Oak wall shelf with prints in panels.

This is a close up of the right side panel in the wall shelf, to show the image a bit better. The painting is a Monet called Bodmer Oak. I printed it on a heat transfer on my little hp printer. Since the max width of the print and the panel were so close, I cut sections of the painting across in photoshop and reversed one side. Also, sliding down the image a bit so that both panels, side by side, would look like one wide scene.

The shelf itself, is made of very old white oak that I salvaged from a friend's remodeling of his farm house. The wood was rough sawn on site originally from the shallow arc of the saw teeth. I left in the old nail holes and the oxidation stains, because I like them!

The panel frame part is fir reclaimed from my own ongoing and perpetual remodel of my own home. I'll probably post some pics of that at some time. I forget how much work I've put into this place until I look over the pictures sometimes.

Below is a pic of the shelf itself. I meant for it to go at the top of the post, but I some how got it backwards. Better luck next time, eh?

First Post, What this blog is about.

I've been building furniture for home and for sale for a few years now. My cousin Don visited us recently, and while I was showing him some of the new pieces, he made a comment to the effect that he was starting to see my specific style emerging.

I hadn't really considered that I had a "style" as such, but the more I thought about it, the more I saw he was right.

The choices I made in materials and shapes reflected the things I considered important, and not important, without my starting from a defined aesthetic.

The picture is a coffee table I built that I think of as "the Bigleg". The legs are cut from a 6x6 post that I salvaged from a pole building construction site. The top is made from joined 2x6s that used to be shelves in pallet racking. I always like to use salvaged or reclaimed wood whenever I can get it. It often has character from the dings, nail holes, checking, stains, and weathering it has sustained over time that conveys a sense of history that new things just don't have.

I use new materials when I need them, but I prefer to find a use for what I have, rather than go buy wood for a specific project.

I'm going to post pics of pieces from the shop here as part of my exploration of what my design choices mean in defining the style of what I build, and if a thing is shippable, I'll put a price on it should anyone want one.

Thanks for the thought provocation Don.