Recycle, resource, rethink…

Design Idea – Vintage/Recycled Frames.   Framing is a total racket.   Sure you should probably pony up for some things, but not everything.   I have also found that the low cost prefab frames you find at the usual places are typically cheap, often ugly, and always hang funny.   There is an easy solution – vintage recycled frames.   Buy the art for the frame!   For a few dollars, you can get the frame, with real glass and a multilayer backing…who cares if it is framing a bad print when you buy it. 

The photos show two of my painting that I framed in vintage/reclaimed frames.   A little paint, new matting, and you are done. Granted this is not as easy as just buying something new, but it is an easy way to save money, support different retailers (and their constituents) and also help recycle goods.  

If you are interested in using vintage/recycled frames, ping me on the blog.  I would be happy to work with you to find, and perhaps prepare and rehab as needed, the frames that you would like to have for your home.  

Reclaim, recycle, reduce, retask…

Design Idea – Tile Coasters.    I had a great model (thanks to Bells’ Hopslam for being a part of the shoot).  

Those extra tiles from your recent remodel can do a lot more than just take up space in your storage area…they make great coasters.  Shown here are extra tumbled marble tiles.    I have applied slim felt pads to the bottom of each tile to prevent damage to tables, etc.   These make awesome coasters as they are heavy enough to stay in place and deal well with both hot and cold exposure.   We have also found them to be great bases for pedestal candles.  These also look far better than disposable paper coasters, and it is a simple way to reduce consumption of paper products (you can also wash these with ease). 

We have taken this idea bigger.  You can use larger tiles under planters as a barrier to protect wood floors.   We have also arranged a few large tiles directly under a dart board in our basement (classy, very classy) to serve as a guard for the wood table that sits just below the board and as a medium to add some color to a very neutral area. 

Recycle, resource, rethink…

Design Idea – Hand Bent Metal Frames.   When wood frames won’t do, and there are few other alternatives…hand bent metal frames allow you to add an industrial look to any photo or art piece, and more importantly in some cases, match the tone of a piece more properly to a frame.  

The photos above show two examples.   The photo of the Brooklyn Bridge is framed in hand bent flashing and is housed in plexi-glass to reduce weight.  This frame was originally designed for a loft space, but fits in well with a frame “collage” in one of my bedrooms.   The other shows two art pieces in hand bent metal frames housed in glass (much heavier).   These two are strung together with wire and finally mounted to the wall with a piece of electrical conduit and two brackets.   This system allows you to change the height of suspension (and spacing) by simply manipulating the wire.   The frames are all in four pieces, and held together with common hardware.  

These items are not for sale, but I would entertain interest in having additional items produced to fit your photos and art pieces.   Ping me on the blog.  

Reclaim, recycle, rethink…

Design Idea – Reclaimed Flooring.  One of the most visually appealing places to use reclaimed wood in your house is to lay reclaimed wood flooring.    There are many different “flavors”.  You can go as simple as flooring that was removed from a building before demolition all the way to items like barn board that needs to be planed before installation.  In any case, the patina of reclaimed is in so many ways superior to new wood, and if you get a little further out there on the spectrum of possibility, you can do some very unique things.  

Retask, reuse, reclaim…

Bud Vases (2012 – by JLS, for ???).  In 2000, I received a very cool spice rack as a gift for my first NY apartment. 

http://www.deandeluca.com/ViewProduct.aspx?ProductID=160213194

While cool, it lacks practicality – it takes up a lot of space, the labels on the tubes are not designed to stay on for long, etc.   Left with a cool wire rack and 40 test tubes, I finally got around to this project in 2012.   The metal rack and a few of the tubes are now a “vase” in my dining room.     The other tubes were added to a new project.

