I coined the term "Adaptive Misuse" to convey old objects or materials enjoying a new life.

An incurable flea market scavenger, I trawl the world's antique shows, garage and yard sales, architectural salvage warehouses, estate sales, and junkyards in search of items with "good bones" on which I can impose an imaginative new purpose. My "finds" provide the raw material for these playful flights of fancy.  Adding whimsy and quirky-ness where they land, they are also sustainable design, as no new materials are being used, and something of the past is being preserved.

A dentist’s tool cabinet,stripped of paint and sealed is used to organize kitchen utensils, the bumper from an old truck headlights re-wired, hangs above a boy's bed lighting the room and the artwork on the opposite wall, a four-foot diameter French enamel clock face crowds the end wall of a small powder room.  The hands are outfitted with hooks for towels. The dramatic and unexpected change of scale, and the towels “melting” on the hooks is reminiscent of Salvador Dali.

The possibilities are endless...

An antique bronze bank table now divides a living room and dining room, and serves as the buffet. Napkins and silver can be stored in the bronze cubicles.

The bank table viewed from the living room side...

A French amoire replaces a coat closet making for a much more interesting entry.  Corrugated aluminum appears to bend the wall like a flex-straw leading into the living space.

Found in a Chicago junkyard, the pinnacle from above the door of a Gothic Revival house is stripped of its protective tar, re-glued, re-finished, and upholstered to serve as a dramatic headboard.  Dresser and nightstands from the 50's are still stylish.

A huge wooden mold for an industrial cog as a playroom table.

A few items culled from the Brimfield, MA flea market photographed and measured on site for future use.

An industrial secretarial desk houses a sink and storage for this powder room.  An old wooden spice cabinet stores miscellany.  A steel container now contains waste paper, and (in the mirror) tin trays hold extra rolls of TP.

A vintage pine dresser now survives as a sink cabinet.

An Arts & Crafts cabinet used as a dining room credenza is enhanced by  a collection of metal pitchers and a (yellow) wallpaper printing roller.  A beautiful embroidered runner covers the top.

An 18th century chest handsomely fills a corner of a master bedroom.

Antique sewing table reinvented as a nightstand.

Elegant antique steel medical cabinet serves as a nightstand.

Old gardener's cabinet, metal bucket and French garden chairs, each with exceptional patina inhabit the corner of this screened porch.

Elegant stained glass pieces found in a Milwaukee junk shop re-used to provide shared light and a glimpse between foyer and living room.  Plant stand in the foyer beyond is also a resurrected piece.

Parts of an iron fence found in a New Orleans warehouse were converted into this coffee table.