Dissolving the materials

I figured it would be worth a post to note that, for myself, the most fun I've had pulling things from the streets comes from need-solving.

Now, as i've noted before, it is no fun to simply trot into a store and purchase the things I want to effectively use my space, rather, it is much more fun to pull things of off the street. Want an example?

A couple months ago it occured to me that I kind of need a coatrack, shoe-rack, and related accouterment. Now, for some of these things i was at a loss for how to make them without things like a saw or a power-drill, or whatever electric tools are often used in the construction of furniture. So, as i began to start piecing together other bits of furniture for around my apartment, I started looking at things as if they could fit the niche i need filled.

Example one- Coatrack-

So, if you're wondering, nobody really places coat hooks out for people to nick-up. (if they do, then hell, people more savvy then me are getting them.)  For a while, I tried to turn the little wooden separators in wine boxes into some form of hat-rack. I even tried cutting and bending an old floor lamp into a useable coat-tree. But nothing seemed to really work. So it was much to my surprise, when a few weeks ago, i noticed in the basement of my building, in the freebie piles of furniture left by existing and leaving tenants, there was this guy: (actually this piece)

Well, it's pretty, and in fantastic condition, but the cushion was a bit dirty, and alone, it just didn't reach the height that it needed to, in order to not look weird against the height of my 12 foot ceilings.

So, I left it down there, but with a sticker with my name on it, to give me time to ponder. And since I do most of this in my spare time, of which there really isn't much,  i figured i'd let my brain stew on it for a bit. One of the notable perks of having a lazy super is that they are not exactly fastidious regarding clearing out the basement, so one can imagine that I had a good amount of time to think it over.

Eventually I got a bit annoyed one night, something frustrating at school was bothering me, and I decided to go down into the basement and disassemble the sonovagun. It took me five minutes to undo what looked like it probably took the original owner an hour,  and bring it into my little apartment for analysis.

But with all the stuff and bits spread out, I saw solutions to my apartment needs, but ones which came with their own challenges.  Most troublesome was how i was going to attach the coatrack portion, nicely stripped away, to a wall when it had no holes penetrating through the bridge from one side to another. So  it went back to the closet, and waited another few days.

Finally i disassembled everything and laid it in front of me on my upside-down ikea rug. After playing with the screws and pieces, I attached the metal furls from the underside of the top shelf to the back holes on the rack piece, bending them forward, with the intention of creating an upsidedown U shape that would hook over my door. And gall-darnit, it almost worked! I would have gotten away with it if it weren't for a meddlingly small doorway to door space!

Damned again I frustratedly bent back the furls to ride straight to the ceiling, and you know what? I saw a couple of holes in the middle of the furl that i had previously missed. A few grunts and i had attached the bar and brackets to the wall above my shoe rack. Wha-bam- coatrack solved.

I took the bottom seat, and reset the back feet, tucked it into my closet, and ta-daaaaaa looks like I've got some lover shelving in my miniscule kitchen-closet-

Tell me what you think and CHEERS!

Pictures of my table and box projects are likely on their way. BUt gawd dangit, I'm having a heck of a time trying to get some of the inspiration to finish them!


Oh and the rest of the bits, well, I'm thinking headboard- but I'll need some paint...

A Bedside Affair- hehehehe

For my first posted project, I figure I'll start with less then a bang. Frankly because it's the first project i can say I've fully completed since the inception of this online literary outlet.

This project is somewhat of a tester for me, it started a few weeks ago when me and my girlfriend, Emily, were walking back from the 86th and Lex station. She'd been crashing at my place for a while and it was becoming abundantly clear that if she were to stay I was going to need more places to put the massive influx of general "things" that came with her.

I spotted a small bedside table on the street next to a collection of other bits of related furniture. All the pieces were in good shape, but all were too much more then I could, myself, lugg. So I hefted the thing the four more blocks to my apartment, and stuck it in a corner next to the wall. I figured it'd be a good project for when she wasn't around.

Well, like all things Em's existence had to come to a close, as she decided to jet off to Minnesota for a spit (no worries, she'll be back) and my time opened wide up.

So what to do with this:

It's pretty ugly on it's own, in that sort of aimless, directionless ugly. Assuming you're not able to tell from the resolution, the damn thing is sub-Ikea grade composite furniture, covered in a wood laminate picture.

It's non offensive, but not nearly desirable.

I've no idea what to do with this thing, except paint it. I was thinking about maybe rebuilding part of the structure with some of my misc wood, something to give it some spice, but nothing about this screamed for me to do it, so I figured; to hell with it, I'l waste my creativity, with regards to construction, elsewhere.

Now, here is a point where I comment on my limitations in working in a studio apartment, without most tools or ways to clean:
              I've no saws or vacuums, and whatever I do must necessarily be cheaper then buying a pre-made version of what I desire to see. Some might say the process, if I enjoy it, should be worth the expense. But those people are mistake, slightly retarded even, as if i bought the object i desire to see (assuming i could) it'd be much better to have a returnable item, then a shit ugly mistake.


