Not all furniture is created equal. Steve Withcombe knows this.
Withcombe builds custom furniture using a stash of 100-year-old wood pieces he retrieved from an old church in Capitol Hill that was torn down five years ago to make room for a condominium complex.
Owner of SwithyCo Furniture, Withcombe’s way of making furniture with recycled or sustainable materials is hot. Some would say his stash of church wood has more inherent value for residents of the Pacific Northwest than a mansion full of high-end Skarbos’ bedposts and dressers.
“It’s a fad in this city,” said Withcombe, who works in a rustic Georgetown shop. “It’s a great movement — why not reuse materials? If you go into a local restaurant these days, if it’s not made out of reclaimed materials, it’s almost weird.
“Initially, there wasn’t much of a green thing going on in the early ‘90s, when I started learning how to make furniture,” Withcombe explained. “But it’s important to me now. If I make something, I try to make it out of material here. If I do buy, it’s for something very specific in mind.”
The beauty of age
Withcombe finds the reclaimed wood beautiful.
“The wood is filled with holes and knots and nails and has a lot of character,” he said.
SwithyCo Furniture is 100-percent commission-based.
“Everything I make is custom-built — everything from seesaws to really high-end chairs to dining-room tables,” he said. “If it’s in here being built, it’s for a very specific reason: The client couldn’t find what they wanted in the store, or they wanted something out of reclaimed materials.”
Withcombe studied woodwork and furniture design in college.
“I fell in love with the functionality of woodwork and the reward of using what you make,” he said. “When I discovered I could make things and people could buy them and enjoy them and give them to their grandchildren — I found a passion for it.”
Withcombe teaches part-time at the University of Washington in the architecture department. While he enjoys instructing students, Withcombe expressed some discouragement with how the UW encourages students to use whatever materials they wish.
“I try to be conscious of where things came from,” he said. “Sometimes, there is a look you’re going for, where you just need the new material. It’s a really hard line to walk.”
Withcombe said that furniture best made from recycled materials includes items that are primarily used for surface space: table tops, shelves, counters and boxes.
“Reclaimed materials are not great for sculpting,” he said. “I don’t know if I’d build chairs out of that stuff. It’s old, so you’re dealing with real dry, brittle material — material that’s been inside a dry building for a century or so. You’re going to get fractures.”
Going organic
The Northwest is becoming a hub for furniture and associated products made with reused or organic materials.
Sandy Campbell, owner of Entero Design in Georgetown, creates furnishings made of sustainable products. Unlike Withcombe, all her products are new, but they are made with natural foam, organic wool and cotton, natural fabric, recycled polyester and materials that are free of petroleum.
“With any petroleum-based product, eventually more and more people are going to be exposed to too many chemicals in their life,” Campbell said. “We need to limit the toxins exposed to us on a daily basis.… It’s not only healthier, but we’re also not supporting the petroleum industry.”
Campbell is concerned with supporting local economies, as well as preserving physical health.
“The other thing that comes into play, when you have a local shop is it has to compete with big companies that make their products overseas,” she said. “There’s not a company I’m aware of — outside boutique companies — that is producing healthy materials.
“The wood, the stain or finish that you’re using may be pretty nontoxic, but it’s really the source of the wood and the stain and the finish,” she added.