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Artist creates new furniture from almost-antiques
Chris Harts studio is
stacked floor to ceiling with
not-quite antiques, old doors
and windows, cast-off bird
cages and pieces of old hous-
es that she saved from the
landfill.
She cuts them up, mixes
them together and creates
furniture that is also art _
works she hopes will some-
day become heirlooms that
the not-quite antiques could
never be.
People ask what I do for a
living, said Hart, dressed in
jeans and an artisans long
apron, leaning against her
workbench, beneath which
her Doberman, Rita, chewed
on a toy tiger.
I really don't know. I like
to say Im a furniture design-
er and my pieces are new
construction made from
components Ive taken from
other pieces - molding from
a house in Jacksonville, the
legs off of an old bed, that
kind of thing.
The most interesting pieces
she found were invariably
the antiques. But they were
being thrown away because
they couldn't be made good
enough to be sold as an
antique. So I started canni-
balizing those pieces in my
new construction. I found
the final product was much
more interesting than if I
built a new piece of furniture
from scratch.
Plus, its harder to find
solid wood any more. You
don't find that kind of mold-
ing, those kinds of legs, those
kinds of carved pieces.
Hart makes Trumeau mir-
rors, kitchen islands, cup-
boards, hallway benches, pic-
ture frames, decorative pan-
els, plaster saints and chan-
deliers. They all carry the
glow of age and use, a sense
of country living and an
originality born of mixed ori-
gins. They're sold in a few
shops in the Pacific
Northwest and through her
Web site, www.chrishartstu-
dio.com.
Katrina McDermott spot-
ted Hart's work about nine
years ago while visiting her
grandparents in Grants Pass
and now sells it at her store,
Embellish, on Bainbridge
Island outside Seattle.
I think its appealing to
people who want that imper-
fect, charming piece of furni-
ture that you can't go to
Pottery Barn or Crate &
Barrel and find, said
McDermott.
She has seen others try to
do what Hart does, without
her results. Because shes an
artist, she can make it look
like its intentional instead of
just a bunch of disparate
items or things put togeth-
er, McDermott said.
McDermott loves to look
through the before pieces
stacked in Harts studio and
develop ideas for custom
pieces. Thats a resource I
could never find with any-
body else.
In Harts showroom, a cab-
inet is assembled from scrap:
the doors from an old
European cabinet, glass pan-
els found at an estate sale, a
porch banister from an old
house, legs from an old chair.
The crinkly paint looks like it
is in the middle of being
chemically stripped.
A picture frame is made of
paneling from an old beach
cottage.
AP Photo
Furniture designer Chris Hart shows off a kitchen island Jan. 2, 2006 in her showroom in Grants Pass,
Ore. Hart created the kitchen island from scraps of wood, drawers from a cupboard and the legs off
an old piano.
By Jeff Barnard
AP Staff Writer
See
HART,
Page 3
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Expires 6/31/06 A kitchen island has legs
from an old piano.
People are looking for the
patina of being in a family,
said Hart. As the boomers
get older, I think we are
more appreciative of things
that are flawed slightly. I tell
people that the history of the
piece is coming through and
you shouldn't be afraid of it.
That's the beauty of it.
Hart grew up in this for-
mer timber town in south-
western Oregon and went to
Stephens College in
Missouri, where she got a
bachelor of fine arts, then a
master's from the University
of Oregon, concentrating on
art restoration. She has
taught art in high school,
coached cross-country and
done marketing for a local
hospital. When a merger left
her without a job, she turned
to her hobby for a living,
and continued her education
in restoration.
Thats when I discovered
function was really impor-
tant, she said. Beauty
alone doesnt necessarily
hook into making a living. I
started doing things like coat
hangers and cupboards and
things like that.
Finishes are her specialty.
She likes milk paints rather
than enamels, because of
their quiet depth. She covers
her pieces with glazes _ often
a crinkly mix of materials
that don't want to mix _ to
pull the various elements
together.
A lot of this stuff you dis-
cover because you screwed
something up, Hart said. I
don't want anything to look
brand new. I want it to look
like it's been there forever.
To get repeated use out of
some unique pieces, like an
old church's gothic window
that she has turned into a
series of mirrors, Hart makes
vacuum molds and casts
copies in Hydrostone, a kind
of plaster with resin that is
light and durable and retains
detail well.
Theres only going to be
one of those that I ever
find, she said. "How much
do you charge for it if you
never find another one?
Because this is a mold, I can
make several of them.
When she started 12 years
ago, it was relatively easy to
find materials.
On her morning runs, she
would stop at houses being
torn down and ask for
things.
Now she combs estate
sales, gets castoffs from
antique dealers, and keeps
her eye out at flea markets in
Paris.
People in their hearts
dont want to throw this
stuff in a landfill, she said.
Although objects crowd
her workshop, she knows
where every one is when the
time comes to use it.
I love my customers, she
said. I have to really love
the piece I do for them. And
feel good about them and
that its going to a good
home.
I want them to be beauti-
ful for a long time. I want
them to be passed down. I
dont want to see them in a
yard sale.
Even if thats where the
pieces came from.
The Facts
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SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 2006
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CONTINUED FROM PAGE 2
Ten ways to reinvent a room on a tight budget
When Jonathan Fong decided it
was time for a new end table, he
skipped the furniture store and went
instead to his storage closet. There
he found an old mirror and a plant
stand, glued them together, and
within minutes a one-of-a-kind
accent piece was born.
I just love reinventing what you
have, says Fong, a Los Angeles-
based interior designer.
Reinventing is the key to updating
a room when money is tight, Fong
says. A budget of $250 wont get you
much in the way of new furniture,
flooring or window treatments, but
you can still come up with a dramat-
ic new look for that amount or less.
When youre on a low budget,
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and thats when its the most fun,
Fong says. You don't have to start
from scratch, and you shouldn't.
Here are 10 tips from Fong and
other experts for rejuvenating a
room on limited funds:
1. Eliminate those white walls.
Painting is one of the simplest
tasks for the do-it-yourselfer and has
the most impact. The bolder the bet-
ter, say the experts. Paint manufac-
turer Benjamin Moore & Co.
predicts the hot color for 2006 will
be Queens Wreath, a chameleon-
like purple, says Eileen McComb,
the company's director of communi-
cations.
By Christine Elliott
For the Associated Press
AP Photo
Jonathan Fong poses for a portrait in the kitchen of his home in Santa Monica,
Calif., Friday, Feb. 3, 2006. In his kitchen Fong updated cabinets and drawers with
Andy Warhol posters.
See
REINVENT,
Page 5 4
SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 2006
HOME IMPROVEMENT/LAWN & GARDEN
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