Scrap wood furniture

Skip screws and forget glue: these pieces are both built from and fused together with melted metal odds and ends – wooden structural elements cemented in molten tin, all locally recycled materials. As a result, they’re absolutely one of a kind, looking like no other furniture you’ll ever see. Really.

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Scrap wood furniture table
Scrap wood furniture upcycled detail

Dutch designer Pepe Heykoop (images by Annemarijne Bax) takes sawmill scraps and simply slices them off as needed, leaving interesting angles in his wake. It’s a brilliant way to repurpose a common waste material without losing aesthetic interest or sacrificing style in the process. The scraps are elevated into works of functional sculpture, each one richly textural.

Scrap wood furniture surface sculpturalScrap wood furniture surface sculptural
Scrap wood furniture stool

“‘Bits of Wood’ is a reaction upon handling these leftovers … all the different pieces are modified to fit in a mould where molten tin embraces them and holds them together. The tin comes from a metal recycling department where old tin pots and plates are collected. Collecting these materials can be done locally.”

Scrap wood furniture surface

About the designer:

“Pepe Heykoop (1984) studied at the Design Academy Eindhoven, graduated in 2008. Studio Pepe Heykoop was founded in 2009, while his collaboration with Tiny Miracles started in 2010. The work of Dutch designer Pepe Heykoop straddles two worlds—the collectible pieces made in his Amsterdam studio, and the retail products made with women in a slum in Mumbai, India, as part of the Tiny Miracles Foundation, setup by his cousin. Yet these two facets of his practice are not incompatible. Both reflect Heykoop’s idealism and vision as a designer, both enable his exploration in the handmade. Recycling is at the heart of many of Heykoop’s designs, turning waste into wonder.”

“Multiple award winning products and nominations underline his vision. Pepe’s unique works are sold to collectors in the field. Recently the Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum NY acquired a piece of his Skin Collection.”