Furniture that looks like it's made from steamer-trunks

I've turned old steamer trunks into furniture before, and while it looks great, it's often a bit impractical. Restoration Hardware has released a line of nicely turned out, usable furniture that looks like it was made from steamer trunks. It'd be cooler if it was actually recycled from real, vintage pieces, but it would cost titanic fortunes, and the world would be poorer for the loss of all those great trunks.

Trunks | Restoration Hardware (via Neatorama)

I write books. My latest is a YA science fiction novel called Homeland (it's the sequel to Little Brother). More books: Rapture of the Nerds (a novel, with Charlie Stross); With a Little Help (short stories); and The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow (novella and nonfic). I speak all over the place and I tweet and tumble, too.

MORE: design • happy mutants • housewares

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http://www.facebook.com/HyperionToASatyr Jack Holmes

“Titanic fortunes?” Have you seen how much RH furniture costs? It’s beautiful, definitely, but jeez.
- orangedesperado
  
  Yes, several trunks purchased off Craigslist would cost less, and they would be ACTUAL TRUNKS, that are actually antique or vintage that can be used for putting stuff in and on.
  
  Furniture made from another thing can be interesting design/innovation, but furniture made from reproductions of another thing is on the slippery slope towards kitsch. I’m thinking of you, desk from the flea market full of new crap, made to look like it was made from giant antique books…
salsaman

These two photos are suspiciously shoopy… I wonder if they’ve actually made one of the big desks.
- http://twitter.com/Epers Eddie Perkins
  
  I got the same Photoshop disasters vibe off some of the images too. Whether or not that desk actually exists, in the above image it’s certainly not sitting on that floor.
- John Fleming
  
  They do exist. I saw one at the London Loft store in Halifax (Nova Scotia). It’s purty, but I can’t imagine actually using it as a day-to-day working desk.
Steve Taylor

You can also get plastic benchtops that look like they’re made of real wood. Fake woodgrain and everything!
Paul Renault

Perfect: they have a store in Cleveland…
http://www.legrandbazart.com sigismund

Here we go… So now you call it Steam Trunk ?
oasisob1

Our local RH went out of business, and I browsed their during their 70% off sale. Prices were still astronomical, furniture for the 1%. Still, the Aviator Wing collection is just beautiful…
http://www.restorationhardware.com/catalog/product/product.jsp?productId=prod280189&categoryId=cat1850023
- ChickieD
  
  I’ve been wanting to buy some good furniture and I like the Pottery Barn/Restoration Hardware aesthetic. But, I looked it up and their stuff is pure crap. I have bought too much cheap stuff in my time to ever spend one more cent on furniture that won’t last more than a couple of years. Here’s the link to the article about real furniture buildings tearing their stuff apart and analyzing it:
  
  http://www.beachbungalowdesigns.com/furnpicts/potterybarnunstuffed2.pdf
  - deejayqueue
    
    That’s great but the article is over 6 years old. Also, this was during the gilded real estate boom, where people were buying anything that looked fancy and wasn’t nailed down to go in their half-million dollar mansions they couldn’t afford.
    
    Not to say those companies don’t still cut corners, just consider the times and the context.
    - orangedesperado
      
      I don’t think the age of the article dates the content at all. The bottom line: consumers are seduced by marketing and an aesthetic, and are purchasing furniture that looks nice but is made as cheaply as possible to cut all possible corners/increase the manufacturer’s profit margin.
    - jimh
      
      Nope, it’s still very poor quality. The concepts are nice, but the execution is very poor, and it’s not furniture that will last very long. Up close, it’s very cheap looking. I remember seeing a post here a while back about the desk and chairs made out of aircraft aluminum. I drooled, and then saw one up close. Very disappointing, and very expensive. Buyer beware.
deejayqueue

I love the look of this stuff but it’s just so expensive.
Comedian

The modern equivalent might be one of the Hardigg Field desks, military shipping containers that open up to form desk drawers while the removable lids serve as desks tops.

http://www.pelican.com/case_category_mobile_military.php?CaseType=Mobile%20Office
http://www.kmoser.com kmoser

Steamer trunks or steamer punks?