Saturday, April 7, 2012

Futon, reborn like a phoenix....Fhutonix?

The Futon, long ago.
This apartment has seen its fair share of inhabitants, and as so often happens, people leave stuff behind when they move away.  You don't always have to leave your house to get free stuff!  This was the case with The Futon.  Now, to be clear, The Futon was not so comfortable or beautiful, but it had a could-be-considered-nice-ish wooden frame, was already in the apartment, and in a pinch it could host an overnight guest, an early Saturday afternoon nap, or a few Masterpiece Theater viewers. Did I mention it was free?  We tried to cover it up as much as possible to maximize the comfort factor.  Eventually the day came when The Futon was no longer needed, a newer couch was its way, but what to do with the frame?  It was not nice enough to sell (having already been repaired), and Cambridge is awash in used futon frames anyway. Putting it in the trash was clearly not very freestyle....

 Illustrated below, poorly, is how I saw The Futon frame.

Rough diagram of the frame. (End-pieces are shown in gray for diagrammatic purposes only)















All those nice finished wooden pieces just waiting to be turned into something new.
 It was fun to use power tools to undo the screws holding the various pieces together, but then what?  I had a pile of wooden pieces (each ~23.5 inches long, 1.75 inches wide, and 7/8 in thick, with a hole 1/4 inch from each end, some with webbing still attached) and a vague idea of building a small bookshelf or side table- but without the use of a saw.  When a new, minimalist, roommate moved in she decided to freestyle the pieces into wall art.

Installation #1

Installation #2
I think the varying tones of the wooden pieces work to bring some warmth against the blue wall.

If anyone out there can come up with a design for a shelf or end table, using only pieces with the measurements described above, I'd love to freestyle it, there are still some leftover futon pieces!