Recycled Mirror Glass and Victorian House Trim

This was a fun little show. Portico gave me their entire Eastern wall and the small show room to do up a passle of mirrors, benches, tables and coatracks.  I had a ton of hooks left over from a restaurant I had designed and built out so I decided to do entry hall furniture for a couple of weeks. 

I used Victorian-era house trim and some lovely antique mirror glass that was crackled and fuzzy with age. Many of the colors were mixed up by hand just for this project so they are truly one-of-a-kind pieces.

Antique mirror glass, Antique Victorian Trims, New, Recycled and Repurposed Woods, New Cast Iron Hooks, Vintage Knobs, Latex Paint, Spar Varnish.

Built and Designed by Brett Bigham, Black Dog Furniture Design, Portland, Oregon.

When Art Collides With Recycling

I was never sure if I should have hung this on the wall instead of selling it as a table.

My mom showed up with t his very Atomic set of 1950s-60s table legs. They had such an interesting line that I felt sure that they could balance an interesting top. (I was torn between that and a plain black top.  In black it would have been flawless, but also something that anyone could put together).

So I pulled out all my green paints, mixed them all up to make all new colors and put together this dining room table.  It is one of my all-time favorite pieces and one of the pieces that finally made me see that I was an artist instead of a furniture builder. 

This was a hard piece to let go. Every time I thought about taking it to one of the stores I'd decide, "No, I'd better put one more coat of varnish on it."  Seriously, this table probably has 8 or 9 coats of varnish.  We'll all be long dead and that table top is going to look like the day I painted it.

I do believe we should  name it "The Dorian Gray" table.

Pine, Atomic legs, latex paints, spar varnish, more spar varnish, and then even some more spar varnish. Designed and built by Brett Bigham, Black Dog Furniture Design, Portland, Oregon.

That's another piece of mine lurking in the background but I don't think I took a picture of it.

1930s lumber, recycled legs, A Dang Fine Table

I found a stack of old growth lumber that had been milled in the 1930s but never used. In all the hundreds of pieces of furniture that I have built, this wood was my favorite material of all time.  The grain was amazingly beautiful and the wood was perfect and clear (even if it was hard as all getout).

I built a 10 foot dining room table out of it and had a few smaller pieces left over.  From that I built a set of shelves for myself (I will post a picture of those later) and this coffee table.  Sadly, I never got a photo of the ten foot table, but at least I had the sense to get a photo of this one.

The legs are recycled from an old bed. I call this painting technique my "cubist" pattern.  Each of the tiles of color have at least two undercolors so as you sand back into the grain of the wood several different colors are actually coming out on each tile.

Lurking in the background is another one of my pieces.  That blonde table is also of recycled wood.  The top  was a 1950s cupboard door, the legs also came from an old bed.

Mixed Media Woods, 1930s old growth lumber, recycled bed post legs, latex paint, spar varnish.

Built and designed by Brett Bigham of Black Dog Furniture Design, Portland Oregon.

A Fiery Little Table

This little guy is actually made mostly of new pine and endcuts. The arches are painted on and the diamonds are hand-cut on the saw.

Mixed Media Wood, Latex Paint, Spar Varnish.

Designed and Built By Brett Bigham

of Black Dog Furniture Design.

This used to be a twin bed!

This 1960's bamboo-styled twin headboard became a fun bench. My mother had just returned from Vietnam for a tour and she brought me back coins and stamps.  Since I had just finished this bench I decided to use some of the words from the coins on the bench.

It went into the window at Portico and sold pretty quickly.  Later on the Vietnamese man who ran the lizard store across the street told me the words were somewhat offensive.  The coins were  from colonial Vietnam and referred to "Indochine".  My apologies for my racist bench.  If you are the person who bought it, I would love to repaint the seat so give me  call!

Mixed media wood, twin headboard, latex paint, spar varnish, semi-racist Vietnamese.

Built and Designed by Brett Bigham. 

