New Website

We've moved on from the blogosphere... For all things Sawesome, go to: www.sawesomefurniture.com

Sacred Road

For those of you that don't know, I am going on a mission trip with RUF to the Yakama Indian Reservation this spring break. The Sacred Road Ministries team, who we will be working with, has inserted themselves into the culture and lives of the Native Americans at the reservation. To learn more about this ministry, visit sacredroadministries.com.

We were charged with raising our own support for the trip and I decided a good way to do that would be to make a few crafts and sell them. All proceeds from these sales will go to my support for the trip.

I have some framed prints (prints made by my brother Daniel), empty frames, and what-nots for sale. If you don't see a size or color you like, I can make whatever you want. I may set up a way to pay online through PayPal, but for now, just email me at sawesomefurniture@gmail.com if you want anything or have a request. I have a few samples below so you can get an idea of what they're like...

These are the empty frames. They would come with glass, basically everything but a picture.

These are the frames that will hold the prints. My brother Daniel is making them and they are excerpts from some of my favorite hymns.
  

Prices are as follows:

• small wall shelf -- $15
• mail box -- $30
• 4"x6" empty frame -- $20
• 5"x7" empty frame -- $25
• 8"x10" empty frame -- $30
• 4"x6"framed print -- $35
• 5"x7" framed print -- $40
• 8"x10" framed print -- $45

Finally Something For Sale...

FOR SALE

It seems like everything I've posted so far has been of the "not-for-sale" ilk. Now I finally have something that is for sale. This armoire is about 97% reclaimed wood. The only non-reclaimed wood I used was cedar for the drawer boxes. The overall dimensions are 69.5"h x 49.5"w x 20"d and the upper opening is  38"h x 31.5"w x 18"d. It also has two drawers, each being 6.5"h x 30.5"w x 14.5"d. The upper opening has a second shelf that is technically permanent but I can remove it if you want me to. 

Fair warning: This piece is almost entirely heart pine so it is pretty heavy. 

If you're interested in buying, email me at: sawesomefurniture@gmail.com with any questions

Asking price: $2,000 + shipping (if applicable)

I've been working on this armoire for about 2 months or so. I probably could've done it faster, but since I wasn't building it for anyone in particular, I just went at my own pace. 

It all started with this pile of wood. I used almost every piece in this picture:

The first thing I did was use a planer to get these pieces and attached them together for my top piece.

Then I cut the long white column in half to make my sides and attached them to the top.

 One of my favorite features of this piece is the sides and back being covered with siding, although I realized, after I got the whole thing covered, that I put them on upside down. I came back and fixed them later, but that frustrated me for awhile.

 Finally, I built the drawers and put the shelves in and it's done.

Thanks for reading and again, email me with any questions. 

Door Coffee Table

It's been awhile since I posted. I've been busy with school and a big furniture project that I'll post later today or tomorrow. Hopefully I'll be able to spit out a few small things pretty quickly over Christmas break and post more frequently. 

For this post I have a door that I made into a coffee table. This was a birthday gift the Uithovens had me make to give to their son Luke. They picked out the door at a flea market in Flowood and Mr. Uithoven cleaned it up. Then I sanded it lightly to get some of the leftover dirt and grime off. 

beautiful door; tall and skinny five-panel closet door maybe? 

From there it was pretty simple: just measure and cut. Then I attached the legs to the top and put a coat of rub-on polyurethane to give it protection and liven the wood a little, while still keeping the natural look.

after being assembled but before polyurethane

after polyurethane; final product minus the knob

I added some iron brackets, mainly for stability and Mr. Uithoven added a knob to finish it off. 

Thanks to the Uithovens for the job. I really like the way it turned out.

Hopefully I'll get some more posts up soon. Until then...

  

In the Works...

Here's a drawing of the armoire I alluded to in my last post. The final product will look roughly like this, but when you're working with reclaimed wood, you're always prepared to make changes. I'm using windows for the armoire doors and siding on the sides and inset in the drawer fronts.

Heart Pine Coffee Table Revisited

Here's the coffee table my last post was about in it's new home. 

