Furniture Making & Refurbishing: Process and Projects

Three sculptural table lamps on a dark set, each built from stacked pale slats on a wooden cross base, two of them lit from within.

Just plain old making furniture and refurbishing it.

This section of the portfolio features a range of furniture pieces I have designed and experimented with over time, many of which were later sold online. Each piece reflects a hands-on exploration of materials and techniques:

Paint
Rope
Pyrography
Handmade cardboard moldings

The Immigrant

As someone who had moved to the States on a dependent visa, I had a lot of time on my hands and nothing much to do in the beginning. So I started picking up furniture off of Facebook marketplace, refurbishing it or turning it into an art piece, and reselling it to some very enthusiastic buyers. I call the first one “The Immigrant”, since that is what started it off.

Square wooden side table with a black and white painted grid across its top, a woven basket tucked underneath.

Low open console in stripped pale wood with a bright green painted edge, a woven basket sitting in the opening beneath.

The Famous Stripes

What’s famous about them? Well, they were a very simple idea to execute, but somehow was my most loved piece on the market. I had more than 25 buyers lined up. It made me want to start a stripes on table business (the table was an old TV tray my husband had).

Folding tray table painted with bold black and white chevrons meeting in the centre of the top, on slim black legs.

Carved

This was when I got my second pyrography pen and decided (for some reason) I should take a perfectly great side table and burn some lines into it. It ended up kind of nice, I like the way the sides of it look. The great thing about this era is I could experiment and make some money without owning any hideous things.

The finished top of a bedside chest, its whole surface burned with dense radiating line work in a patchwork of squares.

The same chest before work, a plain red-brown two-drawer bedside table with metal drop handles.

Damsel in Distress

I made this one simply from watching too much HGTV and wanting to try the distressed look on anything I could get my hands on. This was a good fit for it, since the paint needed to be sanded over anyway. Decent pictures. Will look great in a barn.

Two-drawer bedside table refinished in weathered grey, its drawer fronts fluted in narrow vertical reeds, with round pale knobs.

Close view of the same piece, showing the carved pattern along the top edge and the reeded drawer fronts.

Lamps

These lamps I made when I was very desperate to get some industry experience and I made the mistake of interning for a very horrible, very privileged man who had no manners and yet somehow ended up at RISD.

A hand holding up a curved lamp arm cut from layered corrugated cardboard, its edge notched like a comb. — The arm, cut and layered from cardboard.

The same curved arm laid on the floor, now coated in white filler and sanded smooth, with a round cut-out at one end. — The arm, cut and layered from cardboard.