50″ long x 14″wide x 18″tall; $1200 by special order at kirbyjones.com
I was browsing This Old House and the above piece caught my eye since I’ve been getting more requests for work made from reclaimed lumber. M. Fine in Brooklyn is my local source for old, nice pieces. Most of their wood is old growth southern pine, but I found a piece of spalted oak in their yard and used it as a table top on steel legs. Kirby Jones, is the the designer and fabricator of the above piece. His work can be seen at www.kirbyjones.com. His series made from reclaimed wood is spectacular.
MIT has some really interesting free classes at http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/web/home/home/index.htm. The furniture making class has technique videos, visual reference, and a reading list. The site offers courses ranging from sustainability to history, to robotics.
Tried and True Original Wood Finish
Greenest Product per The Green Guide
Here’s a good link to National Geographic’s Green Guide. They’ve got a good guide on how to shop for and compare wood finishes with low VOC’s.
About Finishes:
Ideally, treating wood flooring, furniture or trim with a finish will both protect it and enhance its natural beauty—without exposing you to harm. But finishes typically contain solvents, such as petroleum distillates, that keep the solution liquid until applied, and a binder, such as polyurethane, that holds the ingredients together and hardens into a film when dried. Here are a few criteria to use when shopping:
Types: Clear coatings and sealants help wood surfaces rebuff water, scratches and daily wear and tear. Stains penetrate and tint woods.
Plant oils and natural finishes: Linseed, shellac, beeswax and carnauba wax.
Water-based synthetics: Although these finishes still contain petrochemicals, they are formulated to reduce air-polluting emissions.
Volatile organic compound (VOC) content: Listed on labels in grams per liter (g/L); always seek the lowest amount available.
Safety:
Shopping Tips
Avoid neurotoxins, such as petroleum distillates, or heavy metals like lead acetate.
Check labels for “danger,” “caution” and other health warnings.
Buy only as much as you need.
Follow safe-use directions on labels.
If possible, work in an outdoor space. If applying finishes indoors, open all doors and windows, and use ceiling and box fans to circulate fresh air into the room. Do not inhabit the room for two or more days afterward, until the finish has dried and fumes have dissipated.
Do not use any solvent-containing product around children or if you are pregnant.
Allow newly finished items to cure for several days and only bring them into the house only after the finish has lost its odor.
To reduce risk of fires, soak used oily rags in water, seal them in a plastic bag and discard in an outdoor trash can.
Dispose of leftover finish properly: Donate it to neighbors or local community groups. Otherwise, dispose of it according to your sanitation department’s household hazardous waste regulations.
The Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce has extended the exhibitor applicationforBKLYN DESIGNS 2010. Exhibitor applications, now dueMONDAY DECEMBER 7th, are available online at bklyndesigns.com.All Brooklyn-based designers are encouraged to apply! BKLYN DESIGNS’ celebrity jury is a great way for designers’ work to fall into the hands of premier editors and design specialists. For more information please call Auster Agency at 718.243.1414.
The Times does a great job with their interactive pieces. Check out this story on the affordable design on a Brooklyn loft. When you get to the article, click on the buttons to listen to the clients and hear their design decisions.
WHEN Sasha Haines-Stiles moved out of a crumbling brownstone studio in April and into a large loft in downtown Brooklyn with soaring ceilings and expansive views, she fantasized that the space would look as perfect as one of the many photo shoots and fashion shows she oversaw in her role as a vice president for communications at Bernard Chaus Inc. and its Cynthia Steffe fashion label. Visit article
Some people just get lucky finding valuable stuff in the trash. I just took on this restoration job for a client who found the above chair on the sidewalk in Park Slope. Other than the split in the seat, the chair is in perfect condition and is made from high quality solid wood. A seal on the inside leg says Johnson Chair Company. A few antique websites are selling Johnson Chairs for $300 and up. Below is a picture of the split. Clamps and glue will do the trick. After sanding off the old finish, Danish oil and lacquer will bring it back to life.
This chair’s lines are evocative of 1960’s design.
From its weight and joinery, you can tell it’s a good piece of furniture.
A postcard of the the Johnson Chair factory in Chicago.
In 1899, Johnson Chair Company made chairs for the US House and Senate.
TWA Terminal, New York International (now John F. Kennedy International) Airport, New York, circa 1962. Photographer Balthazar Korab. (c) Balthazar Korab Ltd.
Presented at the Museum from November 10, 2009 through January 31, 2010, Eero Saarinen: Shaping the Future is the first retrospective of this architect’s career, which was one of the most prolific, unorthodox, and controversial in the history of 20th-century architecture. From the TWA Terminal at JFK Airport and the St. Louis Gateway Arch to the Pedestal Chair for Knoll Associates, Saarinen (1910-1961) created some of the most potent expressions of American identity after World War II. Saarinen’s clients constituted a who’s who of the era’s most prominent industries and institutions. For them he designed buildings that advanced the expansion of higher education to the promotion of automobile culture and air travel, popular forms of entertainment like television, and the newest information technologies. Featuring sketches, working drawings, models, photographs, furnishings, films, and other ephemera, the exhibition examines the architect’s career from the 1930s through the early 1960s.
Several of my clients have asked for tables made with wood (walnut) and steel. I’ve been contracting out the welding jobst, but in the meantime I’m teaching myself how to weld. This site has taught me a lot and is a fun read: http://www.weldingtipsandtricks.com/
“The stack of dimes look”, as show in this video, is one of my goals:
If you’re into modern design, a documentary about one of the most important architectural photographers, Julius Shulman, is playing at Cinema Village. (Click link to buy tickets). Shulman, who recently passed away, shot some of the most iconic houses in Los Angeles. Below is the trailer and a memoriam by Dwell’s Aaron Britt:
We here at the Dwell offices were all saddened to learn that architectural photographer Julius Shulman passed away last night at the age of 98. His photography helped define mid-century modernism and no one can claim more credit for documenting, and in some ways inventing, what post-war California cool looked and felt like.
We’ve long admired Shulman as a peerless artist and advocate for the values of modern design, and given that a number of the buildings he photographed have since been altered or knocked down, his record as perhaps the greatest chronicler of American modernism is without match.
The LA Times has posted a nice slideshow of Shulman and his work, and if you’re in the listening mood, go to NPR.org to hear Alex Chadwick’s 2005 interview with Shulman (a voice worth hearing), recorded in his Raphael Soriano–designed home in Los Angeles (which we visited in October 2007). We also caught up with Shulman for our Design Leader video series, which you can watch here. Also keep an eye out for an opportunity to see the new documentary Visual Acoustics, which we recently screened at Dwell on Design (and read Dwell’s interview with director Eric Bricker here).
I have to thank Reclaimed Home for helping me restore the vintage light switch in my new apartment. It was caked with multiple layers of paint. I boiled it for about twenty minutes in water and baking soda. Paint slid right off and I didn’t have to use carcinogenic stripper with a gas mask. Here are the directions from Reclaimed Home: Boiling Hardware.
