Re-Claimed & Re-Created

When we started to furnish our living room, my husband and I were faced with the old ugly TV stand I’ve had since college. It was on casters, with the ugliest wood veneer imaginable, and was meant to be temporary - until I found something better. But twenty odd years later, the the thing still sat in our living room, and we agreed it was time to ‘move it on out' and get something better.

We started searching online for living room tables to figure out what we wanted and speed up the shopping process. We saw a unique kidney-shaped coffee table made by Square Nail that was really cool.

As it turns out, Square Nail is a short walk from our house in Ravenswood - so we stopped by to take a look. On that day, we saw a sleek modern coffee table, a huge rough-hewn media center and a gorgeously detailed canoe that was way too beautiful to put in the water.

We talked to Dan Wynne, who started Square Nail with his brother, and said we’d be back with more details about what we wanted. Dan said he got some old barn wood and started making things, first in his garage in the suburbs, then a few years ago out of the Clark Street workshop and storefront.

When we bought a couch at an area furniture store, we found a coffee table we thought suited our old house and our style, a mix of modern and mission. We decided to use it as a design model for a TV stand and shelves. First we brought pictures - and later the table itself - to help get the same overall shape, style and stain for the pieces that would go in our living room.

No problem, Dan said. Let’s get started. So we talked, we measured and we discussed. We came up with two pieces to fit the TV corner and a small lamp table to go along. We re-measured, re-discussed and re-designed several times.

To keep from looking cluttered, we wanted doors on the lower half of the TV stand and shelf. But we didn’t want the pieces to get too dark or heavy. So we thought ‘glass’ and co-designed stained glass sliding doors with Dan’s wife, a stained glass artist who also helps at the shop.

We worked with Dan to tweak things along the way and kept moving forward with our project. We stopped into the store to check options for stain and to see the stained glass samples and decide how to install them. It was fun to be part of the creative process.

As a bonus, Dan swapped the top of the purchased coffee table for real walnut to match the other 3 pieces, giving it a warm and cohesive look. And we can sand and restain the pieces if they ever get scratched or damaged (which you can’t do with veneer). The side lamp table is adorable, the stained glass looks great, and we have unique pieces of furniture that perfectly fit our living room.

This year, we decided to get a new table for our back porch and went straight to Square Nail. Our existing table was round with huge arm chairs and didn’t fit well in the space. We wanted a unique table and benches that would fit up to 8 people - and maximize our use of the space.  

We easily selected long leaf pine that was salvaged from Lake Forest Academy. Dan says the wood was used as interior joists and beams and he gets big planks from various “pickers” that visit construction sites, sales and salvage yards to reclaim old wood. When he started, Dan found old barnwood on Craig’s List but now has a network of pickers that source stuff for him.

Dan said he could also incorporate a walnut plank we got from Owl Hardwood Lumber in Des Plaines into the table. We loved the idea of using old Pullman railroad cars for benches. I’ve also seen pieces made out of trees felled from area parks and a table made from a tree that once stood in a family’s yard that was made into a lovely table.

For our porch set, we agreed on steel square legs and to have the benches along the railings  larger and the other two side benches smaller to tuck underneath the table when not in use.

To get started, I made a drawing of the porch measurements that included the grill, stairs and patio doors. Dan and I discussed sizes for the table and benches and I put blue painter’s tape on the porch floor to mark where the pieces would fit. Again, we measured, re-measured, designed and re-designed along the way - and Dan went to work.

Once the table was built, Dan asked us stop by. The wood was beautiful but the shape looked odd. It was too wide, at 4 feet by 6 feet, and we asked to shave a few inches off the sides, to make it more balanced, aesthetically. We asked to slightly soften the edges and we picked a stain to bring out the grain but not make it too dark. 

In 4 weeks, Dan delivered our table and benches and it is beautiful. In fact, it’s nicer than our dining room table (that turned out to be veneer). The materials are solid, the pieces are well-made and one-of-a-kind and the price was reasonable. We supported a local business and re-claimed and re-created old wood to give it new life.

We use our porch table almost every day to write, read emails, relax and simply hang out. The new furniture has made our backyard more beautiful and useful - and we get to enjoy the beautiful wood, re-purposed for our porch, and share its ongoing story with friends, family and neighbors, and our meals and “porch drinks” have never been better!