Anyways, if I wanted to paint the damn thing, I'd need to go get paint. Here's where I can comment on the perks of living in Manhattan: Everything, (almost everything) is a train stop or two away. This includes the HomeDepot at 59th and 3rd. I've always been a home depot shopper, i worked for them for nearly a year and a half, and I've got to say, they've always got a decent selection. if you know how to thrifty shop, you can knick any color of paint for essentially nothing, good paint too.

I bought 4 8oz bottles, testers really, for 50 cents each. They came from the oops bin. Places like Home depot often have spots where, for virtually nothing, one can by any size container of pre-colored paint. I went with the Behr 2-in-1, partly because they were the options available and partly because when i do work, I listen to T.V. shows off of Hulu, and HomeDeopt has been running a commercial for them for like 3 months non-stop and I'm fairly sure I can, and likely have been, reciting it in my sleep, subconsciously advertising to the empty other side of the bed.

Just kidding, I sleep in the middle, there is no side to speak of.

So anyways, the first step was to remove the drawer and related hardware.
whabam- that was easy.

Next step was to give it a first coat: I used a color called Starless Night, flat, base paint, and gave it two coats over one night, allowing for basically 2 hours drying in between. I'd give more, but i get bored easily, and this was my distraction from my homework.

Two coats on, and the thing was looking better. I decided not to sand it, as the sanding might be too much in a small apartment, the particulate may be overloading, and frankly it wasn't worth it.
I roughed up the top after the first coat, partially because the first coat was not thick enough to cover existing dings, and partially because I wanted to make the piece look a bit beat up artistically.

I've wanted to try the roughed up, shabby chic as it's formally known, look to a piece of furniture for quite some time. So after the first coat had been applied, I took a piece of random wood, and scratched a few marks into the top of the table. The idea was that it would give texture to the surface, maybe building a multi planed distortion. Idk, it kinda worked, but i'd need to build it a lot more to give it the effect i wanted, so I figured i'd do it some other time.
I've done the layers thing with spray paint before, it required an exacto knife and some tape, but you can build layer with spray paint that hold pretty darn well. I'll post a picture later to that effect.

Anyways, I moved next to the design phase. From what I've observed for shabby chic, you need to roughly, and inconsistently apply a contrasting color to the edges of the piece, so that the eye is tricked to believe that the fixture was worn incrementally over time.

Noting my limited array of colors, (since i only grabbed 4 from the oops pile) I used a off while and pale cream. Applying along the edges with short and rapid brush strokes, I worked to maintain some semblance of a line but tried to make that line jagged.

Note how the edges are followed, i used the lines given by the furniture to dictate how the lines should be played out on the top, sides and bottom.

Arriving

Right then, Lets Start

My Name is Blaise but i thought for entering the cyber world, I'd pick a cooler name, this was quite hard since my name is pretty damn glorious in it's own right. I've never had a blog, or for that matter, enjoyed people who do.

I'm beginning to sound both potentially hypocritical and self-loathing, I'm sure this is a great start to anyone who's actually reading this- But i figured that since I've been picking up a new hobby as of late, there is a pun here I assure you, it'd be a bit fun to document it in a manner more enthusiastic then facebook photo albums and status updates.

So here's the thesis, I'm not exactly rich, not exactly poor. I've got a wonderful little apartment in the Upper East side of Manhattan, and I enjoy furnishing it. I'm not exactly rich, since I cant really afford to furnish it, and not exactly poor since I can afford to live here.

Luckily, my neighborhood comes with some perks, most notably, the free furniture. I have a few general paths through the east end to and fro the train station, and on any given day, there is always some form of discarded furniture on a sidewalk. Depending on the weather condition, the piece may actually be worth the haul home. It's basically salvage, but for a kid on little spending money, it's a great way to make an empty studio feel more like home.

Unfortunately,  most of the furniture you see is discarded for a reason. Each piece has it's own share of defects, usually running along the chipped, scratched, cracked, broken or wobbly line. THis of course makes the hunting actually fun. I figure that in a given week, I'll see at least 10-20 pieces of legitimate furniture that have simply been tossed to the street. Often the bits share a common ancestry, Ikea.
I'll note here that I absolutely love Ikea. To me they sell variously formed bits of canvas, which anyone can nick for essentially nothing, redesign, and enjoy-
Returning from that tangent, most of the furniture fails to meet the lugg test, as it's either too big, to far broken, or simply too unenjoyable and aesthetically displeasing. But every once in a while I'll stumble across (sometimes litterally) a cool looking piece of whatnot, which I'll want to reconstruct.

I chose the title Reclaimist because, aside from sounding kinda cool, it's fitting. I'm out there reclaiming the fruits of the NYC Streets, Rebuilding them from my thoughts and inspirations, and giving them a new use. I'll reclaim everything, everything, from the nails and screws to the wood glue (if I can figure out how to get it), and reuse it to save any penny.

Hence the blog- I'll be using this to display some the techniques and various projects that I'll end up getting into over the course of this moment till i forget about this thing-

I'll note one more thing- Although I highly doubt anyone will read this, if you should, and like what you see, holler, and I'll build you something if I can come across it!

Cheers

Blaise Woodworth-