Menloville, Summerhouse

Visited a clients store recently. Here are some photos of a couple pieces Lisa purchased from me. Lisa's store is called "Menloville", it is in Menlo Park, Ca. (http://menloville.com/about_menloville_shoppe.html) I was very impressed, the store is filled with interesting items. Check it out! The top two photos are pieces that are currently at Summerhouse in Mill Valley. Jane and Robert have an amazing inventory of cottage/shabby chic everything, check them out. (http://www.yelp.com/biz/summer-house-gallery-mill-valley) .

Custom Pieces for SF Store

Here are some photos of a sales counter for a new store in San Francisco. It will be called "Sprouts", they are going to sell natural childrens clothing products. The store will be located on Union St. at Octavia. The counter design was a collaboration between myself and the owners. They visited my shop and we looked at alot of raw material. I also visited the store location and we came up with a workable footprint. The height was determined by ADA code req's. The counter incorporated a small chalkboard for kids to write on. On the inside, the owners had me incorporate open shelving for storage with an additional locking cupboard for valuables. I will post additional photos here once the installation is complete. The last photo is of a slate chalkboard that was designed to hang in the entryway of the store. I salvaged a 100+ yr. old schoolhouse slate board recently and this slate is from that larger piece. Some balusters and old trim complete the design.

Here is a chimney cabinet. I wanted to show where the spiral embellishments came from so I included a photo of some corbels. These corbels are rather large for furniture building, I acquired quite a few of them last year and have not been able to work them into any pieces. I got the idea to take them apart and here is the result. I love the way the colors contrast with the lighter colored door. The door is from a salvage yard, probably a pantry or ironing board built-in cupboard. The cabinet is lined on the inside with door panels(photo), an old milk glass knob and window catch complete the hardware. Enjoy! Bryan

Small cabinet with Iron Deco base, #165

Hard to believe I get paid to do this! I had fun making this one. I purchased the cast iron base at Alameda recently. It has Art Deco decoration on it. Also, the label "Jewel". It had a slate bottom and little rubber feet. I think it had a glass case encased within. I inverted it, removed the slate and rubber feet, and created the base for this small cabinet. Leaded glass door from SF victorian remodel and some creative reuse of hardware, old corbel, and old fence pickets finishes off the top. Very Cute! Enjoy.

Raw material

The glamorous life of the entrepreneur, revealed. I worked on Sunday. Here are some photos of my various finds on Sunday. First, I checked Craigs list "Free" ads cause you never know and.....This load of shelving was listed. I drove to SF, looking for the alley described in the ad and hit the jackpot!. There was already one other truck there, we laughed about loading free wood in the rain on a sunday morning. From there I drove to Petaluma to scout locations to sell my furniture. While browsing one of the antique malls I came across this column and the pediment. The column I think will serve as a base for a table idea I have in mind. The pediment is oak and I believe it was originally on a piece of furniture, although most frags like this were over windows or doorways of houses. The final photo is of a broken cast iron stove base. After leaving Petaluma I drove to Berkeley and went to Urban Ore, where I found the stove feet. A cavernous warehouse of rescued building materials and cabinets and books and JUNK!- Awesome Fun! You never know what you'll find there, a great place to browse on a rainy day. I will try to feature the finished furniture in a future posting. Thaks for visiting and be sure to mention you read this if you visit my booth on sunday at Alameda Pointe Antique Faire (T-20).

tables, Big shelf

Here is a small table, a BIG shelf/doorknob coatrack, and a small desk. The table is an old newel post attached to a marble base(Heavy!). The marble is from some old entry steps from a SF Victorian demo. The table top is a old victorian cast-iron floor register. I see these things on Ebay all the time, they usually sell for more than I am willing to pay. This one I got at our local SF flea, Allemany, and it was in immaculate shape (They are often broken, cast-iron is brittle). I cleaned off the rust, separated it from the louvers , and painted it. It is set against a white wood background, the geometric patterns are quite striking. The shelf is built for a wall in my kitchen dining nook where I decided to create some additional storage. It is 74" long and I used some very unusual high end knobs (Not sure how smart that was, the knobs alone cost about $200). I figured I will show it at the next market, it gives people ideas, and if I happen to sell it I can make another. I also used some old cast-iron shelf brackets, they don't match but I like em! The last piece is a small desk, I purchased this at the flea as a renovation project. This was a piece of junk when I got it. I had to glue and screw everything back together, I replaced the plywood top with something much more attractive, and I made a drawer to replace the missing one. I like the way it came out, its really cute and I think it will sell right away. BTW next Alameda market is right around the corner(Sunday march 1), I am supposed to be back in spot T-20, I will send out an official email once I get the confimation in the mail. Peace, Bryan

mirrors!!!

Here are 3 new mirrors. The full length one I call the "princess mirror", My friend Jan named these for me. I have made quite a few of these princess mirrors, they are alot of fun. The crystal knobs are set in some really cool bronze plates. They came from the estate of the collector who had all the Bank Of Italy(Original Bank of America) salvage. Before I clean them up they have a little black button in the center and in the housing is a bell and some copper windings, obviously an early elecric buzzer/doorbell. I believe they were what you pressed to get into the teller cages at the bank. The various knobs are for hanging stuff- coats, hats, jewelry, whaever! Another mirror is made from a cool piece of salvaged mirror that looks deco to me , the shape and the geometric etching are unusual. The last was an old medicine cabinet door turned sideways, then I built the frame with all the crown, etc. The green crown moulding was originally a handrail, I cut it in half with the tablesaw and turned it upside down-voila,Crown! Oh yeah, the brass curvy things are from an old chandelier I got out of a dumpster in the excelsior district, SF.