The challenge for the Fall of 2022 was to “upscale” an item from something that was discarded to something useful. Saving a wooden piece from the landfill or the burn-pile.

Don Urquhart

I found a magazine stand at the Women In Need (WIN) store on Quadra Street.  It was held together by six screws securing the top to the apron.  Nearly all of the dowel joints were loose and when the top was removed I was able to pull it apart and refurbish it.  The top and the shelf were quite ornate and the magazine racks on the ends weren’t useful for my “repurposing”.  So, I removed the racks, modified the shelf and replaced the top with live-edge arbutus.  I was going to spray finish the base but my garage aka spray booth has been too cold.  The finishing will have to wait for a warmer day.  My wife, Carol, wants to keep our new plant stand as it serves a useful purpose and we have a place for it.

Rick Lloyd

Converting door frames to toys for grandkids. The wood for this project was reclaimed from the renovation of a bank in downtown Victoria. Maple and mahogany door frames were salvaged.

Eric Koob

My neighbour had a couple of old headboards and footboards for children’s bunkbeds that he no longer wanted.  They were made by his father about 75 years ago from Jamaican Mahogany that he brought back to Canada.  My first thought was to use the headboards to make a mid-century modern slingback leather chair.  I found a slightly used leather couch on Facebook Marketplace (at an amazing price) which was disassembled to salvage the leather.  After some preliminary designs, it became evident that the headboard wasn’t tall enough for the mid-century modern chair.  My wife had been hinting for a meditation chair for some time and the chair dimensions worked nicely with the bedframes.  Meditation Chairs usually have a padded or flexible seat for comfort.  I decided to try Danish Cord Weaving for the seat to give it some flexibility.  The seat took 1100 feet of cord and about 10 hours to complete.  One thing about “upcycling furniture”, you have to work within the dimensions of the pieces you are reusing.  The leather cushion ended up being a bit smaller than the seat dimension but still works perfectly well for my wife.  There is still enough leather for a future Sling Back Chair.

Bruce Thomson

A renovation of our family room fireplace provided a piece of cedar 3″ X 8″ X 6′, the old mantel. This cedar mantel was used to create a small carved statue for my granddaughter and some toys for kids.

Don Gray

This pedestal table is made from wood from a waterbed frame, a coffee table, a crib and a drafting table. 

Frank Letchford

A reclaimed chunk of Maple door-frame was re-milled and converted to a dozen toy cars for Santa’s Anonymous.

Brent Hegadoren

My wife’s grand parents were married in 1925 in the Netherlands and received a round oak dining table as a wedding gift.  It was cut in half and shipped to Canada, reglued and used as a coffee table for many years by her parents. We inherited the table but it was too large  for our living room so recently I cut it into an elliptical shape and installed Lee Valley hairpin legs.

I kept the “waste pieces” and made turning blanks. The bowl form is similar to a bowl my mother-in-law kept on the table for many years.

It was nice to turn a very dry well aged wood!!!!

Mark deLeeuw