Question1: What do designers do in their ‘spare’ time? That’s right, we make things!
Question 2: What do designers do with old bits of wood…? We make furniture!

This was an upcycling project I had been meaning to do for a long time, so with the lockdown weekends being an excellent excuse to get all those jobs crossed off the to-do list I took to the power tools!

It was our last piece of scaffolding board we had left over from our extension in 2019 so I wanted to repurpose it into something special, but it was in a pretty bad way. It took a lot of sanding, especially over all the splintered edges, but really worth doing well to avoid injury, or catching any clothing on it when it was in use.

Once it was smooth all over, and I was happy that I could rub my hands all over it without snagging anywhere on it (nerve wracking test!) it was ready for a wipe down and a brush off to remove any excess dust before oiling!

It took a few coats of oil with a good length of time between each coat to allow it all to soak in. Because the wood had been left outside for the best part of a year, it was so dry. I love oiling wood, it’s one of my guilty pleasures. I love the way it transforms a dry, dull piece into such a beautiful finish. It really highlights the grain, and picks up all those marks from it’s life in the building trade.

I designed some fabricated steel legs to sit underneath this bench, and had them made by a local welder. They tie in with the shelving brackets that support our scaffolding board shelves on our kitchen wall. I designed them to be wider at the bottom to stop the bench toppling over as it is quite narrow at the top.

It was SO exciting attaching the bench legs! It really transformed the bench from a piece of wood into a piece of furniture! For the final finishing touch I stuck some felt pads to the bottom of the steel legs to stop it scratching our kitchen floor and making that awful scraping noise!

Super happy with the final result! It looks great in the kitchen, fits in really well with the rest of the room. All that sanding paid off too, it’s so tactile I love it! The bench that helped build many houses!