Repurposed Antique Flour Bin Farmhouse Accent Table
One of the things I miss most about my mother-in-law is how she would revert from English to Spanish whenever she used terms of endearment. She referred to my sons as “Mijo” and my daughter as “Mija” (my son and my daughter), and when she felt sorry for one of them, usually when one of them was in trouble, she would say, “pobrecita” (poor dear).
Last month I went to an elderly woman’s yard sale where I bought an antique wooden ironing board, an antique lantern that my husband wired as a hanging light on our back porch, and an antique flour bin sifter.
As soon as I laid eyes on the flour bin sifter, her words immediately popped into my head. “Pobrecita.”
It had lots of issues, but she saw me looking at the $15 price tag and said, “I’ll take $5 for it.” I couldn’t imagine that anyone else would want it, so I took her up on the offer and brought it home too, hoping I could find a way to use it.
I found this similar one searching online. It’s obviously in much better condition, but you can see that the open hole in mine was originally a hinged door, presumably to remove the sifted flour.
I wasn’t exactly sure what I would do with it, so it sat for several weeks. But then it occurred to me it would make a unique little accent table, so here’s how we did it (this post includes affiliate links to the products we used).
How We Made an Antique Flour Bin Farmhouse Accent Table
My husband cut the bin with his metal snip just below the text to remove the section where the missing door had been.
It was a rough cut, so we added black door trim for autos, which has a slit in it and could be slid over the cut edge.
I bought a round table top. It looks smaller than the bin from the angle in this photo looking down, but it’s actually larger than the bin.
I stained the wood top before attaching it to the bin.
I didn’t want to put screws into the bin to attach the top, so I flipped the bin upside down onto the top and used a thick bead of E-6000 around the inside of the bin and let it drip onto the wood. I let it dry for several days and it worked like a charm.
It really was an easy project. The only tool that was required was the tin snip, and the only additional purchases were the wood round for the top and the auto trim for around the bottom. I already had the wood stain and glue.
You can make your own with this vintage style drum drum table that looks very similar.
I’m so glad I found a way to repurpose this piece of history and turn it into something useful again.
My storage unit-turned photo studio came in very handy when shooting these photos! It’s worth the cheap fee once a month to have a space outside my house that doesn’t require cleaning or rearranging before I take my photos.
I bought the adorable poultry feed sack pillow for less than $5 on Amazon, including shipping (affiliate link). I love how it looks on the little apple red woven chair I did a makeover on a few years ago.
I’d love to hear your thoughts about my little antique flour bin farmhouse accent table in the comments below, and please, take a moment to pin it on Pinterest and share it on your favorite social media.
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Love! I will trade you Something in my shoppe for that! https://www.etsy.com/shop/PrairieTreasure
Sorry Mary – It’s a keeper!
Never ever seen one before and I LOVE it, you made a real bang up job it looks amazing, just shows what a little foresight will do…hope you enjoy for some time to come..x
This is a very cool piece Angie, I might have tried closing the bottom with a wood round ,added that trim but left the top removable for a bit of outside storage. What a bargain !
love it!!!
Thanks Michele! 🙂
Love it!! Wish I could find goodies like this at a garage sale
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I rarely find affordable antiques at yard sales. It was a rare one Brenda.
That is so sweet , i love what you did and it makes a great table and conversation piece. Old pieces like this are useful but they made them so lovely
Great score and really a one of a kind treasure❤️
Thank you, Judy. 🙂
I have never seen one of those items before. It’s great what you did with it. It makes it so useful to have an extra small table around! I love it!
About the endearments from your Spanish-speaking MIL: It’s sweet that she does that. Sometimes things sound even better in another language, especially when they were meant to be. My Italian grandma would sneak one in every once in awhile. She liked saying “bella luna” {beautiful moon} when she noticed the moon was up. I liked hearing it. It was special to hear something from the language of my Italian ancestors.
Absolutely is the neatest idea. You find the greatest things at yard sales.
Awesome idea! This would go great on my front porch :).
I love this! What a great piece and idea.
Thanks so much, April!
I would have scooped this up too! So simple, functional, and pretty! Pinned
I absolutely love this!! I hae a flour sifter that is complete and will be listing tonight but let me tell you, I will keep it if it doesn’t sell and do something similar to what you did here. Only I wouldnt cut because it’s complete. 😁
Great job!!!
Gorgeous upcycle. Love it.