How does the pallet wood in the photo above get to be the beautiful designer furniture in the product photography below?
Upcycling is the process of converting waste materials or useless products into new materials or products of better quality or for better environmental value. The basic premise is where old products are given more value, not less.
The curious can read more here Cradle to Cradle or buy the book here Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things
Why am I writing about this? Well, beyond the altruistic motives, I have to say the furniture is really nice. A recent product photography job I did for BA Design Lab had some pieces from their Palletform series, which is made from upcycled shipping pallets. Reclaimed wood is all the rage, but Ba Designs furniture takes this to a whole new level. I never knew there was such a variety of beautiful hardwoods in shipping pallets.
Since the cost of moving empty pallets is more than it’s worth these wood pallets are discarded in piles everywhere. After the labor intensive process of picking up the trashed pallets, transporting them to the furniture design shop, and breaking them down into individual slats of fine hardwoods, the real artisan process begins.
Bringing out the beautiful wood grains and colors is something Branden Adams, from Ba Design, does with grace, and then uses the upcycled pallet form wood in his custom designed tables, chairs, and stools. See more of Ba Design’s Pallet Form series here.
Watch a short video on the Palletform process.