reclaimed wood

According to data gathered by the Green Building Council, construction, demolition and refurbishment accounts for around 120 million tonnes of waste in the UK each year. The value of that perfectly reusable material ending up in landfill – 13% of which is still new and... Read More →

Daniel Heath is an award-winning independent wallpaper, textile and surface designer. After training in silk screen printing at the Royal College of Art, he set up his East London studio in 2007 to create bespoke hand printed wallpapers and hand crafted interior surfaces. Key to... Read More →

Definitions of ‘eco friendly’ can get confusing because it’s hard to quantify exactly much how one manufacturing process or material can be considered less harmful to the planet than another. Furthermore, when a company makes loose claims about being... Read More →

If you think reclaimed wood only has a chance at second life, either as furniture or floorboards, think again. More and more creatives are coming up with fresh and exciting way to reuse unwanted offcuts. Negating the need for canvas or clay, these artists prefer working with... Read More →

I’m sure once upon a time, the only thing that adorned a shop ceiling was CCTV and smoke alarms. But when it’s time to refurb a shop, bar, hotel or restaurant, it’s not just about changing up the walls and furniture; it seems many designers are utilisin... Read More →

We may be a long way from eliminating waste plastic from the planet completely but more and more designers and manufacturers are finding new and alternative ways to make use of the material, one of them being outdoor furniture. Here are a handful of examples, plus some other... Read More →

Scheduling your holiday plans for the summer? You might want to consider this tranquil eco bed and breakfast, an idyllic retreat in northern Italy. Il Richiamo del Bosco – Italian for ‘the call of the woods’ – is an eco B&B owned by Carla Soffritti and... Read More →

New homes and interiors book There are many reasons to be joyful about finally entering March 2017. Snowdrops and daffodils are now gracing our London parks with their cheerful presence. Days are slowly but surely getting longer and we can finally come out of hibernation. On top... Read More →

The creators behind this impressive garage renovation are Graypants, a design collective led by Seth Grizzle and Jonathan Junker, who work from their studios in Seattle and Amsterdam. Renovated in 2013, the award-winning holiday cabin was an architectural debut for Graypants, and... Read More →

When I came across the eco botanic restaurant interior of Väkst, overflowing with lush green plants, I looked over at my wilting coriander and thought – yep, it’s really time to step up the amount of plant life in my living space. If you’ve managed to embark on... Read More →

Recently I had the pleasure of connecting with Manolo Yllera, a Madrid-based interior designer and photographer whose beautiful studio loft home features in my upcoming book (more info on that soon!). Manolo introduced me to his award-winning interior design project at Mama Campo... Read More →

Melbourne designers March Studio transformed the foyer interior of Hotel Hotel in Canberra, using thousands of planks of salvaged wood. The planks are fixed around the ceiling and walls with steel rods, with stunning results. Surrounding the foyer’s grand staircase, the... Read More →

Artist Serra Victoria Bothwell Fels is an Australian-American artist living in Brooklyn. The New York art institution Clocktower Productions where Bothwell Fels was former artist-in-residence, describes her work as ‘submerging environments built into existing architecture,... Read More →

San Sebastián based architectural firm Estudio Beldarrain have created a new extension to the Municipal Library in Azkoitia, Spain using reclaimed railway sleepers. The library itself is a converted station building, but the old railway track had been removed. In order to put the... Read More →

These incredible animal sculptures by Marc Sparfel have a primitive aesthetic achieved through the reuse and reconfiguration of found furniture. Sparfel grew up in Brittany, north-west France surrounded by countryside and animals. After graduating from school, he studied commerce... Read More →

Ariele Alasko is a full-time woodworker living in Brooklyn, New York. Originally from California, Alasko started building furniture for her own apartment, shortly after she graduated from a BFA in sculpture in 2009. It swiftly grew from a fun hobby to a full time job in her 900... Read More →

Brothers Dressler are a design duo based in Toronto specialising in one-of-a-kind production. The brothers work on projects ranging from furniture and lighting to special commissions, with a commitment to using found, reclaimed and locally sourced materials. “Ou... Read More →

Every year, American modern furniture store Design Within Reach launches the DWR Champagne Chair Contest™. This is a competition to design a miniature chair using only the foil, label, cage and cork of no more than two champagne bottles. This year’s winners were... Read More →

Taking the pencil as symbolic of creativity, art and craft, Amalgamated is a project by Finnish artist Tuomas Markunpoika which examines the pencil as a mass produced tool that serves an individual purpose. These vases are created by gluing one facet of a pencil to another,... Read More →

After months of anticipation, Upcyclist’s first book ‘Upcyclist: Reclaimed and Remade Furniture Lighting and Interiors‘ is finally hot off the press and released in the UK today! Together with Prestel Publishing and the extremely talented designer Paul Sloman of... Read More →

Brazilian designers Fernando and Humberto Campana are renowned for  their reuse and re-appropriation to make furniture and interiors. Since launching in 1983 they have built an international reputation with works founded on the principles of reinvention an... Read More →

Spotted at Tent London last month, German product designer Marcel Dunger reuses pieces of broken maple wood to create beautiful handmade jewellery. Manufract is comprised of brightly coloured bio resin which is poured into the broken wood and once hardened, made in to... Read More →

Taking inspiration from the trees, rivers and lakes from his surroundings in the Pacific Northwest, Greg Klassen makes handmade wooden tables using jagged edge pieces from discarded or rotting trees sourced from construction sites. The River Collection is made from hand cut glass... Read More →

