The Sultan's Trunk. 100% Recycled Wood!

This little trunk/coffee table is made from 100% recycled woods, salvaged woods and wood scraps!

One side of the top flips up for storage.

Ivory Sultan's Trunk: Fir, Pine, Mixed Media woods, Victorian house trim, Miller Latex Paint, Spar Varnish.

Built and Designed By Brett Bigham

Black Dog Furniture Design

Portland, Oregon

Recycled Wood, Reused Legs...Autumn Harlequin Table

This table top was some really beautiful 1930's Old Growth lumber that had never been used. This table had a couple of knots in it that I had to fill and cover up so the Harlequin Pattern worked just perfectly.  I was able to paint over the rougher spots and leave the lightest colored diamonds as natural wood.  I don't do a lot of natural wood finishes but the grain in this wood was so lovely I wanted to save as much of it as possible.

Autumn Harlequin Table: Old Growth Douglas Fir, Pine, Re-used Vintage Legs, Appliques.

Miller Latex Paint, Spar Varnish

Designed and Built by Brett Bigham

Black Dog Furniture Design

Portland, Oregon

My Version of an Antique Farm Bench

At the old farm there were several old benches.  One of them was probably close to 100 years old and had recessed legs.  I had been getting quite a few requests for 6 foot farm benches so I decided to make one using six legs instead of two.  This gave the piece more stability, weight and, of course, extra seating.

The blue-green color is my version of a color from Versailles-mixed with an antique ivory color.

French Six Legged Bench: Pine, Victorian House Trim.

Designed and Built By Brett Bigham

Black Dog Furniture Design

Portland, Oregon

A Fancy Display Shelf From Recycled Wood!

This set of shelves used repurposed woods, Victorian trim scraps, left over door panels (from a door that was cut up to make a bed), tongue-and-groove, handcut diamond appliques, finials cut from bed posts, vintage picture frame moulding and some really cool pressed wood from the 1960's that I used on the back of the piece.

I made this piece for my antique space but I had so many offers to buy it that I finally gave in and accepted a (ridiculously large) offer.  

Designed and Built by Brett Bigham.

Black Dog Furniture Design

Portland, Oregon

Another Fun Frame from Pine and Trim Scraps

Just a run of the mill frame from me.  Victorian house trim, antique mirror, handcut diamond appliques, Miller Latex Paint, Spar Varnish.

Now For Something Totally Different

For those of you who don't know Butch, he is a pretty funny cat. He would go over and visit our neighbor every morning for treats and pets.  After she had her baby she would breastfeed in the morning and Butch would still come visit and watch through the window.  

Since Butch is willing to wear hats, scarves and footed baby jammies we knew he would have no problem wearing a sign.  We put this on him and sent him on his way one morning.

Our neighbor laughed so hard when she saw him and his sign.

Blue Altar Mirror from woodscraps and recycled parts.

This photo really shows the diamond appliques that I use.  This Altar has antique mirror and the surround is blue Bullseye Glass.

When I make a piece that has all of these triangle shapes it means I am at the tail-end of a big building binge and have a lot of small leftover pieces of wood. I cut them down into triangles and then start layering them to make interesting shapes and designs.  It is very difficult to make art deco styled furniture using just saws and no bent wood but with this triangle layering technique, you can turn out some very interesting art deco designs!

Blue Altar Shelf: pine, Bullseye Stained Glass, birch, Victorian house trims, hand cut diamond appliques, antique mirror, Miller Latex Paint, Spar Varnish.

Designed and Built by Brett Bigham

Black Dog Furniture Design

Portland, Oregon

A Stack of French Farm Benches

These nice long farm benches were made of new pine, Victorian house trim and Miller Latex Paints.

I was in a French phase there for a while. :0) Mon Dieu!

Long Farm Benches By Brett Bigham

Black Dog Furniture Design

Portland, Oregon

Blonde and Ebony Living Room Suite

This is a simple color combination that turned out really lovely.  It is always a battle when I finish building a piece. Plain black sells very quickly (these were gone in less than a week) but then I feel like anyone can do plain black.  I like the set above but anyone could have assembled the pieces as I did and painted a table black.  But, occasionally I feel the need to do something simple and elegant. We'll think of this set as my little black dress.  Everyone has to have a simple black dress. (or simple black t-shirt if you are a guy).

My mom brought me a truckload of turned legs she had bought at an estate sale. The old gentleman had spent his last years lathing legs and spindles in his barn on a hand lathe.

Pine, hand-turned legs, hand-cut diamond appliques, Miller Latex Paint, Spar Varnish

Designed and built by Brett Bigham

Black Dog Furniture Design

Portland Oregon

The Red Harem Table

Just a fun little red table.

