Recycled Furniture: From Oil Drums to Chairs

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We've seen smart furniture before, like a chuch pew turned headboard and silverware transformed into a chandelier. Now an even more surprising medium is being upcycled: discarded oil drums.

In trying to create something useful from oil production waste, companies such as Snodevormgevers, Reestore and Vaho have begun creating upcycled furniture from discarded metal oil drums. The results -- a series of chairs, stools and tables in contemporary silhouhettes -- are unique and likely to last much longer than their previous contents.

But they're not the only ones making furniture from oil drums.


Elena Patterson, a South African born designer and artist, features oil drum chairs in her New York boutiques, each called Peoria Emporium. She says that she was at a trade show at the Piers in Manhattan when she and her business partner, Patricia Stevens, stumbled on some beautiful furniture that looked as though it was made from scrap metal. The creators were the residents of Bamako, the capital of Mali, in West Africa; Patterson later learned that the area there is devoted to scrap metal reprocessing, and scrap metal of all kinds are bought there, cleaned, cut and reworked.

Patterson was drawn to the fact that they were upcycled, and she appreciated the primitive quality. "You can recognize what they are made from, that they're recycled. The more modern pieces often lack the charm of these pieces. We consider these examples of outsider or folk art," she explains. With a passion for supporting local artisans, specifically women's collectives, Patterson decided to stock her store with some of the eye-catching chairs.

The oil drum pieces (pictured above) are made like this: A wooden form is used to create a chair mold. The metal for the seat and seat back is then cut and bent and even shaped around the metal wire edges of the chairs. The seat metal is then hammered over the wooden mold to shape it into place.

There is no processing or manufacturing plant in Mali. The pieces are all made outdoors, where Patterson says you'll see shacks and makeshift buildings used to keep things from getting wet if it rains. "It is a place where the sound of hammering is deafening and where metal dust blackens everything," says Patterson.

As each piece is made by hand out in the open, you can watch hundreds of artists hammering metal sheets to smooth them out. Welding is also done by craftsman working amidst mountain-sized piles of scrap metal.

It's interesting that the people in Mali are doing so much with the oil drum, since oil is fairly irrelevant in their lives, says Patterson. Most of the oil there is imported, very few people own cars or trucks, and their homes are not heated.


Whatever your politics on oil consumption, we can probably agree that these chairs are a smart use of scrap metal. It's one less thing taking up space in landfills -- and that is a step in the right direction.

For more green ideas, check out our roundup of eco-friendly lighting and learn more about decorating and doing good with eBay's fair trade marketplace.

For more on eco-friendly design, check out this video on DIY furniture from cardboard. Yes, cardboard.

 

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