We love reclaimed wood furniture! The possibilities are endless and the results can be incredibly beautiful. We are particularly impressed by the awesome jigsaw-style of Nick Lopez’s reclaimed redwood furniture. Working exclusively with salvaged wood, Nick transforms scrap wood into gorgeous, functional furniture.
Nick Lopez is a third generation carpenter living in the San Francisco East Bay area. His dad was a builder/remodeler, and Nick grew up helping him on jobs. Nick started his own construction company 12 years ago. Since then, Nick has seen an enormous amount of perfectly good materials thrown into landfills. He thought that something could and should be done about it. Nick was inspired to start upcycling.
Nick’s reclaimed wood furniture is unique. He uses a jigsaw or mosaic-style, consisting of anywhere from hundreds to thousands of individual pieces of wood that are cut, glued, and nailed together, one piece at a time. Nick hasn’t had any training building furniture, nor does he possess any tools that a traditional furniture maker would use. Instead of letting that limit him, Nick came up with the idea of working with little pieces of wood.
Nick makes all the little pieces himself, first by sanding, then ripping down each board, and chopping them up so they are approximately 2″ x 2″ x 3/4″. Each piece is then glued and nailed together one at a time to whatever shape he desires. Extensive sanding is required to get a nice uniform smooth finish.
The design process for Nick’s reclaimed wood furniture begins in his head. He gets a sense for what he wants something to look like, and then either sketches it out or begins building.
I am particularly fascinated by the challenges involved in transforming scrap that would otherwise end up in landfills, into beautiful sculptures or functional furnishings.
Nick believes that everything has another purpose than its original intended use, and it’s up to us to figure out what it is.
We love the mosaic style Nick’s of reclaimed wood furniture. We applaud his creativity and dedication to treating waste as a resource!
See more of Nick Lopez’s reclaimed wood furniture here.
That wood part is pretty! How chic! However, it is also reminding me of a shoe the Japanese wear or China men and China women. Cool! I get to see reclaimed and upcycled furns as well as get my Japanese and Chinese culture and shoes on too! Cool, again!
Love having another way to look at things and recycling at the same time!
I really like the table and mirror. So many individual pieces of wood cut, glued, and nailed together, one piece at a time? He seems to be really creative. Maybe he should consider applying for the schweighofer prize.