Pine, Handcut Diamond Appliques, Miller Latex Paint, Spar Varnish.

Designed and Built by Brett Bigham

Black Dog Furniture Design

Portland Oregon

Once a Cupboard Door, Now A Cool Modern Art Table

Here is how that little table from my last post ended up looking int he store.

The Modern Art Paintjob took me a heck of a long time but it was worth it. It was good enough to hang on the wall!

Recycling Old Cupboard Doors Into Something Fabulous!

Vintage Cupboard Door, Victorian Railing Spindles and House Trim, Handcut appliques, Pine.

A nice modern painting on top of a table!

Cupboard door, recycled legs from a piano bench, pine.

Some fiery reds!

Cupboard Door, Victorian Spindles, Pine, New Applique.

All Designed and  Built by Brett Bigham

Black Dog Furniture Design

Portland, Oregon

A Ruined Coffee Table Gets A Second Life.

I picked up this table so that I could cannibalize it for parts. I was dying to make something awesomeout of those legs!  Once I got it home I realized it was a very sturdy piece of furniture, as good as anything I would build out of the pieces.  But the top was wrecked. It was scorched, scratched, gnawed on and beat up.

So instead of taking it apart I just sanded the heck out of it, put on a fun paint job and basically, gave it a face lift.  

You Can Build A Beautiful Frame For Ten Bucks

I bought this odd-sized Canadian Impressionist Painting by Henry Ivan Neilson. (Lovely painting, difficult to photograph). The frame cost less than ten dollars to build...but then I decided to use real gold leaf since I like the painting so much. Nothing glows like real gold leaf.

The arrowheads and pottery collections are in picture frames from Goodwill that I repurposed into shadowboxes.

Picture frames: Pine, New egg and dart mouldings, Gold Leaf, Spar Varnish.

Designed and Built By Brett Bigham

Black Dog Furniture Design

Portland, Oregon

A Pile of Recycled Wood & Two Sleepless Nights

My friend Carole called me on a Wednesday. "What are you doing this weekend?"

She is an antiques dealer and was going to a big antique show that weekend. Their had just been a cancellation and she was offered a second space. She had taken the space but did it for me.  I had two days to fill the space but I had almost nothing in the house that I had built.

So I went to work.  I ran to Goodwill and bought up silverware box and some old mirrors that had no frames. The silverware box got little legs made out of old spindles and the mirror got a fancy new frame.

I whipped out a couple of cupboard door tables. (I STILL have some of these old cupboard doors left! I don't think I'll ever use them up but when you find a case of old cupboard doors for a buck a piece...you have to buy them!)

I yanked my favorite mirror off the wall (the Ivory colored "Lotus Mahal Mirror". The archway shape was inspired by an ancient Indian Temple. It was one of the few pieces I had in the house.

A few more vintage cupboard doors from the 1950's became modern art masterpieces! 

Another cupboard door became this endtable and a weird small cupboard door became an ottoman. The pine bench has handcut diamonds and the  mosaic piece on the right was a plant stand I had made for myself previously. The top was originally a wooden Chinese stand made to hold an urn or a pot. The legs were very old Victorian porch spindles, and the side pieces were 1930's old growth lumber that had archways cut out of the sides. It was one of those pieces that take so much time to make that you know you can never sell them for what the investment was.  You are simply making art. 

So that was what I was able to throw together in two days and two nights.  I only slept 6 or 7 hours in three days but I was pretty impressed.  I can be quite industrious when the need arises.  

Now if I could just get off this couch!!

Happy Spring.

Big Pile of Furniture: Mixed Media, Mixed antique and new woods, cupboard doors, Victorian spindles and trim, pine, oak, maple, handcut and store bought appliques, Antique and vintage mirrors,  Miller Lates Paint, Spar Varnish.

Designed and Built by Brett Bigham

Black Dog Furniture

Portland Oregon

When Modern Art Marries Furniture

This table is basically a piece of Modern Art painted on a piece of handmade furniture.

I call this a brickwork pattern. I tape off each brick, one at a time, and layer several colors of paint. It is not uncommon for me to spend 2 or 3 days painting a piece of furniture. This was a fun piece but it sold so fast I never got a better picture of it.

Green Brickwork Table: Pine, Handcut Diamond Appliques, Miller Latex Paint, Spar Varnish.

Built and Painted by Brett Bigham

Black Dog Furniture Design

Portland, Oregon

Green Furniture for Spring!

I am always reminding people: Don't Be Afraid Of Color!!

