So Come On, Rest Your Guns With Me

There are lots of reasons I decided, on a Saturday last July, that I was going to make a gun cabinet into my new china cabinet. It was the right size, for one thing. I had been looking for something unusual I could use as extra kitchen storage, and this certainly fit that particular bill. And I thought it would be a fun project with my dad. But really, the way to my heart was through the gun rests. And there you have it: I'm a sucker for a nice ("nice") piece of artillery storage, which is something I never thought I'd say.

But really: they're gun rests. I, Elizabeth Ball, a person who catches spiders in a designated drinking glass and delivers them safely outside, have a place to rest my guns, should I so choose. Even better, I by "guns," I now mean "teacups." This is consistently happy-making.

Second, I like the way they look. They come in different sizes and shapes: big and oval on one end; narrow and straight-edged on the other. I think they're supposed to come in just two shapes, but they're hand-cut and a little irregular, and so they all look like they could be intentionally different. I don't know anything about which guns fit in which rests, but I don't really get tired of thinking about them.

So: I like my gun rests. I just don't have any idea what to do with them.

Originally, they were lined with some genuinely grody pieces of outdoor carpet.

Now they're not.

But what's a girl to do, decorationally, with the gun rests on her china cabinet? (File under: "unique Pinterest searches.")

My original plan was something gun-related: artillery-print fabric to line them, maybe. A little gun-related china-cabinet humor for you, right? I could still do this. Etsy, as one would expect, has me covered.

But now I'm considering going the other direction, and trading the gun theme for something completely unrelated. I could paint them a contrasting color, or find a pattern I like, to make them stand out. I could paint them with flowers; I'm picturing a Scandinavian-style floral pattern. I could just paint them to match the rest of the cabinet, and make fabric liners to match my mood. Or I could just let them blend in.

It's the last big decision to make about this project, and I haven't made up my mind. Internet, what would you do?