I'm working on an armoire right now made entirely of reclaimed wood. It's gonna take me a long time to finish but I'll get it up as soon as I finish.

Heart Pine Coffee Table

This is a coffee table my mom had me make:

The top is left over heart pine flooring from our house in Jackson and the legs are balusters from the Raymond wood reclamation. The top is just stained and sanded with polyurethane on top and I did the legs much like the hutch with the weathered look. I stained them and then painted them white on top. After that I randomly sanded them and finished off with a coat of polyurethane to make the background wood pop.

Below are a few pictures of the process:

Original baluster on the right and coffee table leg on the right.

Underside before legs and apron rail were attached

Top immediately after staining and before sanding

Underside after legs and apron rail were painted, sanded, and attached.

Final Product

With the heart pine flooring and the heart pine reclaimed legs, I could really only make 3-4 more of these, but this is most likely one of a kind.
Cost: ~$650 (Not for Sale)

Logos

Thanks to my brother Daniel, we have a new name and logos to go with it. Here they are:

They look great. Thanks, Daniel. 

Also, I haven't forgotten about posting the coffee table mentioned in my last post. Hopefully I'll finish tonight and have a post up about it tomorrow.

In Progress...

I'm working on a few coffee tables right now. One's a birthday gift, so I'm not gonna post any pictures of it until after it has been received. I'll post updates on the other one soon though.

The Great Raymond Furniture Reclamation

So here's the story behind this Clampett-esque truckload of old wood: My dad, his brother and two sisters own a rental house in Raymond that they inherited from their father. Behind the house is a storage shed where my grandfather stored anything he could find (he was a keeper-of-all-things, so I'm told). Thank goodness for that, in this case. There were all kinds of awesome pieces that could be reclaimed into coffee tables, bookshelves, tables, etc. I struck a deal with my dad to give the family 10% of profits earned on anything made from the Raymond wood. We hauled our load back and unloaded it into the driveway.

After sitting in a shed for ~40 years, this stuff was pretty nasty so I spent the rest of the day washing off all the dirt, cobwebs and general grime. Wetting the wood also gives me a general sense of what it will look like after polyurethane or another water sealer is applied. Water sealers always tend to richen and brighten the wood, so this lets me know if staining is needed or not. All of this wood is beautiful and I'm excited to start thinking about ways to give them a new lease on life. All in all I came away with:

2 fireplace mantles,

7 doors, 6 windows, some pieces of siding, a huge heart-pine beam, 2 heart pine columns, 20 balusters, and a few random pieces of wood.

Email me if you're interested in any of these pieces. Otherwise, I'm just gonna start building things on my own and put them up for sale.

Follow-Up: Hutch/No-Name Piece

Here's the piece I made for Rivers all done up. Right now it's in the foyer at the Uithoven's until Rivers moves somewhere with more room. I think they did a great job decorating it and really like the way it turned out. Just a quick follow-up post. New post coming in a little while.

The Process

I thought I'd give y'all an idea of how the process of ordering a piece from me would work:

1. You contact me and give me a general idea of what you want.
2. I draw up a few ideas and send them to you:

A typical sketch would include dimensions, etc.

3. You pick what you like best or we can mix and match, make small changes, big changes, whatever.

4. I go to Lowes with an itemized list of materials and find an estimated cost of materials.

5. I send you a final proof and estimated final cost based on material cost.

6. If you approve of the estimated cost, I start working on it and send you updates:

7. I finish the product and either ship or deliver it to you:

No Idea What to Call This

This is probably the creation I'm most proud of so far. I have no idea what to call it: a hutch? a cabinet? Anyway, it was for my girlfriend's birthday, so it's not for sale obviously, but just like any other post, I can reproduce it.

Est. Price: Not sure

Coffee Tables

These are a couple coffee tables I've done. They aren't for sale because they're currently sitting in my living room. I can definitely make more though if anyone's interested.

Est. Price: $250-ish

Est Price: $250-ish

Est. Price: $200-ish

Est. Price: $200-ish