PorticoStyle.com is born again

For the last couple of years i have been posting here to show the latest projects in the furniture and wood shop. This year i asked my webdesigner to redo our website porticostyle with new capabilities, so i could update the content myself.  That project has now been successfully completed. Hooray!!  I will be able to show so much more of what we do, and what makes the people connected to Portico unique.  So stay tuned to porticostyle.com    Where the action is.

Sedona Table

What do Arizona and Oregon have in common? Not much you think?

How about the color orange - rocks in Arizona, Douglas fir wood in Oregon?

Osmo polyx-oil made a beautiful finish for this sofa table.

Office desk

Mission accomplished! Customers asked for a 10 x 2 foot workstation desk to fill their home office wall. It was also important to be able to slide the office chair from side to side. Mouse holes allow the power cords to disappear. Again, as usual, all reclaimed Douglas fir wood.

Amsterdam table revisited

I love the contrast between the darker legs and lighter top. All the wood is Douglas fir. The thick legs show beautiful exposed end grain.

Wine Country Table update

Wine Country table and bench

Mortise and tenon construction

This year our customers allowed us to build several more Wine Country tables. Above you can see what traditional mortise and tenon construction looks like. After it is glued up, it makes one of the strongest joinery methods known. For larger tables I recommend m&t construction.

Amy Doan did a very nice write up of our work in the Oregonian. The full story is here:

http://www.oregonlive.com/hg/index.ssf/2010/02/portland_companies_create_hip.html

Thanks Amy!

Sofa Arm Table

For those of you with square armed sofas - the solution to rest your drinks!
Made in the Portico workshop - made to fit your sofa.

How to measure your sofa arm for proper fit of a custom sofa arm table:

1. Find a hard object, such as a pair of books or pieces of wood.
2. Place each book on the inside and outside of your sofa arm.
3. Measure the distance between your two books. This is the interior dimension of your arm table.

Philosophical question: Can this object still be considered to be furniture? Is it too simple too qualify for the title?

Adopting old Douglas Fir

Back side of Aurora Mills Architectural Salvage - raw material for beautiful ecological furniture.

People often ask where the wood that we use at Portico comes from. We work mainly with old reclaimed Douglas Fir.

The first immigrant Oregonians of a hundred or more years ago had no other choice but to use old growth trees for their construction needs. A lot of old barns in the Oregon country side are now reaching their end of usefull life. If you own one the old barns that is about to collapse, consider calling a business such as Aurora Mills Architectural Salvage. Much more ecological than burning the wood. The folks in Aurora sell this resource to the public. In my opinion a must see place when you go to Aurora Oregon.

Willie Shelf Triplet

A cookbook publicist who arrived in town from New York City finally found the right shelving for his cookbooks. Mr. Mowery apparently also has a good eye for color, and decided on the colors for this Willie triplet that he commisioned. Greg Mowery's cookbook blog is http://www.stovetopreadings.com.

In the upper right side of the picture you can see that the backing is made from sun-bleached recycled fence boards. They required no finishing whatsoever.

Summer is fading away so slow. Take another stroll through your back yard - have one more barbeque. The summer wind left its droppings on the Sunshine outdoor furniture - as you can see in the picture.

We hope to build some more of this wood furniture next year. I trust there will be a new supply of old fence boards available for the next cycle of production.

Thanks to all of you who participated with our custom furniture. You can see more on our website: http://www.porticostyle.com/

Platform Bed

One of my clients recently arrived in town. This is the bed that they commissioned me to build.

I decided that a slightly back-sloping headboard would look more interesting than a vertical one.

The headboard is 5 feet tall. The top of the platform is only 6 inches of the ground. The old recycled Douglas Fir boards received an espresso finish. The horizontal boards in the headboard came from a decommisioned barn in Scio Oregon.

It was a fun project, especially figuring out how to keep the tall headboard together with the low platform. This new modern platform bed design was christened the Dreamboat.

Willie Dog Bookshelf

Our latest addition to the Portico furniture collection. Made from recycled fence boards right here in our design/build studio using kreg jig construction. This particular Willie Dog is 36" x 14.5" x 70" high.

More sizes and finish options available by order.

Willie Dog on the right is displaying work from local artist Hadley Hutton. Beautiful flora and fauna.

New & Improved Sunshine Outdoor furniture!

We have made a few modifications to our line of outdoor furniture- new dimensions and more leg room! But availability of Sunshine outdoor furniture is spring and early summer.

Outdoor furniture

Here are my ( Johan Meijer ) latest efforts. The orange and black shelf is a variation on the Tabor desk. A minor redesign turned the Tabor work table into a shelving unit. The horizontal surfaces are made of new plywood, but at least the frame for this one was made from recycled fence boards.

Since spring has sprung in the northern hemisphere, i started an outdoor line of patio furniture.

Willie, my dog, would not look up for his picture.

I expect this outdoor wood furniture to age nicely in Oregon's wet climate. An outdoor finish will keep the paint looking fresh for the first couple of years, before the elements show their dominance.

Coming up will be an outdoor bench with a back, and also a rectangular table to round out the set.

Pictures of the newest projects will be gathered here on flikr.

Portico's website.

Any of these pieces can easily made in custom sizes.

Greetings, Johan Meijer

Custom Kitchen Island

These kitchen islands are 36 inches tall. The tops have a tight grain, and made from old Douglas Fir building material. They are not meant for the purpose of cutting food directly on the top, but they are dent and scratch resistant. The finish is a food safe eco-friendly oil.

If you want the top to be a chopping block, we can use a maple top.

The base can be painted in any color. Standard with a barn wood shelf.

See more furniture pictures: http://www.flickr.com/photos/36630249@N07/

See our website: http://www.porticostyle.com/

Portlandia Table

One of our customers requested the Portlandia table in a dark brown color.

We were all pleased to see how close the color of the table matched the color of our chairs.

The Portlandia table is made here in Portland, Oregon from old salvaged wood. Call us for details at 503 230-2522.

Reclaimed wood bed

Introducing The Night Owl platform bed. Made from reclaimed Douglas Fir.

Here is a first picture of the reclaimed wood bed, fresh out of the shop. The platform bed is low to the ground. Only a top mattress is required. Since we will make these beds by hand, you can have your bed made for any mattress size. Made mostly from recycled Douglas Fir.

A nice feature of this bed is the 11 inch wide back board. While laying propped up on your cushions, you will be able to reach behind, and grab "stuff" off the shelf. Hey, you might even forgo the matching nightstands.

The height of this bed was designed for a 12 inch mattress, so you can also sit on your bed (that's how i tie my shoes in the morning).

The wood was finished with Osmo Polyx Oil, a hard drying eco-friendly low VOC wood finish.

For more sustainable wood furniture click here: http://www.porticostyle.com/reclaimed-wood-furniture.html

Brett Bigham's Benches

Brett Bigham from Portland, Oregon does some amazing paint work on his benches - and for very affordable prices. These benches go for only $149.

You might call Brett an illustrator who uses furniture as his chosen medium.

See more of Brett's stuff here: http://www.porticostyle.com/cabinets.html

Chainsaw Furniture

It's not the carpenter's hammer, it's the carpenter who builds the furniture - old saw by a wise furniture maker. Tony Schlosser who built this table with his chainsaw from found wood proves this saying again. The table pictured here could be a cocktail table, or a wide bench. The top is over 3 inches thick.

For more recycled wood furniture, click here: http://www.porticostyle.com/reclaimed-wood-furniture.html