bright designlab has designed several groovy lines for us, including RoLL, FoUND, STaCK, WRaP and SiT.  They’re must-see pieces (at least in our opinion!) that draw on left-behind materials for beautiful, sustainable, modern furniture.

As our friend Alissa Pulcrano at bright designlab says, “Upcycled Furniture is a step above recycling because we’re not burning energy to break materials down.  Instead, we’re reassembling.”

We hope you’ll join us on Saturday!  Our booth will be directly in front of the cool furniture store Porch Light at 3972 N. Mississippi Ave.

In the meantime, check out this video of bright designlab’s 3d modeling of three lines of furniture:

And this video of photos of more furniture:

The post Our newest Upcycled Furniture featured this Saturday at Mississippi Ave. Street Fair appeared first on Hammer & Hand.

It’s the wildly popular and tasty brainchild of Chef Aaron Adams and his biz partner Dinae Horne.

We first met Aaron and Dinae when their shop was located two doors down from our HQ.  But with the crush of folks flocking to that location, Portobello quickly outgrew the space.

Aaron and Dinae recently opened their new, more expansive digs at 1125 Southeast Division Place and it’s a really cool spot.  An entire long wall is clad with a collage of reclaimed wood that Dinae and Aaron sourced from all over Portland, and whimsical pen art depicts forest plants and creatures throughout the space.

What’s more, the table tops and bar counter top were created by Hammer & Hand from upcycled barnwood.  Take a look at the pics by bright designlab.  Pretty nifty…

-Zack

The post Barnwood beauty at Portobello Vegan Trattoria appeared first on Hammer & Hand.

Upcycling utilizes materials otherwise left behind, rendered useless in their original intent.  By creating new pieces made of reclaimed barnwood, retired school bleachers, vintage locker baskets and salvaged steel piping, we give industrial materials slated as waste a new purpose.  Hammer & Hand and bright designlab have joined forces to build modern, sustainable furniture, with each piece derived from found items, sourced and fabricated locally by our master craftspeople.

WRaP

STaCK

FoUND

RoLL

and FARM.

The post New upcycled furniture lines featured on Hammer & Hand’s site appeared first on Hammer & Hand.

Here was the challenge: divide the open 2nd floor of a loft space into separate rooms without sacrificing the flow of light and air throughout, and do so in a way that honors both the historic 1910 warehouse roots of the building as well as its 2001 modernist loft conversion.

Dave and Debbie purchased their two-story loft intending to divide the open, 600 SF second floor into a more useful set of rooms.  But they were keen on preserving the beautiful natural light and air flow throughout the entire floor.

The Marshall Wells’ historic warehouse/factory vibe was a key selling point to the clients when they purchased the unit, and they wanted their contractor to honor that character in any design interventions they undertook.  Dave and Debbie were drawn to the design vernacular of warehouse walls with operable transom windows above, so when they sketched out an initial plan and shared it with our team (M.A.C. Casares, Christopher “Coop” Cooper and Patrick Conrad in the field, and Master Jointer Dan Palmer in the shop) they were happy to discover how quickly our guys connected with their design concept.

“I was super impressed that they were thinking exactly like we were,” said Debbie.  “M.A.C. came back to us with great sketches that really captured what we were after.”

There were three key design challenges to contend with in the project:

1. To make the series of windows spanning two slightly angled walls look like one unified architectural gesture.
2. To accommodate a pre-existing sprinkler pipe into the window configuration.
3. To relate architecturally to the original warehouse/factory aesthetic with its incredible Timberline Lodge-like old growth post and beams, as well as the modern vocabulary of the recent loft conversion

Hammer & Hand was uniquely positioned to address these constraints cost effectively, quickly, and with integrity of craft by fabricating the windows in our own shop.  Purchasing “custom” windows from a third-party manufacturer would have required an unacceptable compromise on cost, quality, time line or detailing.

So Dan set to work.

“The sprinkler pipe set the window layout for us,” said Dan.  “It’s why we increased the number of windows from the originally envisioned five to the final eight – so that all reveals would be proper.”

What reads as an octet of transom windows is actually a trio and a quintet combined.  To facilitate airflow, three of the windows are operable, with stainless steel friction stays that allow you to open the window past true 90 and to stop the window at any degree along the way.

