Filed under: Architecture, Furniture, Industrial, Inspiration, Nature, Our Work, Surface
I made these finials to go on top of the farm rollers I’ve mentioned before. The oak body of the finial is turned from a solid piece of wood. I like the checking (cracks) you can achieve with a solid piece of wood….the outside surface drys more quickly than the inside core of the wood so it cracks. If you were to laminate several smaller pieces of wood together and than turn the piece you would get little or no checking which is generally the most desired affect but not for me, I like to see the grain and nature of a single block of wood. The shape of the finial was inspired by a classical urn shape, often fashioned in metal and seen on old European entry gates, in stone on the roof of 18th century Palladian styled manor house or furniture…they’re everywhere. The zinc leaves are cut from salvaged roofing material. I just cut random size leaves, gathered them together in a pattern designed to represent the agave plant…..drilled the top of the urn and forced them in. You can use these in pairs to create symmetry or singly in another composition. Outside, a pair of these on the turned oak columns could give a garden path a little zest.
The agave plant was the inspiration for the zinc leaves.
This drafting table was probably one of my favorite pieces I ever came across. I speak of it in the past tense because someone gave me enough money for me to let it go… I had it in my house for many years…time to let it go. It originally had a large wooden top that was attached to the cast iron base, it tilted back and forth as well as up and down to suit the draftsman’s fancy. I switched out the wood top for a found piece of glass that is nearly 3/4″ thick and added the wheels. The thing I was most “drawn” to by the table was how versatile it is. It can be cranked up to bar height down to dining height or used as a counter. It was a great table for parties. It did double duty as buffet, dining and console table…and could be rolled around.The glass top let’s one appreciate the beautiful workings of the table and your friends shoes.
Trade Show Set up. We always know how much space we have to work with for a show…mapping out the large scale pieces and staging the booth in a way that leads the buyers into the booth is important…there is so much to show our customers but not everything makes the cut. Here we used a monochromatic color palette to soothe the eye as there is dangerously too much in the booth.
This is an awesome dining table. The heft and weight of such a large
table really requires a large room. The top is made from old hemlock
barn beams carefully milled and glued up to retain as much of the old
white paint as possible. The legs are made from old pipes, pipe
fittings and flanges. To recreate a table base like this one only
needs to visit a plumbing supply store and let your imagination run
wild.
This is an old beveled mirror I salvaged from a broken down closet door and made into a coffee table. The size is nice and big at 20′”X 72″. The mirror itself has wonderful spots and age. Where the silver is flaking off, I decoupaged vintage documents all in a neutral paper color to add a little subtle interest. The frame is a simple square metal stock designed around the size of the mirror. I have found wonderful old thick glass mirror in many shapes that I’ve done into tables, consoles and coffee tables.
This Zinc Top writing desk is a small piece we did for Sandy Duncan’s kitchen. We sent the old tobacco barn siding through the plainer before we crafted the desk. Because the grooves in the old wood were so deep , we were able to retain some of the old paint and expose some fresh wood as well. It’s a small desk for a small space, the soft nickel plate finish on the hardware is a nice compliment to the zinc top.
Filed under: Furniture, Industrial, Inspiration, Latest Find, What will it be?
Look at this killer industrial table base. A Custom size wood top dinning table could transform this old factory relic into a handsome one of a kind dining table … A zinc top would work too…
Here is a sample of a zinc top I tried just to play around with it.
The color of the zinc works well with the old sage green paint.
I had a request for a game table….
” Could I do something in Zinc?” Of course.
So after the details were discussed, we made this table. After all the finishes were applied, we meticulously used masking tape to cover up what would be the zinc squares and painted the black squares…still not sure if I wouldn’t have put a border of a thin black edge around the game board section. They love it though, and that’s what counts.
