SCULPTURE FROM THE SEA

0 Comments | Evening Standard; London (UK), Jul 28, 2010 | by Nicole Swengley

EVEN in cities you can create the impression of relaxed beachside living by using driftwood furniture and shoreline-style accessories, and the look can appear surprisingly sophisticated.

Driftwood furniture ticks all the right boxes. Its weathered grain and sea-sculpted shapes can be stunning and, being recycled, it conserves resources and reduces waste — and homeowners love its evocation of a carefree summer by the beach.

Martin Scorey, a boat-builder by training, makes innovative furniture using traditional skills at his Southampton base. “I love using driftwood because it’s tactile and evokes the weathered, windswept feel of the British shoreline. To walk along a beach after a storm collecting wood is just the inspiration I need to fashion it into a unique piece of furniture.”

Scorey’s throne-like chairs are made to order (from Pounds 250) and handdecorated with shells, pebbles and rope. Tables in a variety of idiosyncratic shapes (from Pounds 280) and custom-made, decorative timber screens (from Pounds 600) are also available from his Shoreline Furniture collection.

Homeowners looking for less sculptural pieces can create the driftwood look with Scorey’s glasstopped desks (Pounds 600), bedside cabinets (Pounds 140) and coffee tables (Pounds 250), made from sand- blasted Cedar of Lebanon. Bathroom and kitchen cabinets are custom- made in a similar style (from Pounds 110).

The marine theme can also be extended, indoors or outside, with decorative accessories such as green glass fishing net floats, whelk pots, driftwood flowers, shrimp nets and vintage pond yachts, all available online from Shoreline Furniture.

Surfing enthusiast Jonty Henshall started making driftwood furniture while living at Sennen Cove in west Cornwall. “If I find an interesting, discarded piece of wood I try to use it in a sympathetic way, creating sculpture, furniture and paintings that will capture its unique form forever.” His made-to-order designs are available at Beyond the Sea in Padstow, north Cornwall, and online. Prices start from Pounds 120 for bedside tables, from Pounds 250 for coffee tables, from Pounds 350 for dressers and from Pounds 650 for beds.

One of the pleasures of living with driftwood furniture lies in knowing where the raw material washed up. David Holmes of Nautilus Design combines driftwood collected from St Peter’s Bay in Essex with driftnet corks from Petershead in Scotland to create attractive mirror frames. Meanwhile the knotted trunks of birch trees washed up on a Pembrokeshire beach are cut into stubby lamp bases (Pounds 185 a pair) and topped with shades made from layers of hand-made, recycled paper pulp.

“It’s a pretty perfect lifestyle, collecting driftwood from some of Britain’s most scenic beaches, then taking it home to my workshop in Bedfordshire to make one-off designs,” says David. “Wood can be a difficult material. Oak goes very hard in salt water and I’ve burned out many a drill bit and saw blade. And a nearly finished piece is sometimes ruined when you discover a soft spot is, in fact, a honeycomb of tunnels created by sea worms.”

Holmes’s Twig mirrors (Pounds 235) are painstakingly crafted from small, salvaged pieces carefully entwined in a wreath-like fashion, while artistic combinations of driftwood chips form the rays of his starburst mirrors (Pounds 235). He also makes cabinets (Pounds 145), lamps (from Pounds 145) and photo frames (Pounds 75)
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