While repurposing found wood is a hot trend these days, typically the pieces are from an old barn or other run-down building that would have gone to waste in demolition. But in rare instances, you can repurpose wood from items around you home—and that is exactly what happened in one of my recent projects. While the Marvelous Woodworking Team was assisting a remodeler in an older home, the client discovered she was surrounded by mahogany. The existing door casings, baseboards, and big wooden shelving planks were made of the expensive wood. Seeing she had quite a bit of it, she asked us to make a bench and a bathroom vanity with the found mahogany.
Typically, houses are built with common woods like pine and poplar. However, high-end woods like oak, cherry, walnut, and yes, mahogany, will sometimes surface, hidden by paint or in out-of-the-way places. Our client’s home was built in the 50s or 60s, and at that time expensive woods were incorporated into houses that were considered upscale. Mahogany is a particularly lovely material, and it made sense for our client to use it for something more prominent than stacking sheets and towels on. Needless to say, we replaced the mahogany shelves with pine.
Gathering up all the mahogany, we built a bathroom vanity and matching bench. It is fairly difficult to repurpose wood from an object built for another purpose. Changing a table to a chair for instance is actually not that practical. However, the large planks, plus the extra trim and casings, meant we had a good amount of “blank” wood to work with. Our client had an idea for the design, and showed us some example photos so we knew the look she wanted. Usually when making custom furniture and built-ins, we strive to echo the design features of the house in the new pieces. However, this home had no outstanding architectural details we could take from. The bathroom was being remodeled from the ground up as well, so we were going to create a completely new look.
For the vanity, we worked with a plumbing contractor to make it to the correct specifications for pipes and installation.
We created the bench to hold drawers instead of having the top open like a lid, as is often the case for many benches we make.
The new bathroom vanity and bench look like they belong together, with framing around the doors and drawers, and matching hardware. There was no need to stain or paint this wood—a natural clear-coat finish for protection was all it needed to showcase its original beauty. Mahogany has a wonderfully consistent grain pattern and a rich brown color. It doesn’t tend to splinter, warp or twist, making it a great wood to work with and a durable material for furniture.
This project was truly a unique opportunity to elevate wood originally serving a common purpose to a beautiful pair of heirloom quality pieces. If you are looking for the right woodworker to craft your custom furniture, be sure to contact us, or call at 317-679-5890. We would love to work with you to create the right solution for your home.
