Rimu reborn

One man’s junk is another man’s treasure . . . when sharp-eyed DIYer Damon Slade saw an old shelf unit being demolished, he salvaged what he could and took the timber home, thinking ‘I could make something out of this’. Damon tells Justine Tyerman how he breathed new life into some dusty old hunks of rimu.

Some people view life differently from the average Jo and Joe Bloggs. Their imaginations often see way beyond the practical task at hand to the creative possibilities a situation offers. Damon Slade is one of these people. While watching an old wooden shelf unit going under the wrecker’s hammer, he was visualising what he could make from the dusty old timber which had seen better days.

So he salvaged what he could and took it home. After some discussion with his wife, his head was “spinning with ideas” about what to make from the tongue and groove rimu floor boards, covered in 80 or so years of dust.

“I decided to begin by designing and constructing a cook-book stand,” says Damon. “First I cut the timber to the appropriate length, glued it together and clamped it over night. Once the glue was dry, I sanded the boards but I was careful not to overdo this in order to retain the unique, aged look of the wood.

“I used another piece of rimu for the small shelf that the cook-book sits on and the stand on the back to hold it up. I attached hinges to the stand so that it could be folded back down for easy storage when not in use. Once this stage was complete, I tested out the fit of a cook-book and soon discovered the stand needed something to hold the pages of the book in place.

“I had a look around and found some pieces of wire. I drilled and glued them in place and voilà, perfect! They worked a treat.”

Damon ended up making two cook-book stands, one for his wife and one for his mother-in-law.

“The first one I finished with olive oil and a few drops of scented oil which I rubbed into the wood with a rag. This gave it a richer, darker look with a nice fragrance. The second stand I made I left natural — this is the finish I prefer.”

So the dusty old shelf unit which would have most likely ended up at the dump has a new life as useful and beautiful additions to his wife and mother-in-law’s kitchens — up-cycled, handmade gifts they really love.

“It’s very rewarding to take something that’s going to be chucked out and make it into a something useful and beautiful,” says Damon.

Ideas often just pop into his head, he says. From the same rimu, he’s also made a drinks and nibbles platter stand to take on picnics or to the beach. Very nifty, very practical.