either side were two swing-out doors. A knob was missing on the right door.
The license plates reminded me of two battered ones that I had found behind a heater in the detached garage of the house I bought some years ago. The house was built in the 1920s, and the license plates were from the 1940s, as I recall. I also have several others of my own from the various states where I lived, and they now line the top of the cabinets in my kitchen.
Vintage license plates come up at auction from time to time and they are quickly sold. They are both collectible (a few are rare) and seemingly easy to use for creative projects such as this cabinet. I found all kinds of uses on the web, including coffee table, chest of drawers/cabinet, outdoor room divider, clock, clipboard and a host of other purposes.
License-plate collectors have their own organization, the Automobile License Plate Collectors Association, and there are collectors who have their own websites with questions and answers for those interested in collecting license plates.
Most license plates are legally collectible, according to the association, except for U.S. government plates. It’s illegal to have them, and the association urges collectors not to “waste your money purchasing government plates.”
I’ll never be a license-plate collector, but maybe it’s time for me to re-purpose my two old plates into a work of art.
