So a few people asked about the clothes rack I made for the Evo Conference a few weeks ago. While it's a pretty straight forward project I figured I would do a little write up in case anyone else is interested.  First and for most I should give a shout out to Patch Davis a used-to-be-local friend of mine. I first saw a very similar design in his shop 6 months ago, so credit goes to him. And now for the how to….

The basic idea is to get a large rustic beam and use it as a heavy base for a free standing clothes rack. You will need the following:

Wooden Beam

Black gas pipe

Drill

Drill bit

For this specific project I wanted to make two decent sized "cups" to hold T Pins for the real world Pinterest pin boards they had, so I used a hole saw and hammer and chisel for that part. It's totally optional, but it is a nice touch, and a good place to put some random items.

Probably the hardest part was sourcing the wood. This particular piece was approximately 8" x 14" and just under 4' long. You will probably have the best luck looking for something from an architectural salvage place, or if you are lucky a local saw mill. The rougher the better.

Once you have your wood, and it's cut down to length (I had to use a bow saw) all you need to do is drill holes for your gas pipe. I was aiming for around 54" of clear space so for the vertical pieces I bought one 10' piece of pipe and had Home Depot cut it in half. The horizontal bar was a pre-cut (and threaded) 36" pipe. I used two 90 degree angles to hook it all together. I think the pipe comes in 1/2" or 3/4". I like the look of the 3/4" better.

To drill the holes into the wood I bought a 1 1/8" flat bit. 1 1/16" would have been a tighter fit, but they didn't have it. Hook all your pipes together, measure the distance center line to center line, and then lay it out where you want it on the log. Drill the holes nice and deep, say 4" (or as long as the bit is) and then just slide the pipes in. Walla, you have a clothes rack. 

As I mentioned above, there are some small touches that make it look a bit better. The "cups" I just used a 3" hole saw, then used a hammer and chisel to clean the holes up. I also mounted some scrap 3/4" wood I had laying around on the bottom of the beam. I set it back 3" or so from all the sides so you wouldn't see it. The result was a nice little shadow line all the way around the bottom.

Total cost? About $60 for the pipe and drill bit plus whatever you pay for the wood. 

Questions? Comments?

So yesterday I had a chance to get back up to the Canyons to take some better pictures of the suite. The picture above is probably my favorite of the bunch. It's always great when you get to put two Eames Lounge chairs in a space. The Cush rug from BluDot is pretty great too.

Doing the design in the suite I had two big challenges. First to make it not look like just another Park City rustic hotel room. This was actually pretty hard to do. Above are two pictures that show what the space looked like when we started. The top one is from the exact same view as the first Eames Lounge picture. Which do you like better?

To start we did a lot of taking things out. All of the furniture was removed from the room as were the cushions on the built in benches. Curtains were taken down, doors were removed etc. We even took down some light fixtures. Stripping everything out made the space so much better. There was still a lot of rustic feeling in the form of knotty pine woodwork that I could get rid of, but I had a plan for that. Now I just had to fill the space up with something that looked good. That brings us to the second problem.

Everything I put in the room had to be eco conscious. Everything. Ebay has a little primer for buying green that became my mantra.

#1 Buy Pre Owned - The greenest product is the one that already exists. 

#2 Resource Saving - Do more with less.

#3 Sustainable - Materials Matter

Luckily I had some good guidance in this area from Zem of Ecofabulous. I generally think of myself as an eco aware guy but it's absolutely amazing how much more she knew about everything green. It was very educational for sure.  

So without delay, here is the rest of the suite, and what went into it.

Entering into the suite there was a big ugly closet that greeted everyone. I took care of it by covering it with a large white board and some Urbio containers full of succulents. Not only did Urbio just win best accessory at Dwell on Design, it's also made of recycled plastic (#3). To top it off Beau, one of the designers, is an incredibly nice guy.

Also in the front entryway was a little niche that needed to be filled up. I used a Way Basics shelf here (and in several other places in the suite) because it's super affordable and made of 99% recycled material (#3). I filled it up with items I found at local thrift stores (#1).

Around the corner there is a short hall that looks into the kitchenette which is just off the main room. It's not the best looking kitchen so I gave it a little shield with a GORGEOUS rosewood Eames screen (#1) and a flower arrangement.

The main room is dominated by two vintage Eames Lounge chairs (#1) a small tulip style side table (#1) sitting on a wool Cush rug by BluDot (#3).

The wood benches needed some sort of padding on them because we removed the horrible looking pads there were on them. I covered two of them with 1" thick felt  (#3) held in place with a rug pad. The felt is actually made of wool and recycled synthetic content (like recycled bottles). Pillows are fantastically eco friendly and come from Inhabit (#3). 

The other two benches were covered with wool Flokati rugs (#3) held in place by a rug pad. Lots more pillows from Inhabit (#3) too.

Also in the main room were two Way Basics shelves side by side that I filled up with vintage pieces (#1) and succulents. 

