Karel Woodcraft

Second Life

It's a calling to fix furniture that would otherwise end up in a landfill. Reusing and repairing are the most efficient ways to reduce waste. It's also an invitation to see the value of what we already own.

I founded Les Gaspilleurs to upcycle furniture. Our mission is to give a second to as many furniture as possible while promoting craftsmanship. You can see somme of the pieces we've worked on:

A dark blue and wood 4-drawer dresser with a mirror on top. — Theses dressers have been in the family for 3 generations! It's wonderful to see them still used today.

A 3-drawers dresser painted white with wooden drawers. — This dresser had an old chipped laquer finish and was given to me to refinish in white.

A black finished 4-drawers dressers. — For this piece, I removed the old paint and refinished it black.

A wooden console with some details painted a bright orange. — I found this Ikea piece all beaten in the street. It was painted white and quite damage. The wood underneath was a good surprise.

A before and after view of a night table that was repainted and oiled. — This night table was given to me and I fixed its drawers and refinished it.

The before and after of a 4-drawers dresser. — This is a good exemple of what we can get out of an old dresser that seem old-fashioned.

Restauration

Every piece of furniture has a story to tell. It was given a soul by its creator. It was built a certain way, finished with a specific care, sometimes modified for a different purpose. It's a pleasant challenge to investigate the life of an object and try to honour the original intent of its creation. When I can look at the piece I've been working with and cannot differentiate my hand from the one of its creator, a profound satisfaction arrises.

Here are some examples of my latest work: a teak console that needed replacement shelves and a structure repair, 100-year old chairs that needed to be tightened, a table slider that needed to be reattached...

A Nancy chair standing proud after being fixed. — I tightened this Nancy chairs and got their caning redone.

A square rustique coffee table with a wooden top and black metal base. — This table used to have a marble top that broke. I replaced it with a barn wood top.

A teak piece with 3 drawers on the left and a door on the right. — A teak piece on which I had to rebuild the shelves and support.