AT Europe: Eindhoven - Salvaged Cabinet from Marije van der Park

Check out this "green idea." Dutch designer Marije van der Park took an orphaned piece of heavy old-style furniture and transformed it, thus providing it with salvation. This piece she calls "Out of the Cupboard"...

She sandblasted it and perforated the interior, creating a poetic light pattern that gives it a modern lift.

The idea was "based on the idea of improving discarded furniture using new techniques, part of the collection re: use | re: make | re: value which is centered on the reuse and revaluation of discarded objects," she says.

(via Bientot Demain)

Comments (12)

I think it's cool! Good thinking.

I think this is becoming its own genre of furniture. It is in many ways based upon the old, old concept of waste not/want not. I used to have a rocker that was clearly made up of two different chairs: squat, low seat with rockers and back of spindles from a very differently proportioned kitchen chair. That kind of furniture was not valued for its true innovation/art, so a lot of it got pitched. However, it has been done regularly throughout the world for hundreds of years.

Regardless of the motivation behind it, I love it all!

(Although I am still an IKEA fan too.)

I would be totally into that cabinet if it were painted white or cream.

This seems like more of an art piece than furniture. Great if you have the room and no need to use it for storage.

Sassy,
If it was used to house just glassware I suppose the pattern would show through, but good point!
Anyway, I quite like it. :)

Oh dear. Why do the artists who do this go after genuinely old furniture in styles that have intrinsic value? Judging from what's left, that cabinet was in one of the various Biedermeier or Empire-type styles -- possibly a late revival from the 1910s-ish, but still capable of standing on its own in a modern home.

i love it. it'd be beautiful as a freestanding console, with colorful blankets and pillows stacked up in it.

wende, it's actually difficult to see what era the piece is from. and not all antiques are quality. why do people insist on thinking that just because a piece of furniture is old, it's intrinsically valuable or worthy? crap was made in every era. its like people (my mother for one) who freaked when I had my dining room paneling stripped of old varnish and paint and then had it lacquered ... the base wood was totally mismatched and of different words and grains entirely and was actually meant to be painted when it was installed in 1907. research proved it. so don't be so holier than thou about antiques, guys! what a person wants to do with their own purchases is their business. you need to learn the different between what's quality and what's merely serviceable.

Also, as press about the artist makes clear, she uses salvaged furniture for her reinventions. Better than something discarded gets used in a new way than being the object of misguided reverence. If you feel that strongly about what she does, then go out and save a piece of furniture as your good deed of the day. There's certainly enough discarded furniture to go around.

It's either maple or cherry wood. It's not veneer and the feet look art nouveau. I suspect there was a beveled mirror in the center and most likely some art nouveau carved design on the side doors.

I'll take that over it's current incarnation any day.

I like the contrast between the stolid, almost ponderous quality of the wood and and the delicate tracings of light; the the way the aimless, wandering swirls inhabit but do not completely overtake the functionality of the piece. It's a little like discovering that your stern grandfather has a sense of humor..