My favorite part of the shelf unit is a fantastic pair of white wooden clogs (#1) lit from above by the  Pablo Clamp Lamp (#2)(#3).

Speaking of lamps, I didn't get a good photo of it, but the Moooi Miyake table lamp (#2)(#3) is pretty fantastic as well although I do wish it put out a bit more light.

Perhaps my favorite piece in the room were the 6 Coventry Stools by Studio Dunn (#3). The are a nice little bit of eye candy for the room and they provide flexible seating or a convenient place to set a drink. Also a huge thank you goes out to the guys from Studio Dunn who built these 6 stools and shipped them to Utah with just a week or two of heads up. 

The last seating area is the dining table built in bench. Unfortunately I couldn't remove those cushions, but I was surprised that they didn't look as horrible as I thought they would. In front of the bench is a vintage Brown Saltman coffee table by John Keal (#1) lit from above by a Claudo pendant by Cerno (#2). The wall behind the bench was covered with raw Wall Tiles by Inabit (#3).

There were two good outdoor patios that I filled up with vintage Bertoia chairs (#1) a vintage teak bar cart (#1) Emeco 111 Navy chairs (#3) and Tom Dixon Offcut stool (#3).

Last but certainly not least was the green fashion room. I designed three literal Pinterest pin boards for attendees to use. The idea is they pick out outfits from the clothes in the room, pin them to the board, and share them on Pinterest. The person with the outfit that gets the most pins wins and iPad. You should be able to see all the outfits by looking for the ebaygreenstyled hashtag on Pinterest. 

Also in the room is the reclaimed clothes rack I designed. A few people have asked for more info on it, and I'll give a better DIY on how to make your own next week. 

Today in Park City hordes of social media mavens are gathering at the Canyons resort for the 2012 Evo Conference. I hadn't even heard of the conference until this year, and while it's not really my scene (lots of mommy bloggers) I am super excited to be involved. The Ebay Green Team (bet you never heard of them either) asked me to help do the interior decoration of a suite they have at the conference. It's been an absolute blast to source furniture from some of my favorite companies (Moooi, Tom Dixon, Emeco, Studio Dunn, Pablo, Blu Dot) and to bring in some epic MCM pieces from some of my favorite local stores The Green Ant and Now and Again. Some of my favorite vintage pieces include 2 Eames Lounge chairs, a rosewood Eames screen (1 of 500 ever made) Bertoia chairs, a teak bar cart and more. I even had a chance to make a reclaimed clothes rack (above) out of a piece of wood used during the construction of the Brooklyn bridge. I'm hoping to get up there and take some more pictures of the rest of the suite tonight or tomorrow night. Stay tuned for more. 

Ebay Green Team

Evo Conference

It was a whirlwind of a week last week, and I'm just now getting a chance to catch my breath. I'm usually pretty horrible about keeping people updated with all the personal projects I've got going on, so consider this an attempt to get better. 

The first update is the Saarinen tulip base I posted about a while ago. Turns out it's really a Burke base, which is fine by me. I tried one time to repaint it and it turned out horribly and I had to start all over again. After the second time sanding it all down I needed up going to an automotive paint supply store and getting some white one stage automotive paint. It was really reasonably priced ($5 a can I think) and sprayed way better than the can of enamel I got at Ace. I ended up sanding the old paint down and moving from 150 grit sandpaper to 200, 400, and finally 600 grit to get it smooth. I then made a "paint booth" in my garage so the wind wouldn't screw things up and slowly started putting coats on. Near the end I did a little wet sanding with 600 grit paper to make sure it stayed nice and smooth. There is a bit of orange peel but it's pretty good looking. 

For the top, we were originally talking about cutting down the old laminate top to the 32" size we wanted. After a lot of going back and forth we decided to spring for a new marble top. We called around to a bunch of local places, and most wanted close to $500 for a top. Luckily we found a remnant at European Marble and Granite for $370 (Thanks Tally!). It's a really beautiful piece and they did a really nice job getting the back bevel just right. I was planning on attaching it with silicone like they do with countertops, but after setting it on top we decided it's not going anywhere. If I wasn't in a rental and planning on moving sooner than latter I probably would have attached it.

All in all I think it turned out really great. I apologize for only having a crappy instagram picture of it, but I figured it was better than nothing. 

As I type this post, I'm riding shotgun in a  truck on my way down to southern Utah to a Buddhist Retreat. No, I'm not having another dramatic change of faith, I'm actually going to install cabinetry. The retreat was designed by a local firm Imbue design that continues to impress me with both the quality and caliper of work they are doing. The rendering above doesn't do justice to just how cool this project is. The exterior is dominated by gabion walls and the interior wrapped in Ipe. In fact even the cabinets I'm installing with Modern Union are made of Ipe. I'm excited to be working with such great architects and clients on this job. 

I'm about 4 hours away from the job site right now. Check out the Modern Union Facebook page for pictures and updates. 

Modern Union

Imbue Design

Also, while you are at it, make sure you read the write up that City Home Collective did on the Buddhist retreat a few weeks ago.