Furniture that’s easier on the Earth
JEAN PARIETTI; Contributing writer
When people admire a piece of Steve Lawler’s distinctive, hand-crafted furniture, they usually don’t realize it’s made from plywood strips.
“People think it’s some type of exotic bamboo,” said Lawler, a Tacoma woodworker and artist who builds tables, chairs and mirrors from scrap plywood; he also works with reclaimed Douglas fir.
Lawler is just one South Sound artisan who’s using locally salvaged or harvested woods to create inspired, “sustainable” furniture – good-looking pieces for the home that are good for the planet.
Fellow woodworker Matthew Gardner of Olympia crafts furniture, built-ins and cabinets from reclaimed or responsibly harvested local woods such as fir, alder, bigleaf maple and madrona.
He says more homeowners understand the environmental advantages of using reclaimed wood. “About 75 percent of the people that come to me are interested in having something that’s built green,” he said.
RECLAIMING REQUIRES EFFORT
There’s still some educating to be done.
“Sometimes people think that furniture should be cheaper because it’s made with reused wood,” Gardner said. That usually isn’t the case, he said, because reclaimed wood might require extra prep work – such as pulling out nails or removing paint – and the wood usually isn’t square. “It’s totally different than going down to the store and buying a new board in near-perfect condition,” Gardner said.
But the quality of the wood makes the effort worth it, he said. “A lot of times, you find that salvaged woods are old-growth, which is much more beautiful than new growth,” Gardner said. “The grain is very tight. It’s a better wood structurally; it’s harder and it won’t break as easily. It’s definitely a prize wood.”
PLYWOOD BECOMES FUNCTIONAL ART
Few people would consider plywood a prized material, but Lawler has discovered it can be beautiful. He has turned plywood scraps into functional art that turns people’s heads. “It’s creative and kind of different. It’s an eye-catcher,” Lawler said. “People definitely look at it.”
Lawler, who learned woodworking skills from his grandfather while growing up in Southern California, dabbled in photography and painting as an adult, also working on and off at a small window and door company.
When he moved to Tacoma a couple of years ago, “I just wanted to get into something that allowed me to be creative and create something functional, and maybe make a living at it,” Lawler recalled.
He walked into Madera Fine Decorative Furnishings in downtown Tacoma, which just happened to have an opening. He still works there today, and owner Carlos Taylor-Swanson lets Lawler use the shop for personal projects during evenings and weekends. It was by chance that Lawler began building plywood furniture.
Lawler explained that he couldn’t bear to see hundreds of pounds of plywood remnants at Madera end up in the trash. True, the pieces were too small to be useful for Madera’s custom projects, but Lawler decided to keep them – without a clue about how he would use them.
One day, he noticed that the plywood’s multilayered edge yielded an interesting pattern. That’s when he figured how to use the scrap pieces: Cut them into strips, turn them on their sides and glue them together to create a larger surface. His first project was a table that got rave reviews.
So he began crafting other pieces, which he dubbed reFurniture; his plywood line is called rePly, while pieces built using salvaged fir are called reFir.
Because stain can make plywood look mottled, Lawler finishes each piece simply, using natural Danish oil. “It’s really an old-school, hand-rubbed finish. It’s a little bit more time- consuming,” he said, but it produces a softer, matte finish that complements the unusual beauty of the plywood.
Lawler’s mirrors, which usually sell for $100 to $300, are popular with customers. His favorite piece, though, is a plywood chair. “It typically takes 20 to 30 hours to make a chair,” Lawler said, and his typical prices ($500 to $700 per chair) reflect that workmanship.
Lawler, a member of the local artisan collective Madera Architectural Elements, finds satisfaction in creating functional art that is Earth-friendly. “It’s very rewarding for me,” he said. “It feels good, it feels right.”
A CHANGE OF COURSE
While studying to become a teacher, Matthew Gardner never envisioned that one day his livelihood would involve building sustainable furniture.
Gardner didn’t tackle his first major woodworking project until he was in college, when he needed a coffee table. “I didn’t like any of the ones that I could find and I could afford, so I made one,” he said. “It was a big learning experience for me.”
After graduating, Gardner decided academia wasn’t for him. He came out from Ohio to visit a friend in Olympia – and never left. Gardner began doing remodeling work, which helped refine his woodworking knowledge, then started Sirius Building Co. about three years ago. Although he still does some remodeling, Gardner really enjoys building custom furniture with reclaimed and sustainably grown wood.
“I try to use woods that are harvested locally and from small millers, from people that don’t do clear-cutting,” Gardner said. Sometimes wood for his projects comes from a client’s property. Maybe a tree has to be cut down because it’s a hazard or to make way for a building addition. “I can guide people through the process of taking the tree down and milling it into lumber, and then sometimes into furniture,” he said.
Gardner’s projects include tables, built-ins, bathroom vanities and shelving, but he likes the challenge of chairs. “To build a nice-looking, comfortable chair takes a lot of work on the design, figuring things out,” he said. “I don’t pull things entirely out of my head – I definitely refer to other furniture makers.”
He invites clients to pitch him ideas for projects, so long as they’re not looking for an embellished style, like Queen Anne or Victorian. To keep clients on budget, he offers three construction categories – utility, intermediate and fine furniture – and can use salvaged or sustainably harvested wood for any piece. The utility category is perfect for a shop table, workbench or laundry room table, something that doesn’t have to look beautiful, he said. For the intermediate category, Gardner uses more screws and easier joinery techniques, but the piece still will look great. For those wanting fine furniture, he uses dovetails and traditional mortise and tenon joints. Pieces are finished with tung oil, linseed oil or shellac.
Gardner’s prices typically range from $200 to $1,500, depending on the piece and the construction quality.
Some of Gardner’s furniture can be seen at Matter, a gallery in Olympia; a portfolio of his work can be viewed at 510 Interiors, also in Olympia.
RESOURCES
• Matthew Gardner, Olympia
Sirius Building Co.
360-789-9401
• Steve Lawler, Tacoma
www.stevelawlerart.com
253-389-3807
• Madera Architectural Elements, Tacoma
Collective of artisans who design and fabricate building components and furnishings
www.maderastudio.net
• Matter Gallery, Olympia
Works by artists using recycled, reclaimed and responsibly harvested materials
www.matteroly.com
• 510 Interiors, Olympia
Green products for home interiors
www.510interiors.com
