Kindness&Humility

Of all the woodwork that was carried out for our office renovation, none was as detailed as our little kitchenette. We did some rough math and figure that the entire kitchenette is made of more than 600 individual pieces of wood, each of which had to be planed, joined, sanded, assembled and finished. It was worth it though — it’s a real workhorse and it turned out to be one of my favorite parts of the renovation.

Photo: Lincoln Barbour

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The Wood

Apart from the doors, which are made from old crates, the entire kitchenette is made of fir that we got from a 1904 barn from Wenatchee, via the ReBuilding Center. No plywood. Nothing from Home Depot. Just 103-year-old fir.

The dark wood on the left is what the fir looked like when we picked it up. The pile on the right has been milled down. We did this for every piece of wood used in the office — it was extremely time consuming.

To facilitate impromptu discussions between designers and programmers, we designed a sitting-height work table to tag team with the taller Brooklyn Streets Work Table and placed it right in the middle of our production area. Like its big brother the Brooklyn Streets Work Table, this table originally lived as a pizza oven, but now a quick push off your desk sends your chair gliding into a magical collaborative wonderland.

Photo: Lincoln Barbour

The rough sawn fir came from a barn built in the 40s in Sherwood, Oregon.