Green Metropolis Table: Pine, Victorian house trims, Handcut diamond appliques.

Fleur Footstool: Pine scraps, Handturned spindle legs, Victorian house trims, Handcut diamond appliques. 

Both with Miller Lates Paint, Spar Varnish.

Designed and Built by Brett Bigham

Black Dog Furniture Design

Portland, Oregon.

Once a Cupboard Door, Now a Checkered Table

This little checkered table used to be a cupboard door. The legs are 2x3 pine. I handcut the diamond appliques.  Black is my best seller and a plain black table sells for the same amount as a table that I spend two days painting a design on...but the truth is, I get incredibly bored doing black furniture. 

So, instead of black, I tossed in a little blue and green checker. Each checker is layered with 2-3 colors of paint so when I sand back, all those rich colors come out. It is hard to see in the picture but the richness in the colors on this piece make it worthy of hanging the top on the wall as a piece of art.

Metropolis Checkered Table in Blues and Greens

Designed and Built by Brett Bigham.

Legs from a 1960's sewing machine became this dainty table!

The legs for this table used to be on a 1960s sewing machine table.  That piece was wrecked so I pulled the legs off and made a new table with them.  I don't use yellow often in my building but every once in a while when I find a piece that feels French to me, I'll mix up some yellow paint that echoes the yellows used at Versailles.

Bon Jour!

French Harlequin Table in Ivory and Versailles Yellow: Pine top, recycled legs (maple?), Miller Latex Paint, Spar Varnish.

Designed and Built by Brett Bigham

Black Dog Furniture Design

Portland, Oregon

Cupboard Doors And Bedposts!

This entire set was made out of cupboard doors from the 50s, bedposts from the 60-70s, Victorian house trim and a little bit of new pine!

I love it when I can create new things out of so many recycled parts!

Lime Green and Black Living Room Set: Recycled cupboard doors, cut down and reused bedposts, pine, Victorian house trim, Miller Latex Paint, Spar Varnish.

Designed and Built By Brett Bigham

Black Dog Furniture Design

Portland, Oregon

Can You Believe This Was A Ten Dollar Goodwill Dresser?!!

I wrapped some trim around a $10 Goodwill Dresser, Added a shelf top and some hand-cut diamonds and viola!

The stores beg me to build dressers but I just can't.  I can build a bench in the time it takes to build a drawer!

So, every once in a while I will pick up a dresser at a sale or at Goodwill and repurpose it.  This was a pretty simple dresser with no trims or decorations.  The shelves were all of my left-over end cuts and pieces of trim that I  had laying around.  Overall this piece cost almost nothing to make since it was all scraps or the $10 dresser itself.

Leafy Dresser: Goodwill dresser, Victorian house trims, Hand-cut diamond appliques, Vintage Plaster picture frame moulding, Miller Latex Paint, Spar Varnish.

Designed and Built (except the dresser) by Brett Bigham

Black Dog Furniture Design

Portland, Oregon.

One of my favorite things to build are shelves!

I love building shelves.  When you are done they are so substantial and seem to me, as a furniture builder, one of the most architectural of things to build.  I call this set the Ebony Metropolis Shelf.  The Handcut diamonds are, obviously, my favorite decoration to build with. They are simple but add dimension and they are a total chameleon.  On this piece they look like a squared art deco bolt or nail head.  On another piece they will look like carving or Victorian decorations.

Here is another set of shelves.  Similar pieces but this one has a whole different mojo going on.

The subtle pattern in the backing is a strip using a high gloss and a satin gloss black.

Lotus Shelves in Ebony: Pine, Press Board, New and Antique trims, Hand-cut Diamonds, Pressed applique, Miller High Gloss Black, Satin Black Varnish, Miller Black Latex, Spar Varnish.

Designed and Built By Brett Bigham

Black Dog Furniture Design

Portland, Oregon

.

Funky & Fun! Vintage Woods And Scraps Turned Into Something New!

This table top was the last two pieces of that amazing 1930s old growth Douglas Fir wood that came from an old warehouse.  I don't do a lot of white furniture (yawn) but this piece was really complicated with multiple layers of cut and patterned wood block and triangles on the stays.

When I finished this piece in my ivory color I decided that it could (and should) have a pattern on the top that   echoed all the triangle used in the wood blocking (each one of those raised pieces has a triangle pattern cut into them--it doesn't show in the photo well).

I was very pleased with the piece and gave it to an organization for a fundraiser. Though furniture, this was one of my pieces where I feel I went from furniture to art and back a few times.

Coffee Table: Old Growth Douglas Fir (milled in the 1930s), Pine, Recycled Victorian House Trim, Hand-turned legs/balcony railings, Miller Latex Paint, Spar Varnish.

