New life for letterpress drawer

Another revamp. For sooo long now i've been wanting to get my hands on one of those shadowboxes with many small squares to display my small toys in. You know one of those letterpress drawers. I knew i wanted one and redo it, paint it, make it pretty, ismoyo style. I did find an amazing piece but that was when i was still living in Amsterdam and getting ready for the big move overseas. Not a perfect time to purchase a heavy wooden item. Would not fit easily in my suitcase...

So i told myself i had to wait until i was settled in over here. Not even knowing for sure if these kind of letterpress drawers were a thing you could easily find here. I knew they were a big hit in the Netherlands in the seventies. A lot of houses had one of those on the wall filled with small ceramics.

How happy was i when i discovered this (dusty) piece in a small thriftshop not too far from my home? I was dancing inside.

A while ago, before i found my piece, i got even more inspired to go on a hunt for one, when i saw a revamp of a house shaped shadowbox with lots of squares for display on the Craft Addictions blog. She did a great job painting hers and putting pretty papers as the background. My version was to paint the outside and all the edges/borders between the squares a crisp white and use lots of fabric scraps and modge podge glue for the backgrounds. There was a lot of measuring and cutting to get the fabrics the right sizes, i don't know why, but almost every square was another size then the others.

I could not wait to hang it up on the wall. I choose my favorite wall which i think is perfect for this. Added some small toys and needle felted animals to display and you have new wall decoration and a very very happy me!