A Very Cheerful Coffee Table

Every once in a while I get out the paints and just let myself go. I call this painting technique "brickwork". After a coat of undercolor (in this table it is ebony) there is a very tedious taping process but once that is done the painting goes rather quickly.  The black "mortar" around the bricks allows you to paint every brick at the same time.  With checkers or harlequins you can never paint two touching panels at once.  That means a  lot of waiting for paint to dry.

This is one of those pieces that I kind of figure that only I will like.  Too much color, kind of schizophrenic... and then it flies out of the store.  Not only did this fly out of the store, the woman who  bought it commissioned a matching dining room table!

Mixed Media Woods, Pine, Handcut Appliques, Latex Paint, Spar Varnish.

Designed and Built by Brett Bigham, Black Dog Furniture Design

Portland, Oregon

Shelves made from salvaged barn wood.

Our neighbor's 100 year-old barn collapsed in a windstorm a few years back.  He gave me some of the wood and I made this set of farm shelves. I painted the back wood green and then coated it in ivory.  The rest of the shelves I painted opposite. Ivory first and then the green over it. 

Because the wood was so old and weathered, the grain really stood out. With heavy sanding I was able to pull the grain out through the paint. 

My rule of furniture, no matter how rustic of a look you want, you should be able to run your fingers over it and never get a splinter. I feel the same way about mosaic work.  When I do a mosaic-topped table or mirror surround, I grind the edges of every piece of glass.  This piece not only required a crazy amount of sanding, it also took six coats of varnish before it felt smooth to the touch.

I've always wondered if the person who bought these shelves ever found the secret compartments?

Mixed Media Woods, Cedar barn wood, Latex paint, Spar varnish (and lots of it).

Designed and built by Brett Bigham of Black Dog Furniture, Portland, Oregon.

Cluck Cluck! Quack! Children's Furniture

A Couple Pieces of Kid's Furniture

I love it when I get to do kid's furniture. It is a chance for me to mix several different types of artistry. Building, Designing, Painting and Cartooning.  I get to do it all!

I always wonder though, who buys these pieces.  Grown ups for their kids or grown ups for themselves

Mixed Media Woods, Latex Paint, Ink, Spar Varnish. Designed and Built by Brett Bigham of Black Dog Furniture, Portland, Oregon.

Endcuts and Wood Scraps Become the Fire Red Altar Shelf

These are my favorite things to make out of scraps. For this piece I cut scraps into triangles and stacked the pieces to create a layered architectural style.

Mixed Media Wood, Recycled Mirror, Handcut Appliques, Latex Paint, Spar Varnish.  Built and designed by Brett Bigham, Black Dog Furniture Design, Portland, Oregon.

The Dog Bench

A woman consigned me to make a dog bench for her son. He had started a business walking dogs and she wanted a bench for his room.

She saw the Snouticus Rex bench but it had already sold:

So we showed her my sample color table so she could pick a color--and she picked all of them.

  It was fun and tedious to paint but the end result was pretty cool.

Mixed Media Woods, Pine, Handcut appliques, Latex Paint, Spar Varnish. Designed, Built and Cartooned by Brett Bigham of Black Dog Furniture Design, Portland, Oregon.

This Was A Pile of Endcuts & Scraps

Most often when I build I will do several pieces at once so that I have a whole mess of furniture  to paint at the same time.  At then end of one of these building sprees I will have a pretty big pile of scraps left over. Keep in  mind, I try to buy as much of my wood from salvage yards as possible. So my scraps are often the sraps of the scraps of some other project from ages past.

One of my favorite things to do with my scrap pile is to challenge myself to make something beautiful out of it. Usually the result is a shrine or an art piece but on this day I had some really interesting scraps to build out of.  I had made a piece with appliqued gothic arches and the resulting leftovers had big arches cut out of them. The same with the appliqued arches on this piece, they were just the opposite-leftover after I used the wood they were cut from.

The finish on this piece is quite lovely in person. I painted the piece red first, sanded back into the wood and prior  paints, and then added the layers of purple.  After sanding back into purple to reveal red, wood and woodgrain, I washed the piece with my secret recipe wash and then varnished the piece. 