The Celebration Chandelier by British designer/artist Alkesh Parmar is made from hollowed out champagne corks collected from local champagne bars. The clusters of corks are fitted with LED lights and each chandelier is custom made to suit each individual space.  Images via Junk... Read More →

This beautiful installation is by American artist Phillip K. Smith.  ‘Lucid Stead’ is a weathered 70 year old homesteader shack in the Joshua Tree desert, California.  Transformed with mirrors and LED panels.  By day mirrors on the outside of the structure reflect its... Read More →

This wooden pallet Caban beach house is situated at Morito Beach in Hayama, Japan.  Designed by Japan-based designer David Guarino in collaboration with local artists, the structure is made entirely from shipping palettes and regional materials.  The structure includes a lounge... Read More →

At New York Fashion Week this month, J.Crew‘s surf inspired SS14 collection was showcased on a catwalk  made out of reclaimed boardwalk wood from Coney Island, Rockaway Beach and Atlantic City.  The floor was made by Sawkill Lumber Co. which salvages wood from the... Read More →

Architectural firm CODA have won the MoMA PS1 2013 young architects program.  Their project ‘Party Wall’ has been installed in the MoMA PS1 courtyard, a temporary urban landscape made of reclaimed wood donated by Comet who manufacture eco-friendly skateboards.  The... Read More →

The brilliant website 1001pallets.com is entirely dedicated to creative projects that reuse, repurpose and upcycle wooden pallets.  The site allows you submit your own personal projects which means there are dozens of inspirational ideas to browse though.  They say “an... Read More →

I’ve been meaning to blog about awesome London art collective Robots>>>> ever since I saw their work ‘Everything is Beautiful When You Don’t Look Down’. It formed part of the Festival of the World last year and featured two imposing figures... Read More →

Deckstool exhibited their work at Grand Designs Live earlier this month.  They are a Pennsylvania company who make furniture from recycled skateboard decks.  Each piece of furniture retains the unique scratches and graffiti of the original board. Decks are even held together by... Read More →

These superb pendant lights are made from recycled wooden pallets by East Sussex based company Factory Twenty One.  There are five different shade colours and six different elastic colours to choose from.  Purchase on Etsy here! Images via Etsy zp8497586rq Read More →

The work of Ron van der Ende is exceptional not only for it’s awesome play of perspective but because all his bas-relief sculptures are made entirely from salvaged materials.  The Dutch artist doesn’t just paint with the materials, he will use one type of material to... Read More →

A lovely addition to any rustic kitchen – Handcarved Bungalow Spoons £20 from Anthropologie.  They’re by Southern California ceramist Linda Fahey who creates stylish, eco-friendly ceramics designed for everyday use.  The spoons are handcrafted from driftwood found on... Read More →

Many thanks to my good friend Cathy for spotting this one as we wandered around the Louvres today in beautiful Paris. The 17th-century painting, ‘Tabegie. Fumeur au tonneau’ by David Teniers depicts what looks a lot like a chair made from a beer barrel. I’m yet... Read More →

The ReBuilding Exchange is a nonprofit social enterprise in Chicago dedicated to creating a market for reclaimed building materials.  They have launched a Kickstarter project RX Made which aims to make beautiful products from locally sourced waste materials with local designers... Read More →

This beautiful family of elephants made of a recycled wood was a sculpture built at De Panne beach in Oostende, Belgium by South African Andries Botha in 2010. It’s called ‘You can buy my heart and my soul’ and forms part of a project where he built 20 elephants... Read More →

This amazing sculpture was built by the incredibly talented Gábor Miklós Szőke out of reclaimed timber as part of the Hello Wood art camp in Hungary. 200 architects, designers and makers made projects for eight different Hungarian communities based on the socio-economic concerns... Read More →

Add warmth to an interior with these beautiful Surabuya mosaics from Original Style.  They’re made from recycled wood from South East Asian fishing boats and come in tones of amber, russet and cinnamon.  Mosaics are priced from £19.02 per sheet and £209.95 per squar... Read More →

Hendzel + Hunt is a design studio  in South London specialising in the manufacture and design of bespoke cabinets and furniture.  This month they have been selected as one of Kevin McCloud’s Green Heroes at Grand Designs Live. Their MADE IN PECKHAM range (Kirkwood chair above) is... Read More →

Further findings from the Shoreditch Design Triangle at last month’s London Design Festival include the lovely Cherry Rocks jewellery collection which were on display at Studio Tord Boontje.  These chains of cherry pips are combined with Swarovski crystals to be worn around... Read More →

Another highlight of the Shoreditch Design Triangle was Momosan Shop which is directly linked to Rupert Blanchard‘s studio. This is a small space curated by Momoko Mizutani who sources objects from both Japan and the UK which reference her own experience of living in two... Read More →

Many thanks to Decode for organising a fantastic media tour of the Shoreditch Design Triangle which forms part of this month’s London Design Festival.  Most inspiring was the studio of Rupert Blanchard who salvages timber and other materials from wherever he can to create... Read More →

Italian designer Marco Stefanelli removes fragments from sawmill scraps, tree branches and cement pieces and fills in the gaps with sculpted resin embedded with LEDs.  The Brecce Collection gives a second chance to ‘pieces that have reached their final step in the life... Read More →

Another talented designer who has a way with wood is Norwegian-born Amy Hunting.  This fabulous chair is from The Patchwork Collection, a range of wooden furniture made entirely from factory waste collected in and around Denmark. It comprises a chair, book box and twelve lamps... Read More →