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Antique Sewing Machine Base as Coffee Table

13 years ago

I have been looking for a new coffee table for my family room. I also have an antique sewing machine - the top is trash, but the base is great. I just had the idea that it could be a perfect height for a coffee table.

I am thinking of a glass top. I have been googling and googling and cannot find pictures. I would like to 'see' what this could look like.

If anyone has any sites they could point me to or has any pictures, I would greatly appreciate it.

Thanks a lot.

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Comments (4)

Oakley
13 years ago
Look at the 4th picture in this link. You could easily put glass on top.

Here is a link that might be useful: Coffee Table
no_green_thumb
Original Author
13 years ago
Thanks, Oakley. Tonight I am going to have DH help me take it apart and drag the base upstairs so we can see how it looks. He is pretty excited that this will be way cheaper than a new one if my idea works.
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Holy Cow! I have one of those! I've never seen a table like mine before and didn't know until this moment that it was a sewing table. I found my table at a second-hand furniture/antiques shop and thought it breathtakingly charming. The octagon shaped top/lid is inlaid with various exotic woods, and inside there are 9 sections for notions. Each section has a lid that lifts off and each section and lid is numbered 1 through 9, and the lids only fit on their correspondingly numbered section. There in a large, inverted cone-shaped section in the middle that is 14 to 15 inches deep. Finally, the tri-legged base in quite elaborately carved with ball and claw feet. I am so excited to have read about your table. Now I can begin the fun of researching it!
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Either this is not the complete frame, or it's very unusual. I collect and also use treadle sewing machines, and I've never seen one yet where the wheel exceeds the frame height. The drawers on old treadles with cabinets dropped down to either side of the frame, and did not sit on top of it, thus raising the height that much. Lots of machinery in the pre-motor era ran by treadle, not just sewing machines, but for industrial use, they weren't that fancy. The wheel must be accomodated for somehow,. It does not protrude past the bottom of the table base, ever, nor does the part of the cabinet with drawers ever sit on the frame.......just the flat bed of it. Go google pictures of treadle sewing machines and see what I mean.
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This site has a discussion about Japanese sewing machines being clones of American machines and why they usually hid their place of manufacture and how they named the machines... it may help you. Does your machine "look" like an old Singer? If so, this site has copies of old manuals. If yours isn't listed on this page, try browsing around the site. It has OODLES of old machines. And here is a third option, just email the folks at this site and send them absolutely all the info you have, and if you can, send them a picture - as they say, a picture is worth a thousand words!
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Oakley
13 years ago
Here's a picture of mine, but it's being used in a corner of the room, and is too tall for a coffee table.

I bought it at a garage sale about 30 years ago for $5.00! Someone put a gorgeous piece of thick, solid Oak on it.
no_green_thumb
Original Author
13 years ago
That is also a neat idea - and I thought of that - if I only had time to visit salvage places and such. It is really strange, because mine is so low. I sort of measured it against my knee and it is about the same height as my current coffee table - yet yours is so tall --- wonder how the machine fit on top of it - mine has a whole cabinet on top with drawers (2) on each side ----
The other thing I am trying to do is avoid the Made in China tables - I just bought furniture and it is USA made. Some of the components may be made in China - I don't know -but it is made in Indiana. I have no large pieces made other than the good ol' US of A - and I would like to keep it that way. I have been looking at tables in the $600 - $800 range and all are made in China. I think this is one of the 'be true to yourself' in decorating things. It might not matter to someone else, but I find it important. Of course, when I told DH I was once again saving him money, he was all for it!!

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