Designed and built by Brett Bigham

Black Dog Furniture Design

Portland, Oregon

A 1930's Twin Waterfall Headboard Became A Flashy Art Deco Bookcase!

Now How is this for recycling?!

I picked up a wrecked 1930's Art Deco Waterfall Headboard. Originally I thought I might use it for a hutch on a piece but every time I tried to use it on a piece, it just didn't look right.  Finally I decided to make it into a stand-alone bookcase.  I took off the front panel, added shelves and built out a base. The top corners of the piece were very dramatic so I added the extra moulding and a very cool triangular trim that I picked up at a salvage yard.

The back panel is just press board but I patternred it using a combination of high glass and satin black paint. It made a subtle but very beautiful touch to the piece.  Granted, when it is full of books it won't s how, but for me, the artist, I always enjoy secret compartments and secret paintings.  It is not  unusual for me to cartoon or paint the backs of my pieces.

The people who bought this were in Portland, visiting from Florida.  They saw it in the window and had to have it.  :0)  The store had quite a time finding a box to ship it in!

Art Deco Waterfall Bookcase: recycled 1930s headboard, pine, douglas fir, Victorian trims, Panel board, Miller High Gloss Black Paint, Miller Latex Paint, Spar Varnish, Silver Leaf.

Designed and Built by Brett Bigham

Black Dog Furniture Design

Portland, Oregon

Something Different. A Wall Fairy House (from gravel and grout!)

Ok, Ok...y'all will probably think I'm crazy but I saw a couple of Fairy Houses on Pinterest and it piqued my interest.  As a kid my favorite thing to do was make buildings out of Legos.  I could spend an entire Saturday building one house after another.  So, the idea of building a little house out of rocks...well...that's just a different kind of Lego building!

I've been working on a rock retaining wall for the past year and the idea of tucking a little door down in the base of the wall was more than I could resist.  I used an old yardstick to cut up for the door. It gives the door scale so you can see how tiny it is.  My yard is a corner lot and always bursting with flowers so people stop and ooh and ah a little bit.  I've always enjoyed looking out the windows to see people's reactions to all the flowers.  Now it is fun to watch them to see if they notice the Fairy Houses.

However, it is hard to do just one Fairy House.  Since I was gluing gravel and rocks together (and then grouting later with leftover green grout from my bathroom project), there was a lot of down time. Glue five pieces of gravel (from my driveway...talk about a cheap project!) and then wait for it to dry.  So, while I was waiting for things to dry I'd start another one, and another one, and a bridge, etc....

The one up above has a window (a pane of glass from a tea light holder) and is hollow so I can take off the rocks above it and drop a tea light inside.  It is a pain to do but I figured that would at least be fun for Halloween.  I found a tealight though that come on at 5 every day and stays on for four hours.  It is still working a month later on the first battery).

Since this is the new part of the wall, it doesn't have a lot of plants growing yet. Once I have it all planted the houses will really disappear for most of the year.

The best part of the Fairy Houses have been the reaction from the kids on my block.  Almost every day I see them down here checking on the Fairies.  I have found two letters tucked up against one of the houses. One to the tooth fairy and  one asking who lives in the house.  I answered them both on little scrolls of sparkle paper.

:0)

But, since I'm an artist,  I'm calling these art and they count in my New Year's Resolution of creating 75 pieces of furniture and art this year.

I'm not quite finished with the bridge and the last fairy house (and I've promised to make one more for a dear friend who wants one really badly). But for those of you who loved legos as a kid...I highly recommend this as a project.  It was a blast!

Recycled Bed Posts & Pine became The Chocolate Harlequin Table

I like to name my pieces when I like them. This is the Chocolate Harlequin Dining Room Table. The legs are recycled bed posts from a middish 20th Century bed. The top was really beautiful Columbia Gorge Pine. I hand-cut the diamonds from vintage wood (left over ends from some staircase spindles I used on a table) and the corner trim was recycled out of a Victorian era home.

The colors are original colors for this piece.  When I make benches I will use paint straight out of the can but when I am doing a table I like to mix my colors to create new shades for the pieces I am doing that day.  For a harlequin table like this, I even mix up colors that are only used on one or two of the diamonds. I also layer the diamonds with colors (some have three or four layers of paint!) and then sand back down through the layers.  One diamond can be showing wood, four layers of brown and then I do washes over the piece as I varnish which adds layers of depth and color across the piece.

I sanded this table so long that you could run your hand across it and it felt like velvet.

It currently resides in a fancy mountain house on Mt. Hood.

