Friday, August 22, 2008

Scrappy furniture getting smarter

This post is proud to have been syndicated to the Ponoko blog.



Amy Hunting's Patchwork Furniture looks like a charming response to the re-use of wood offcuts. The offcuts were first assembled into boards, made up of a patchwork of pieces, before being formed into furniture - a possibly laborious process, but one that I imagine offers much more versatility than simply reinterpretting scrap pieces in their existing form. Of course, this is basically how chipboard and MDF are made - by glueing together wood particles - but the results are much more attractive to the eye. Would be good to see a board material like this as a stock at materials suppliers.


Patchwork Furniture


via Core77


other recent pieces in the same vein are Gord Peteran's Table Made of Wood:


Table Made of Wood


and Piet Hein Eek's Scrapwood range:


Piet Hein Eek's Scrapwood range


[both via Treehugger]


which are fairly typical responses to the idea of reusing scraps: by reassembling them directly, which is probably the most costly solution. As Treehugger puts it:


"...while well crafted scrap wood furniture definitely becomes precious in the hands of Piet Hein Eek, it does not come cheaply and these pieces make particularly hefty investments."


Amy Hunting seems to be addressing the idea at a more commercially sustainable level which is the bigger challenge really: Fusing re-use, unique functions, aeesthetics and economy of scale.

Incidentally, Nottingham, UK based online scrap dealer Unique Scrap Store looks like a great place to start for finding lots of the same reclaimed item!

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