I named the piece "The Lotus Mahal" since the arches mirrored a shape I had seen on an ancient Indian temple of the same name.  It is one of the few pieces of furniture that I have kept for myself.

Mixed Media Woods, 1960s turned divider posts cut down for legs, house trim, Handcut decorations, Latex Paint, Spar Varnish.  Built and Designed By Brett Bigham of Black Dog Furniture Design, Portland, Oregon.

Recycled cupboard door, a coaster and some old bed posts

This cute little table is pretty much 100% recycled wood.  The legs were part of a 1960's four-poster bed, the table top was a cupboard door from a salvage yard and the applique on the front is a 1970s wooden coaster that I cut in half.

If you compare this harlequin paintjob to my previous post of the green coffee table you can see how differently a pattern can look just by changing the length or width of the diamond.  A long thin diamond makes the piece look longer and more slender. A short blocky diamond can make a piece seem more square.  In the past I have been unhappy with a diamond pattern and redone it.  You would be amazed how the same piece can look totally different with two different sized patterns,

Mixed Media Woods, Cupboard door, Coaster, Bed Posts, Latex Paint, Spar Varnish.  Designed and Built by Brett Bigham of Black Dog Furniture Design.

Almost 100% Recycled Wood!!

This two-legged table is one of my all time favorites!

The legs on this table came from an estate sale. Originally they held a beveled mirror on the top of a Victorian dresser. (see picture below as an example--but these are not the actual ones that I used)

 

The top of my piece came from some beautiful oak that my friend Ron had pulled out of his old Portland home. The drawer pull was also a reused piece.

The table mounts to the wall and that style allowed it to be this light and airy piece of furniture that you see here.

Mixed Media Woods, Oak shelving, Victorian mirror brackets, latex paint, Spar Varnish, Reused Brass Drawer Pull. Built and Designed by Brett Bigham of Black Dog Furniture Design, Portland, Oregon.

A Very Architectural Set Of Shelves

This set of shelves is one of my all time favorites. Aside from the obvious architectural elements, I also used a pattern of gloss and semi-gloss varnish to create a tile-like pattern. In this photo that best shows in the stripe pattern on the back of the piece.

I wonder if the person who bought these has found the secret compartment yet?

Mixed Media Woods, Latex Paint, Spar Varnish, Hand-cut Diamonds. Built and Designed by Brett Bigham of Black Dog Furniture Design, Portland,Oregon.

An old bed lives again!

This four poster headboard was damaged and in need of a new life.  I cut down the posts, added a seat and legs and VIOLA!  A Colonial bench in red.

Mixed Media Woods, Latex Paint, Spar Varnish, Hand-cut diamonds.  Designed and built by Brett Bigham of Black Dog Furniture Design, Portland,Oregon.

My First Furniture Show

OK, calling this a furniture show might be a bit of an overstatement but that's my term for it.  One of the stores I deal with allowed me take over a whole section of their store.  I built everything in the picture but the bamboo shelves and the upholstered chair.  It was quite an undertaking but I was really enjoying the opportunity to do such a variety of pieces. 

The ivory-colored trunk in the front was a special piece. I lucked into buying a pile of old growth timber that had been cut and milled in the 1930s.  It had been sitting in the back of warehouse up until me buying it and turning it into many of the pieces you see up above.  The ivory shelves in the back were a fun piece too.  I will be honest and admit that it is one of only two pieces I have made that did not sell. After a year of it bouncing around Portico, I took it home, refinished it in ebony, my black finish.  It sold almost immediately when I took it back to the store.

The orange wall shelf is called the Giza Shelf.  Three pyramids in a row line the top.

One of my favorite coffee tables.

One of my all time favorite coffee tables.

This is one of those designs that just came together perfectly.  I like to do an original top on every piece of furniture that I build. I pride myself on being able to say, "I've never made two pieces that are alike." When I built this table I wanted to do a stockier, more square shape. The overhang is very shallow, the legs and stays are the same thickness and the hand-cut diamond appliques are all, basically, another square tipped on their side.  

