Saturday, May 4, 2013

A Recycled Victorian Door Turned Into A Bed...and a yellow dog too!


Here our lovely model Coco is showing a beautiful blue bed that has been made out of a Victorian panel door.  The trim is all recycled Victorian house trim, I hand-cut the diamond appliques and the finials and top carving came from a small village outside Ubud, Bali.

Bali is a wonderful place to go for furniture builders.  We used to go for a month every year. We'd drop our designs off at the wood carvers, then travel through the Indonesian islands for a month and then return to Bali to collect our wood carvings. (The carvings on this piece, however, were not my designs.)

These old doors are wonderful to work with but note that old doors and furniture often have lead paint on them.  When I first started building I loved sanding back into layers of different colors of old paint. But then I decided that all that lead paint would probably kill me, so I began experimenting with paints and paint layers.  I rarely use old wood with paint on it now but, as a rule, when I do use old wood, I make sure that I put several thick coats of varnish over it to seal everything in, just in case.  

Jeremy's Bed: Victorian Five Panel Door, Victorian House Trim, Pine Diamond Appliques, Camphor Wood, Mixed Woods, Finials and Top Carving Modern Balinese Carvings, Miller Latex Paint, Spar Varnish.

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

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