Display Tables. Currently making two display tables for new location of Books & Co. These tables are , of course, as always, made from 100% reclaimed materials (except some of the screws may be new). The boards are recovered from shelving in the old Quality Plumbing warehouse previously located on Davenport Avenue in New Haven. It appears these boards were shipping crates that were reused to make the shelves. ( So the boards are re-reused ?). The frame is made from maple flooring from the same facility, the floors having been a roller skating rink before becoming a plumbing warehouse. The 4 x4 legs are recently obtained framing from an 1820 house renovation in Moodus ,Ct. No, they are not 4×4’s from 1820, they are from some renovation of that building and look like they might be from the 50’s.

This display table below is currently on loan to the Town of Hamden. It is made to the optimum size for the intended location. The table top will display various informational flyers, while the shelf underneath is intended to hold 5 gallon pails that are given away for residents to transport food scraps for composting.

The not incidental other intent is that the table demonstrates the use of reclaimed materials. The 19 inch wide board on top is salvaged from a renovation of a c. 1900 house in New Haven, Ct.. The top end boards are from the sub floor of a warehouse that was once a roller skating rink. The shelf boards are also salvaged from that warehouse – they are disassembled from storage shelves, and those shelves were apparently made from shipping crates that appear to date from somewhere around 1900-1940. The framing is from wall studs from an early 1900’s beach house deconstruction in Madison, Ct.

All of the materials are locally sourced, and the table is also locally made. Also, our typical design applies – all assembled with screws so that it can easily be taken apart to be moved, shipped or made into something else. Construction is kept simple to keep cost low, while simultaneously maintaining durability. The only limitation is that the only style this reclaimed furniture comes in is “primitive” or “farm style.”

“I model my “scrap wood” pieces after “the work bench you find in some old guys basement at an estate sale that he made in his garage out of scavenged wood.” Since these are relatively rare, I decided to make my own ,given that I have a constant source of old wood, a garage, and I am now in fact an old guy”. “The materials I use are often quite literally captured as a demolition person is throwing or has just thrown the piece into a dumpster. The top board of this piece is a good example. As I arrived at the job site, I saw the demolition worker carrying it to the dumpster and asked him to redirect to the side so I could load it with the other dozen or so boards that shortly before had been a built in pantry cabinet in the early 1900’s house that was being renovated.” Joe DeRisi