Lloyd Loom Box

I bought this ‘Lloyd Loom’ box at our local YMCA charity shop for £7.99.

The Lloyd Loom process was invented in 1917 by the American Marshall B. Lloyd, who twisted kraft paper round a metal wire, placed the paper threads on a loom and wove them into what was to become the traditional Lloyd Loom fabric.

Unfortunately I did not take a photo before we started to mend it.  It has a lurid 1970s green patterned fabric on the top.  The inside of the lid was broken and the outer shell of the box was a very shabby gold colour.

We removed the edging and the fabric and Mick bought a new piece of wood for the top.  He supervised me nailing the wood in place and then we were ready for paint.

While he was out I started to paint the inside of the box which had been green.  I had chosen cream coloured paint and soon realised that it would show up on the outside as it oozed through the weave of the box sides.  Oops.  So I also painted the outside cream too.  We then let it dry out thoroughly.

We had managed to find some gold paint which was not too expensive, as projects like this can become uneconomic very quickly when new paint etc. has to be bought.

We took the box outdoors and sprayed the outer and the edging we had removed earlier, having masked off the top first.

I covered the top using a £1 piece of fabric which is a good match to our curtains.  I used extra wadding to make it comfy and used the staple gun around the edges.  Mick then carefully nailed the edging piece back on using small brass nails in the original holes.

Mick is using it next to his end of the suite to use his mouse, and it is stuffed with sailing books.

The gold outer should fade with time and we are really pleased with the end result.