Post Office Table

My parents bought an old post office table years ago at a farm sale. It has pigeon holes and a parcel shelf and Mother Goose has always been convinced it would make a fabulous changing table. So we were all very excited that it would finally be able to come out of my parents old barn and be put to good use in Baby Briggs' room.

My dad sanded it, put it in his car and drove it all the way up to Edinburgh. There was then much huffing and puffing, and groaning and grunting, as Dad and Mr Briggs carried it up the stairs to our first floor flat. Although it separated into two parts this was a pretty hefty bit of furniture. Here is Dad reassembling it in Baby Briggs' room.

The bottom of the parcel shelf was still a little grubby looking even after sanding so Dad fitted a piece of plywood to cover it. With a changing mat on top it will be perfect.

There are plenty of pigeon holes for nappies, baby wipes, things I don't even know we need yet, and of course my old childhood favourite books - here is my old Beatrix Potter collection, tied up with string...

G.B is inscribed underneath the parcel shelf. For Great Britain perhaps? Or Great Briggs?

The only problem we have with this lovely old piece of furniture is that after it was used as a post office table it was used by a farmer to store his old tractor parts. This resulted in some of the shelves being covered in oil, which has seeped into the wood. The day after we put it in Baby Briggs' room, Mr Briggs and I realised that the room smelt like an old workshop! Although it's quite a nice old smell - it reminds Mr Briggs of his grandads shed - I can't imagine it will be very good for a tiny baby to be breathing in the smell of oil, and it is getting stronger! I tried covering the whole piece of furniture in baking powder (and bicarbonate of soda because I wasn't sure which one you are meant to use!), as this is meant to soak up smells. Maybe I didn't use enough or leave it on long enough because it still smelt. 

So then I bought a carbon activated blanket. Apparently activated carbon, or activated charcoal, is extremely porous and therefore it's increased surface area allows it to absorb pollutants and odours. Supposedly all I need to do is leave this blanket on the piece of furniture that smells for 12 hours and the blanket should soak up the smell...

Fingers crossed that this works, or maybe we will have to redo Baby Briggs' room in a tractor theme, complete with smell! If anyone has any other suggestions for how to get rid of the smell of oil please do let me know as I really don't want to have to get rid of this gorgeous piece of furniture.

On a slightly different, but still unexpected, note, work to get our home finished in time for Baby Briggs' arrival continues. This week we had new shower fittings put in but when the tiler came to remove the tiles ready for the new ones, a supposedly quick and easy job, all the plaster work fell off the wall!! This is how our bathroom looks now...

The joys of old buildings.