Chocolate Harlequin Dining Room Table: Mixed Woods, Pine, Recycled Legs, Hand-cut Diamonds, Victorian Trims, Miller Latex Paint, Spar Varnish.

Designed and Built by Brett Bigham

Black Dog Furniture Design

Portland, Oregon

A Big Cupboard Door and Some Handturned Legs

This cute little fella is almost 100% recycled!

The top is a large pantry cupboard door from the 1950s and the legs were hand-turned balcony railings that I cut down to be legs.  

The black border around the green really made the colors pop.  I wasn't sure about this combination. I often use black in small amounts with green but to do the entire bottom black and the top green was new for me. I did an entire living room set in these colors, took them to the store and half expected that I would end up taking them home in a few months to repaint in a more sane color scheme.

I shouldn't have worried.  They were all gone within the month.

Mixed Woods, 1950s cupboard door, hand-turned balcony railing legs, hand-cut diamonds, Miller Latex Paint, Spar Varnish.

Designed and Built by Brett Bigham

Black Dog Furniture Design

Portland, Oregon

One of my Restaurant Interiors

This was one of those exciting projects you get to design from the very start. My friend was opening a restaurant and asked me to do all the furniture.  What a great freedom to be given a budget and carte blanche to make whatever you want.

We chose a color scheme that matched my vintage 50s curtains at home and I went to work.  The benches were all vintage, the table is made from recycled bed posts for legs.  My mom made the pillows and bench cushions.  It was a real family affair.

A few months after opening it was named restaurant of the year in the local paper.

The friendship lasted two more restaurants (again, carte blanche to design what I wanted) but now, sadly, I can't recommend the restaurant.  It is beautiful though, so feel free to walk by and look in the windows. 

One of Those Cheap Ten Dollar Mirrors Became This.

This is the Lotus Mahal Mirror (and my entryway). I kept this mirror for a long time until, one day, I made one I liked Better.

Recycled woods and trims, Pine, Gold Leaf, Miller Latex Paint, Spar Varnish, Mirror.

Brett Bigham

Portland Oregon

A Pile of Scraps, Pine and Old Turned Pieces Became A Pile Of Furniture!

My mom stumbled onto an estate sale where a nice retired man had filled his spare time by turning wood legs and pieces.  My mom filled up an entire pickup truck with the most amazing wood parts.  What fun to build out of such special material!

Pine Tables, Victorian Trims, Turned Legs, Miller Latex Paint, Spar Varnish

Brett Bigham

Portland Oregon

Some Fun Paint Finishes.

Just Playing With Colors and Patterns.

Little Benches. Pine, Miller Latex Paint, Spar Varnish.

Brett Bigham

Black Dog Furniture Design

Portland, Oregon

Yesterday A Cupboard Door, Today A Little Table.

I thought this little guy kind of looked like a Transformer.

1950's Blonde Cupboard Door, Recycled Victorian House Trims, Pine, Handcut Diamonds.

Brett Bigham

Black Dog Furniture Design

Portland, Oregon

Cupboard Doors, New Pine and Scraps

What do I do with all those little foot long scraps of wood I have left with?  FOOTSTOOLS!  One of my favorite things to do when I am making a delivery to one of the stores, is to make a stack of pieces that fit one on top of the other.  This triples the amount of sales space I am getting out of the space of one bench.

And the amazing thing about footstools?  They run out of the store.  It seems that everyone needs one and not that many people take the time to make proper furniture when they put together a footstool.

With all the scraps I have over I've done a gazillion of these.  I figure, long after I am dead, my footstools will be popping up on Antiques Roadshow.  

Scrap Woods, Cupboard Door, Pine, Handcut Diamonds, Miller Latex Paint, Spar Varnish.

Brett Bigham

Portland, Oregon.

A Living Room Suite From Cupboard Doors and Recycled Woods!

This is one of those times where the camera fails you.  This piece, the Red Lotus Mahal, was a recycled built- in cabinet that I found on the side of the street. I wrapped it with trims, added the arches and put on a new top.

I don't know what I did wrong but none of the pictures I took do the top colors justice.  It was Christmas and I thought a suite of furniture, based on historical architecture, done in warm fire colors, would look really beautiful.  

This small table has miniature arches painted on the sides. 

There was also a matching bench, coffee table, two side tables and the Lotus Mahal Shelves.  They were all sold within a few days and none of them were sold together.  Pity, this was a set I was hoping would stay together.

The table tops are all recycled cabinet doors, some new and recycled pin, antique and new trims, hand-cut decorations and appliques, Miller Latex Paint, Spar Varnish.

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

Portland, Oregon.