With a nod to the building’s 1910 roots, Dan based the proportions of the windows on traditional casement sash dimensions – 2 ¼” stile and top rail and 3 ¼” bottom rail.  He employed ogee cope and stick (with these traditional profiles cut with cope and stick knives in our shop) and mortise and tenon jointery in crafting the windows, and used high quality tight grain Douglas fir to stay true to the existing warehouse woodwork.

Tempered single-pane glass and traditional transom lock hardware round out the look.  And the finish and stain of the windows match the woodwork of the loft remodel, making the design connection with the space’s modern gestures.

“The team had great attention to detail” said Dave.  “I was wondering how they would deal with the sprinkler pipe.  And I still wonder how they made it look so good.  It looks like the windows were there first and the pipe second, not the other way around.”

Debbie added, “they brought unbelievable attention to detail to the job, which is exactly what we were looking for.”

But this attention to detail didn’t mean weeks and weeks of slow going work.  Instead, the entire job, from contract signing to clean-up, was just 3 weeks long.

I asked M.A.C. how the team pulled this off.  “Simple,” he said.  “Our ability to keep everything in-house and control time lines and quality allows us to do this level of work in that kind of time frame.  We had a direct connection between production and application.”

“If we hadn’t built those windows in our shop, we would have had either a huge wait, or had to use bigger windows for an imperfect connection”, Coop added.  “Instead, we were nimble, able to adjust to conditions on the ground and meet the program.”

Dave said, “the workmanship was unbelievable.  They just did a perfect job.”

Jobs in compact, upscale communities like the Marshall Wells are like surgical interventions, demanding the highest levels of tactical prowess, communications élan, and sensitivity, care and respect.  It’s a skill set that we pride ourselves on and are known for among property managers.  “Leave no trace!”

“The team worked really well with our building’s property management people,” said Dave.  “The person on site said everyone was super nice and super easy to work with.”

Success on all fronts.  Kudos to the team and thank you to Dave and Debbie for choosing Hammer & Hand!

-Zack

The post Loft remodel in Portland’s Marshall Wells showcases woodshop wizardry appeared first on Hammer & Hand.

If Portland is the center of the “plot-to-pot” movement, then ice cream maker Salt & Straw is its newest standard bearer.  Owner Kim Malek opened her first cart on May 26th (between 17th and 18th Avenues on NE Alberta Street), and her farm-to-cone ice cream has already taken the nation by storm, garnering a wave of media attention, including a glowing review by the Wall Street Journal.  

“Our ice cream is handmade in small-batches using only all-natural dairy with the best local, sustainable and organic ingredients Oregon has to offer, as well as imported flavors from small, handpicked farms and producers around the world,” states Salt & Straw’s website.  “We start with local cream from Lochmead Dairy in Eugene, Oregon. All their cows were born right there on their third generation, family farm – so we know it’s the highest quality we can get and super fresh.”

This focus on the local and the sustainable will be physically expressed by the “bricks-and-mortar” of Salt & Straw’s new scoop shop at 2035 NW Alberta St.  Designed by architect John Cooley and built by Hammer & Hand, the commercial remodel will be a showcase of locally-sourced reclaimed wood.  We’re using clear vertical grain (CVG) fir from the bleacher seats of Lewis and Clark College’s original athletic stadium, barn wood from the barn at the Oregon State Hospital of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest fame, rafters from a local deconstructed commercial warehouse, and native black walnut milled from locally-salvaged trees.

And we’ll build Salt & Straw‘s new custom-made “community table” from All-heart Southern Yellow Pine salvaged from a demolished high school in Yakima, Washington.

This heart pine has a pretty fascinating story…  During the struggle to unionize timber companies in Southern Oregon during the late 50s and early 60s, mills began to shut down, curtailing the supply of Oregon pine for the ongoing building boom in schools and other public buildings.  Builders began searching far-and-wide for an alternative and found All-heart Southern Yellow Pine from the Southeastern US.  About a half-century ago, the builders of the high school in Yakima used this wood to construct the (now-demolished) school building.  So Salt & Straw’s community table will embody a narrative of Oregon’s timber and labor history (again, a la Ken Kesey … but this time from Sometimes a Great Notion.)