When I went to paint the table, the squareness of the piece kind of threw me.  A design based on squares did not seem right. The harlequin diamonds, however, was the perfect fit! The table really came together nicely and I considered keeping it.  Instead, I marked it ridiculously high and put it in the store. I told myself if it didn't sell in a couple of weeks that I would keep it.  It sold the next day.

Sigh...that is the plight of the artist. When you create something, sometimes, if you are lucky, you fall in love with a piece.  Sometimes you keep them, more often, you have to part with something you created that you love.  

Doors and a napkin holder...

A Fiery Red Architectural Headboard

This bed was made from an old door, fence posts, two carved urns from Bali, resin parts off of an old coffee table, handcut diamonds, Victorian trim and finally, the decoration in the center is half of a vintage napkin holder.

Mixed Media Woods, Victorian door and door panels, resin decorations, carved urns from Balinese camphor wood, handcut diamonds, napkin holder, latex paint, spar varnish.

Designed and built by "Brett Bigham" of Black Dog Furniture Design, Portland Oregon.

The Ugly Duckling Dresser Becomes A Swan

Bon Jour $25 Goodwill Dresser

A friend of mine was putting together a bedroom with an all black and white Parisian theme. I found this dresser at Goodwill for $25, sanded it, painted and stamped it and then built a footstool from scratch and painted it to match.  The knobs also came from Goodwill for $3.  Total cost? About $34 with the paint, varnish, nails, etc.

Mixed Media Woods, Recycled Dresser and knobs, Handcut Ornaments, Latex Paint, Spar Varnish. Designed and built by Brett Bigham of Black Dog Furniture Design, Portland Oregon.

Victorian Mirrors

Beautiful Victorian Bedroom Mirrors

This wall full of mirrors are all from re-cycled glass and a variety of new and used woods. The decorations are all hand-cut and finished to resemble architectural elements.  The center mirror ended up in a Victorian mansion here in the city.  The owners had been looking for an entry mirror that matched their home for years.   They were extremely excited when they found this mirror!

Mixed Media Woods, Latex Paint, Spar Varnish, Gold Leaf, Antique mirror. Designed and built by "Brett Bigham" of Black Dog Furniture Design, Portland Oregon.

Gilded Harem Table

The Gilded Harem Table

This dainty piece was built from a cabinet door top and Victorian spindle legs. The jewels are hand-cut on the saw and the gold finish is my own secret recipe.  It does not photograph well, but it is the closest to paint finish to true gold leaf.

This table sold a few hours after I delivered it to the store. It never even made it into the display window.

Mixed Medium Woods, latex paint, enamel paint, Spar Varnish. Designed and built by "Brett Bigham" of Black Dog Furniture Design, Portland Oregon.

Headboard Bench in Ebony

A twin headboard becomes a bench.

This twin headboard was crying out for a re-do. By turning it into a bench we took a light and airy headboard and turned it into a light and airy bench.   The bench top opens for hat and glove storage. The front legs were porch spindles that I cut down.

The finish is a distressed ebony over wood.  It has been sanded back to expose previous layers of paint and woodgrain.

Mixed Media Woods, Latex Paint, Spar Varnish. Designed and built by "Brett Bigham" of Black Dog Furniture Design, Portland Oregon.

A Small Herd of Tables

Recycling at its finest!

This small herd of tables are almost completely made from recycled woods.  The tops are all cabinet doors that have been sanded and painted, the legs are all Victorian staircase spindles except for one set of legs off of a wrecked piano stool.  The little footstool in front has legs that were the left over end of the spindles from the table in the back right.

The decorations were hand-cut on the saw or are vintage coasters that have been sliced down and made into ornaments. 

Mixed Medium Woods, latex paint, spar varnish. Designed and built by "Brett Bigham" of "Black Dog Furniture Design", Portland Oregon.