Furniture from reclaimed wood

Dutch designer Piet Hein Eek specializes in works made from reclaimed wood, like this lovely cupboard. He does floors, too!

Piet Hein Eek (via Cribcandy)

• [the80y]

  I like the look and the idea of recycling old materials, but what about lead paint?

• [fatuousplatitudes]

  hey guys, I know where to get loads of wood
  for this!

• [Scuba SM]

  The article #2 linked keeps saying that the wood is still the property of the cargo ship…. What happened to the old maritime salvage laws?

• [Piers W]

  That’s what the old maritime salvage laws say. You can take stuff away from a wreck provided it’s below the high tide mark, but the owner is the owner in the sense that he can demand it back if he pays you a percentage of the value for your trouble.

• [aquathink]

  lead paint is only dangerous if its wet (as in before you paint it on something, not as is rewet after dry) or if you eat it. and it makes the prettiest colors. If I had the cash I would definitely get me some of this.

• [Anonymous]

  Aquathink, you’re mostly right. The other places you have to worry about lead paint are anywhere there’s high abrasion, such as drawer slides, stair treads, and (most particularly) sliding surfaces in window sash.

  Lead dust abraded away from these surfaces is so fine that it can blow around your rooms and land in your food. You’re unlikely to have any problems with this if you are grown, but little kids should not be exposed to any lead at all.

  If you need to remove lead paint, use a citrus-based stripper and scrape it, don’t use sandpaper.

  If you live in a house with lots of lead paint (like me) have your kids checked every year or two to make sure their lead levels aren’t rising.

  –Charlie

• [Comatose51]

  A friend of mine’s father make furniture out of drift wood: http://www.sptimes.com/2002/04/07/Floridian/Real_Florida__The_man.shtml

• [Clifton]

  #5, no, lead paint is also dangerous in the long term, because when it gets old it flakes off or powders. Then all the dust around your house becomes full of lead, and it’s easy to accidentally pick it up on your hands and get some into your mouth.

  It is most a problem for small kids – my nephew got a high degree of lead exposure as a child from his family living in a succession of old houses – but it can affect adults too.

• [Takuan]

  old houses with sliding, double-hung, sash windows produce fine lead-bearing dust as operated. Keep it encapsulated with new paint and avoid cutting/sanding. And don’t saw up old linoleum, it’s frequently full of asbestos. I suppose you could preserve the bright colours of lead painted scrap by vented cutting and then clear-coating. Though normally I encourage lead paint in the nursery – it makes them sink better.

• [Anonymous]

  This is a great idea!

• [Bucket]

  You know, not only is lead paint a danger, as well as asbestos, it’s possible that the wood was used in the manufacture of plutonium during the Manhattan project and is thus dangerously radioactive.

  Also, it could have been used to store chemical weapons in Iraq, and thus saturated with deadly VX gas toxins.

  Or it could have been wood from king tut’s tomb, and anyone with it in their house will be the recipient of the mummy’s curse and die a mysterious death, possibly on the Titanic.

  Or it was found in a field outside of Roswell, NM in 1946 and aliens had laid eggs in it which take 63 years to hatch, and the next thing you know you’re low on ammo for your M41a and acid blood has eaten through the hardwood laminate flooring you just laid down three months ago.

  Or Chuck Norris and Wilford Brimely are having yet another gigantic fight and come crashing through your front window and Wilford throws Chuck into it, who then wrenches one of the boards free and smashes Wilford in the head and he goes sprawling into the mantle, knocking over the urn that contains your beloved dog Champ’s ashes which spill all over the floor and when you’re cleaning it up you discover that fine dust does, in fact, cause a Dyson vacuum to lose suction.

  Or it might just be a neat piece of furniture.

• [Eater of beef]

  This post leaves much to be desired (literally).

  Where can we find more examples of this designer’s work?

• [Modusoperandi]

  Oh boy! I hope it’s really expensive!

• [Takuan]

  bucket: lead and asbestos are not risks to be hysterical about- either way. The dangers stated above are real and present, it is irresponsible to encourage people to believe otherwise. The precautions mentioned are, on the safety spectrum, around smoke detectors and seat belts.

• [Bender]

  @bucket- that was funny, don’t let grandma get you down.

• [Hal]

  http://www.pietheineek.nl/

• [eustace]

  Lulz, Bucket! Now, if you made a wardrobe in this style, out of the wood from King Tut’s tomb, you might be able to rescue the doomed Titanic passengers by opening the wardrobe at the correct time according to leonine prophecy…

  • [Antinous / Moderator]

    How about a picture frame made from magic wood so you could go straight from the Titanic to Harold and Alberta’s back bedroom?

• [Takuan]

  we know where Bucket’s mom shopped;
  http://www.canada.com/theprovince/news/story.html?id=aaf342e9-e32a-4864-aec3-f9db6ec1186f

• [sonny p fontaine]

  seems he’s too cheap to by a board planer.