I spent a good 80% of the day doing this, the only thing I didn't re-upholster was the checkered barrel piece, as it was still in descent shape and will require taking apart to re-do.
I found a few yards of an ultrasuede at Joann's Fabrics last weekend that I picked up for under 10 dollars that was a really nice muted slate gray color, I was really hoping it'd be enough, but that proved to be a bad judgment call on my part. I realized that I was going to have to come up with additional fabric, knowing that Joann's didnt have any more of this particular fabric; and knowing that I didnt have enough time budgeted to go into town to get more fabric, I had to break into my personal stash of Alcantara Ultrasuede . The Alcantara that I have is the real Italian made product which sells for between 90-120/yard depending on backing type, my suede has the backing which is the automotive grade used in the interiors of Lamborghini's, Porsche's, BMW's, and Audi's for their headliners, dashs, and sometimes seats. Alcantara Ultrasuede is a woven product and not a mesh ultrasuede commonly found on cheapo furniture. (I did the headliner in my hooptie with it) Luckily, several years ago I scored an entire roll on ebay for under a hundred dollars shipped and I've kept my wifes hands off of it.
Anyhow, I did the big top shelf using my Alcantara as well as the bottom piece where the butt of the rifles rest in an attempt to separate the area's in the safe. When I got down to the second to last side shelf, I realized that I wasn't going to have enough of the slate gray suede to finish and I wasn't about to cut a small piece out of my huge green roll leaving me w/ an oddball sized end. I went upstairs to Alicia's fabric closet and found her stash of ultrasuede, she actually had about 6 yards of an almost identical color to the original fabric, but it wasnt the best of qualities and very thin, which for one shelf, really didn't matter. I also painted the underside of each shelf flat black, as well as the shelf mounting rails trying to get a "finished" look. Before I put it all in the safe I was really unhappy with the silver screw heads on the shelf hardware so I took a black sharpie to them and took care of those.
Before I put the last piece in, for some reason I had this out of the norm feeling hit me and thought to myself that Grandpa would probably really appreciate all the work put into it and the outcome of what I did...so I flipped over the piece that the rifle butts rest on and left a note for him to find....enjoy...... (I also got the safe bolted down to the foundation, luckily the neighbor's boyfriend who owns a commercial construction company specializing in masonry was at her house and had a really slick Hilti hammer drill he let me borrow).
Now to buy a pound or two of some silica gel as a desiccant and to remove all the guns from the safe and give them a through wiping down and oil rag bath down the barrel after all the handling they've received lately.
I found a few yards of an ultrasuede at Joann's Fabrics last weekend that I picked up for under 10 dollars that was a really nice muted slate gray color, I was really hoping it'd be enough, but that proved to be a bad judgment call on my part. I realized that I was going to have to come up with additional fabric, knowing that Joann's didnt have any more of this particular fabric; and knowing that I didnt have enough time budgeted to go into town to get more fabric, I had to break into my personal stash of Alcantara Ultrasuede . The Alcantara that I have is the real Italian made product which sells for between 90-120/yard depending on backing type, my suede has the backing which is the automotive grade used in the interiors of Lamborghini's, Porsche's, BMW's, and Audi's for their headliners, dashs, and sometimes seats. Alcantara Ultrasuede is a woven product and not a mesh ultrasuede commonly found on cheapo furniture. (I did the headliner in my hooptie with it) Luckily, several years ago I scored an entire roll on ebay for under a hundred dollars shipped and I've kept my wifes hands off of it.
Anyhow, I did the big top shelf using my Alcantara as well as the bottom piece where the butt of the rifles rest in an attempt to separate the area's in the safe. When I got down to the second to last side shelf, I realized that I wasn't going to have enough of the slate gray suede to finish and I wasn't about to cut a small piece out of my huge green roll leaving me w/ an oddball sized end. I went upstairs to Alicia's fabric closet and found her stash of ultrasuede, she actually had about 6 yards of an almost identical color to the original fabric, but it wasnt the best of qualities and very thin, which for one shelf, really didn't matter. I also painted the underside of each shelf flat black, as well as the shelf mounting rails trying to get a "finished" look. Before I put it all in the safe I was really unhappy with the silver screw heads on the shelf hardware so I took a black sharpie to them and took care of those.
Before I put the last piece in, for some reason I had this out of the norm feeling hit me and thought to myself that Grandpa would probably really appreciate all the work put into it and the outcome of what I did...so I flipped over the piece that the rifle butts rest on and left a note for him to find....enjoy...... (I also got the safe bolted down to the foundation, luckily the neighbor's boyfriend who owns a commercial construction company specializing in masonry was at her house and had a really slick Hilti hammer drill he let me borrow).
Now to buy a pound or two of some silica gel as a desiccant and to remove all the guns from the safe and give them a through wiping down and oil rag bath down the barrel after all the handling they've received lately.