A lot to think about as you savor that scoop of honey-balsamic-strawberry-with-cracked-pepper ice cream!

– Zack

The post Salt & Straw’s commercial remodel celebrates the local and the sustainable appeared first on Hammer & Hand.

Fine craft is Hammer & Hand’s raison d’etre.  As carpenters and woodworkers we’re passionate about the tactile, the well made, and the beautiful.  It’s about both the integrity of the made object as well as the integrity of the process of making – precise work performed by craftspeople who’ve undergone rigorous apprenticeship and training in their trade.

We’ve written a good deal here about how this ethos plays out in the field at the sites of our remodels and new construction.  But it’s equally at work here, on the first floor of our headquarters in Hammer & Hand’s woodshop led by master jointer Dan Palmer.

Dan and woodworker Josh Tinker build everything from custom vanities to upcycled furniture in the shop, but a big portion of their work is the creation of custom doors and windows.  Clients and designers seek us out both for our ability to create museum-quality replicas of historic windows and doors and for our capacity to execute clean, modern lines with the precision demanded by no-room-for-error designs.

I spoke recently with Dan, who’s been Hammer & Hand’s go-to woodworker for eight years, about his efforts building custom windows and doors for the company’s clients and design collaborators.  Below are two examples of this work, one for an historic Portland home, another for a Vancouver modern home.

Windows Become Doors
Ever since purchasing their 1936 Colonial-style home in Southwest Portland, our clients hoped to create a better inside/outside connection from their living room space.  They approached Hammer & Hand to convert two existing windows into a pair of architecturally-consistent French doors:

To match the trim profiles exactly for both interior and exterior door casings, Dan had custom knives created for his shaper.  Then he set to work in the shop:

With doors built, Dan reframed and flashed the openings, hung the custom doors, and trimmed them out with the custom-fabricated casings.  The result is a graceful new connection between the home’s living space and new patio that looks like it’s always been there as part of the house:

To create a more thorough barrier to weather extremes, Dan created two storm doors that matched the architectural details of the French doors within (deftly, I might add):

Home, Sweet Home
The owners of our eco-modern Vancouver Airport Home, designed by Scott Edwards Architecture, have lived on the site for 40 years, and wanted to bring something from the old, preexisting home into the new.  Dan incorporated stain glass salvaged from the deconstructed home into two entry doors of the new house, built from clean, simple vertical grain Douglas fir doors:

More cool windows and doors vignettes to follow soon!

– Zack

The post Millwork at H&H: custom windows & doors built at our woodshop appeared first on Hammer & Hand.

In yesterday’s post I wrote about master jointer Dan Palmer and his work creating precision custom windows and doors for everything from historic restorations to high concept modern homes.  I promised more vignettes, so here are four more.  Enjoy!

Memories of the Netherlands
One of the homeowners of this historic Portland cottage lived in the Netherlands when she was young and fell in love with the doors there.  As part of a larger conversation about the Emerick Architects-designed home remodel, she showed Dan a 2″ by 3″ magazine clipping of a door design that they liked, and asked him to “build it like this one, out of vertical grain fir”.  Dan designed and built the Dutch door from reclaimed wood using historic mortise-and-tenon jointery.  The aim was to lighten and open up the kitchen space, so the door’s 6 panes of glass and operable upper panel bring in welcome light and fresh air.

“It was fun to build,” said Dan.  “Dutch doors are unusual, and tricky to detail for weatherproofing.  It was a good challenge, and the clients were super happy.”

Museum-Quality Restoration
Hammer & Hand was called upon to rehabilitate and replicate the damaged casement sashes on this beautiful, if neglected, 1927 Herman Brookman-designed home at the edge of Laurelhurst Park.  Dan and his team set up shop in the 600 SF garage onsite for the better part of a year to carry out the work.  He had custom shaper and moulding knives cut to enable the team to build historically-accurate replicas of both the sashes and a pair of doors.  Meanwhile, we worked to address the root moisture problems that caused the windows and doors to degrade in the first place.  The project was a blend of old and new, and balanced values of proper preservation and performance upgrading.  While the client chose not to rebuild with thermal-pane glazing, we did add weather stripping to all window frames to create a better air seal.  “The air sealing had very little visual impact,” Dan said.  “When the windows are closed, you’d never know anything is different.”

