Story

It’s been a while … I have never actually prototyped the pallet chair Wassily from my original design I posted two months ago. The reason was that I stopped liking it. I wanted something a bit smarter even though it would mean using two pallets for one piece of furniture instead of one. Here is what I’m working on currently. I have just ordered a tool to rip the pallets into separate planks and I really believe the new prototype is going to happen soon. Still looking though for material for the cushions, ideally something I can upcycle myself. For the moment I only have one option, a 20mm thick EVA foam, which is an expanded rubber foam used for gym mats. I got a few sheets from my local recycling centre so that will form my initial upholstery.

It turns out the planks run in a different direction than I thought so had to redesign the chair. See the new final drawing attached, that will help me to build the prototype. By the way, the 3Ds were modeled in Sketchup. The chair resembles remotely the iconic chair Wassily so from today on I’m going to call it so. As a joke, of course.

I sourced my first pallet today. Unfortunately, the real thing is a bit different than I envisaged working on my original design so some redesign is inevitable.

I’ve always had the ambition to design furniture built from waste or recycled materials like empty milk bottles or beer cans. I’ve noticed there’s plenty of garden furniture offered on-line created from industrial pallets so decided to give it a shot. I set, however, some initial assumptions e.g. each piece is built from one pallet only without waste. Here is my proposal on how to cut the pallet and assemble the set of garden furniture. To check the feasibility though I need to build a prototype, which will follow once I have sourced my first pallet.

Sticking to the Lotus theme, I visualized how the decor would look like on customized Ikea fronts for a potential customer.

No comments, actually, this job is complete. Trying to stage the dresser now to get the best photo possible.

My favorite moment of every job, applying the oily smelly oil-based polyurethane varnish. One would like to say ‘don’t try this at home’ as it’s really smelly and may adopt a yellowish hue in time. In this case, the potential yellow patina will only work fine with the dresser. And I like the plastic-like durable finish the oil poly varnish gives. I need 4 coats of the varnish now that I will be applying over the weekend, after second and third, I will sand it a little bit.

The paintwork is done. Some small repairs left only, final sealing and fitting knobs.

Slowly progressing working on drawers.

Day spent on printing, cutting and tracing today.

The next step done. I like how the white underlay makes the red colour really bright and saturated.

Slowly progressing with the front decor, only the white underlay done today. BIoody folds and mouldings… I was furloughed from my permanent job two weeks ago but decided to go through training in Revit, which is an architectural computer programme. That means I only work on the dresser every second day.

Going through second coat of red on the top. I would never venture this project if not the quarantine and lockdown. Too much work.

Spent some time tonight on a stencil for the large red form.

I have also refreshed the design a bit.

I resumed works on the ‘lotus’ dresser. Made some customized metallic charcoal paint from leftovers and applied two coats. Waiting for the delivery of a tin of red.

I am pleased to present the visualization of what I’m aiming for. I have no idea yet how I will achieve the lotus pattern. It may be a killer job.

These two fellows are next on my list to be upcycled. The rough idea is to stain the tops to dark redwood, paint the carcasses to charcoal grey, apply a red gold artwork to drawer fronts and paint over with gold selected accessories. Visuals in progress.

30 minutes visuals for a pine bedside drawer chest for a potential customer.