The new racks were constructed with remnant wood that was hand-distressed to make it look a lot older than it is.    The tube holes were purposefully mis-drilled to make it look like they were intended for something else (the addition of the felt pads also suggests heavy retasking).  As a friend once told me about design (paraphrased)– if you cannot make it perfect, why not then make it imperfect and gear to make it look like you worked around the imperfections as much as possible, in an intentional manner.  The metal rods were the most challenging and new for me.   They are new stock made to look old – note the rusting.   There are many ways to do this, but I needed a process that I could do inside (it’s cold in MN).   The final finish you see above was accomplished by: (i) polishing the rods with a normal metal polish in order to remove grease and other surface materials; (ii) some light sanding with coarse sandpaper; (iii) soaking the rods in normal white vinegar overnight; and (iv) a final overnight soak in super-saturated salt water (warmer water will hold more salt in suspension than cold, if you remember some basic chemistry).  My research tells me there are likely better ways to age metal – if you are doing this and have the ability to do it outside, I recommend looking into other methods.  

Ah, design flaws.    This one was a bonus “flaw”.   The mis-drilled holes ended up being large enough for dinner candles.   The frame can then be converted into a unique candle holder, and the added distress/texture from the wax adds to the patina.   

Hit me up on this one…I love the distressing process and there are a lot of different and fun ways to go with it.    

Retask, reuse, reclaim…

Orange Lounge Bench (2012 – by JLS, for ???).  As Paul Harvey would say, this is the rest of the story for what was the headboard of the now dead and gone railroad bed.   The orange panel came to me from Room & Board.    It was offered, sans legs, at the outlet in 2009.  It looks to be an early prototype for the top of the Ravella Studio Sofa (    http://www.roomandboard.com/rnb/product/detail.do?productGroup=19652)   The price was right and we needed a headboard…done.

This was born to be a bench/sofa top.  While things can be other things, some things seem to need to be certain things (beautiful sentence).   

What you see here is the panel with new legs.   The dimensions of the structure were borrowed from the classic Nelson Bench (http://www.dwr.com/product/nelson-platform-bench-48-in.do).    The materials were reclaimed from other projects, and hand-distressed to project a vintage look.   I love the visual juxtaposition – new slick orange leather versus what appears to be very aged, beat up, dark stained wood.

I think panels like this could also look great using a chunkier build – perhaps reclaimed cedar fence posts/similar.   As with others, this one isn’t for sale, but I am open to discussing similar projects if you are interested.    

Recycle, rethink…

Railroad Bed by JLS for JLS – 2000 (RIP 2010).  As the title indicates, this piece is no longer with us, but I wanted to highlight it anyway as it was one of the first real items I created. 

I moved to New York for the first time in late 2000.   The move took me from a ~1300 square foot loft to a ~600 square foot apartment.   In anticipation of the move, I started to think about space saving ideas and storage requirements.   A number of companies that tailor to small apartment dwellers offer beds with under-frame storage in some form.   You can also purchase long slim containers at your favorite store that will easily slide under a standard bed frame.   Both of these ideas seemed pretty boring and I needed a project.

What you see here is the combination few items.   Note that the orange headboard was added in 2009 (and has since become something else that I will discuss another time) - the original design had no headboard.   I built a series of five beams that were made to look like stainless railroad rails.   “Real” steel or iron would have weighed a ton, so they were faked by using pine studs wrapped in sheeting with bolts near the ends to mimic rivets.  I also built four drawers using cedar and hemp rope.   As with most of my projects, the materials used here were (mostly) reclaimed or remnants from other things.  The result was a fairly cool platform bed that also allowed me to feel ok about losing a closet in the move.  

Ah, design flaws.   As you can see in the photos, the “rails” stick out quite a bit and have some nice corners…that are also sharp and take a lot of getting used to if you are used to a “normal” bed frame.   I got used to it over the years, but it was not a winner when this because the frame for the guest bed in recent times.   As with other sharp metal things, this became a liability when my daughter arrived, and needed to go.  To every season turn, turn, turn...the cedar has gone into some outdoor benches, the metal was all recycled, the studs are now a wine rack, and the rope is on reserve.   Remember - reuse is part of the equation!

If I had to do over again, or, say, if someone wanted to talk to me about recreating this design, I would either look to dull the metal corners or perhaps use interesting reclaimed timbers instead of the fake metal rails.   Real railroad ties are another option, if your floor can support the weight.  Ping me on the blog if you want to chat about this one.