Salvaged Timber Becomes Door
Our Rhododendron Cabin project, designed by Giulietti Schouten Architects, is a celebration of reclaimed wood that drew heavily on salvaged material from the deconstructed pre-existing cabin onsite as well as wood reclaimed from an old NW Portland warehouse.  The cabin’s four screen doors were built by Dan from western red cedar logged on the property to clear space for the home’s footprint.

Poppies Will Make Them Sleep
For this attic addition and home energy upgrade Dan added 8 operable, air sealed, thermal pane windows and casement sashes, installed with modern, stainless steel, friction hinges.  The saloon doors, designed by Alice Designs to create a partition separating bedroom from bath, are built with 3form paneling: recycled plastic with natural materials sandwiched within.  In this case, the two panels of 3form contain reed grass and poppies, and were “pictured-framed” in Douglas fir by Dan.

Dan’s done a lot of beautiful work with windows and doors, so there’s still more to come!  Please stay tuned.

– Zack

The post More millwork by H&H: Dutch door, casement restoration, reclaimed wood, & more appeared first on Hammer & Hand.

The custom windows and doors that we create at Hammer & Hand encapsulate who we are as a company – a shop of craftspeople and building scientists.

When we build or remodel a home or business, we’re focused on both the beauty and durability of the workmanship as well as the building performance outcomes of the energy improvements we orchestrate.  It’s about both craft and science.

The same is true for our windows and doors.  We’re passionate about creating perfect architectural matches of existing cope-and-stick profiles, for instance.  But we also offer triple-pane and vacuum insulated panel glazing solutions that increase thermal resistance and reduce a window’s carbon footprint.  Craft and science again.

And the parallels continue.  We’ve written extensively here about use of upcycled materials in remodeling and new construction projects and the conservation of embodied energy and embodied narrative that upcycling achieves.  That’s true, too, for windows and doors.  And the use of reclaimed wood in custom millwork is not only good for the planet and psyche, but also results in a superior product because old wood is so special.

Firstly, upcycled wood is aged, which makes it super durable.  (The century-old studs that we routinely encounter in the field, for instance, are often so hard that you can’t drive a nail into them.  The wood almost petrifies over time.)  Secondly, salvaged old growth wood is tough to beat.  The grain quality and density of the best reclaimed wood is basically impossible to find in lumberyards today.

Of course, Hammer & Hand makes plenty of beautiful, extremely long-lasting windows and doors out of new wood.  But if a client is looking to be part of the cradle-to-cradle ethos, upcycled wood millwork is a compelling way to go.

In sum? Fine craftsmanship, expert building science and upcycling imbue our work, everywhere from the construction of buildings to the manufacture of windows and doors.

– Zack

For more about upcycling check out these posts:
“Remodels, new homes and … reclaimed wine barrels?”
“Daniel’s Upcycling interview with Oregon Home’s Green Living”
“Upcycled Sliding Doors at our HQ”
And this webpage:
Hammer & Hand’s Upcycled Furniture

The post Windows and doors by Hammer & Hand: craft, science and upcycling appeared first on Hammer & Hand.

The writing’s on the wall.  We can’t build in the twenty-first century like we did in the twentieth.  Or the nineteenth.  Building occupants demand better thermal comfort and energy efficiency, and so does the planet.  That’s why good builders need to be both expert craftspeople and building scientists these days.  The science is there now to create high performance buildings – it’s our responsibility as builders to use that science.

This new reality is changing the way we construct buildings, with Passive House at the vanguard.  It’s also allowing us to transform drafty old Craftsmans and Victorians into energy-efficient, comfortable structures through home energy audits and home performance retrofits.

And now it’s beginning to change the historic preservation landscape as well, especially windows.

For too long, historic building owners interested in reducing energy consumption have been forced to choose between two unsatisfactory options: stick with wasteful, but historically-accurate single pane windows or install mass-produced, energy efficient windows that ignore specific architectural aesthetic and heritage.

