Upcycled / Repurposed Pay Phone + Phone Charger + Bank + Accent Light Creation
Hey folks! I'm opening the door to the GadgetSponge Garage and revealing something I'm very proud of...
The biggest question is, "What is it not!?" I was lucky enough to run across a pay phone at a garage sale and then a few weeks later, I found the used metal casing/shell. The shell was pretty beat up but still had a lot of character.
The encasing that the shell provides drove me right to where I wanted to go with this piece. I wanted to bring old technology together with new technology. Although the enclosed strip outlet will charge most anything, I figured most would charge their phones, Kindles, or other small devices in the bottom basket area.
I custom cut and fitted the wooden structure to securely hold the strip outlet in place. The top panel opens up and allows you to plug into up to 5 devices. Vintage typewriter keys allow each person to see which charge cord is there's when the plugs are full. You can see how the panel raises up below....
The hardwired lighting in the top "Phone" compartment was shot. So I took it all apart and installed a new fixture with a nice LED bulb (to last a long, long time and to not get too hot) and drilled a hole in the acrylic panel so that a switch chain could drop down. This will now allow the new owner to turn on and off the light as they choose.
Next up is I had to find something to occupy the empty hole where the coin holder went. I still wanted to use the coin slot as a means to collect money so I looked around and found this old maple syrup tin that fit just right. I put a vintage handle on it and now it's fun to put the money into the coin slot and save it for a rainy day!
The whole inside and outside of the phone casing was a bright red/orange. I wanted to liven it up some on the outside. I laid down two different colors of chalk paint and distressed them to show through each other. Then, I taped off section to paint on some metallic silver. Then after some more distressing, I added in some dark wax. I was chasing the distressed style of a phone that had been in place many years and with many paint layers that had chipped away and worn away with the seasons. I think I didn pretty good!
