Eighteen drawers – perfect storage! After painting the plain plywood piece I added strips of copper foil for extra sparkle, and the tiny drawer pulls were decorated in different colours to help finding things quickly.
The Green Tower was a custom order by a Vancouver friend who later moved abroad, couldn’t take this piece with her and had to sell it on. So I lost track of it.
Green Tower
Wood, acrylic paint, copper foil. 1999
120 x 30 x 20 cm
This chair is part of a set of four stylish oak chairs which I traded in for an old chest of drawers. The bland looking wood was sanded and stained, the drop-in seats needed re-upholstering. Continue reading Upcycling furniture: chair
When painting and selling upcycled furniture in western Canada, I was always looking for smaller items that would be easier to transport and display, and attractive for a smaller wallet. One of the ideas I came up with were these wooden boxes. A friend of mine, Ted Martin from Pitt Meadows in the Fraser Valley, made MDF boxes with lids for me which I then painted, using a masking technique. These colourful functional items proved quite popular.
MDF, acrylic paint, acrylic varnish. 2000
15x15x15.5 cm
Upcycling with paint: the design for this small table, well-proportioned but bland, was created by masking off successive parts of the beech wood table top and painting it in different colours. I wasn’t thinking of a particular motive, but I began to see an image which I best describe through a poem:Â
Deserted place,
trees stretching toward the horizon.
Dust on the sidewalk,
dappled with sunlight.
Curtains drawn to block out heat.
Branches yearning
for the cool of concrete.
This image reminds me of a still and brooding Sunday Afternoon, which I chose as the name for this table.
Sunday Afternoon
Beech wood, acrylic paint, varnish. 1999.
64 x 64 x 74 cm
Upcycling: Red Nose is one of those pieces of furniture that have done service for generations. I found it in the basement of an elderly couple’s house in North Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. They did not want to bring it to their new downsized place. The straightforward proportions of this chest of drawers have influenced my design. Its name derives from the new round knobs that I chose because they make a perfect match for the painted red circles.
Red Nose
Wood, acrylic paint. 1997
99 x 51 x 84 cm