Local craftspeople could accurately replicate the single-pane windows.  (We’ve done a lot of this work ourselves.)  Distant window manufacturers could produce the generic, efficient windows.  But because local craft and cutting-edge window technology were separated, better solutions weren’t produced.

We’ve been working to change that and to marry craft and science in our window-making process.  Our research has taken us to one of the top high performance window shops in the world, based in Austria.  And it’s also brought us to the cutting-edge manufacturing facility of Cardinal Glass, just up the Columbia in Hood River.

Using Cardinal’s industry-leading insulated glass (two panes of glass with a layer of argon gas between, sealed with a high performance spacer shown in the detail drawing above), Hammer & Hand’s craftspeople can deliver energy-efficient windows that respect historical and architectural heritage.  We accomplish this using one of two techniques:

1. Build entirely new windows in our shop that replicate historic profiles while incorporating the insulated glass.
2. Modify existing windows, inserting high performance glazing into the frames while preserving most of the existing wood.

While some historic preservation projects may require an architecturally “pure” single-pane approach, the majority can benefit from this melding of architectural integrity with high performance materials.  And the approach is scalable.  For bigger projects we collaborate with a close partner to automate milling production so that we can mass-produce pieces that are then assembled by hand by our career woodworkers.

By combing craft and science, we’ve carved out a new historic, energy-efficient window solution that is true to two values that we hold dear as a company: fine design and optimal performance.

– Zack

The post Window design and performance: historic preservation needn’t waste energy appeared first on Hammer & Hand.

Last week I spoke with long-time Hammer & Hand carpenter James Fox about his recently-completed spiral staircase renovation in Portland’s Rose City Park neighborhood.

Photo courtesy of client

James has been a carpenter for over half his life – 23 years.  While he started his career in framing, he’s become a finish work specialist.  This June will mark his 10th year at Hammer & Hand.

“Early on at Hammer & Hand I worked with people that demanded a high degree of precision,” James said.  “I’d show them my work and they’d say ‘we need it tighter.’  After a bit, I realized that they just wanted it perfect.  So I learned to try for perfection every time.”

James thinks his temperament is well-suited for the work.

“I’ve got the personality to go with finish work,” he told me.  “It’s painstaking stuff that takes a lot of patience.”

Before/after comparison, courtesy of client

When I asked him about how the spiral staircase renovation went, his pride in a job well done showed.

“It turned out damned good,” he replied.

Before/after comparison, courtesy of client

The original stair had always looked a little rough, and the clients wanted a more finished look with more integrity and craft.

Before/after comparison, courtesy of client

The stair skirt that wraps up and around the outer edge of the staircase (seen in the before/after photos above and below) was a key part of the James’ work.

Before/after comparison, courtesy of client

“The clients wanted the skirt to match the woodwork in the foyer and also be able to take a beating from the vacuum cleaner,” James said.  “So we selected ½” oak.”

But the trick was wrapping the oak up the spiral and meeting each tread and riser perfectly.  James took ram board (a thick, heavy cardboard) and carefully laid it along the curvature of the wall to mimic the finished wood skirt.  He then used this form, with treads and risers precisely marked, as his pattern for the ½” oak.

In-progress photo by James Fox

“After cutting each tread riser out of the oak, I scored and steamed it to bend onto the radius of the wall,” James told me.  “I then used a bunch of construction adhesive, laid the skirt on, and nailed it.  As the adhesive dried the whole thing hardened into a nice solid piece.”

In-progress photo by James Fox

The photo above shows the stair before and after this process.  Notice that the treads have been removed to allow for precise measurement and placement.

Photo courtesy of client

I asked James if a designer was involved in the staircase renovation, but soon realized that this project was about artisan-based problem-solving in the field.  It requires a carpenter with a honed aesthetic sense combined with formidable field chops.  The design is fairly straightforward, it’s the execution that is complex.

“You have to figure it out some of this stuff at the site,” James told me.  “Then you rely on past experience to find the fastest, easiest way to make it perfect.”

– Zack

The post Handcrafted spiral staircase renovation captured by clients’ before/after pics appeared first on Hammer & Hand.