handcrafted furniture & art created with love from repurposed, salvaged and recycled materials
Welcome to Wilkins design, where we create our eclectic repurposed rustic-industrial furniture & art pieces from reclaimed, salvaged, and recycled wood, furniture and other materials.
When we moved into our beautiful home in Uxbridge back in 2007 we hadn’t anticipated how difficult it would be to find enough unique, quality, furniture pieces to fill the vast rooms on a relatively modest budget. We had moved from a comfortable 1400 square foot home into a stunning 3700 square foot Victorian home and wanted to decorate it in an eclectic style that would befit the stature of the grand house.
We painstakingly searched everywhere from high end furniture stores to garage sales, antique shops to the local salvation army, to find just the right pieces for our new home. Gradually, large scale sofas and paintings began to fill the space and set the tone.
Without realizing it, we had begun nurturing and developing an ecologically responsible approach to decorating in grand style.
Months flew by but the enormous living room still felt empty. We knew we needed a coffee table but it would need to be big, open, functional, sturdy, and above all beautiful. We just couldn’t find anything to fit the bill.
Then, one evening Michael arrived home from work with a surprise for me; he had built us a coffee table. I was sceptical.
He carried in the black painted steel frame and placed it in the middle of the room. The frame was 4’ x 4’ and it fit perfectly! He had designed the frame to accentuate the beautiful loose board top that he had created.
The boards had been part of one of many cargo containers that had arrived at his work carrying equipment. The containers had previously been deconstructed and thrown into a dumpster to be added to a landfill, but the wood was strong and beautiful and Michael spotted its potential. Months earlier he had begun saving the broken down cargo containers knowing that one day he would find a use for the wood.
Thanks to his skill, resourcefulness, and keen eye for unique beauty he had crafted what would become the first in a long line of stunning creations.
Now, thanks largely to the unrelenting encouragement and enthusiasm of friends, family and local artists we are proud to be presenting our unique furniture and art pieces for purchase. We hope that others will love and appreciate the unique beauty of each handcrafted piece as much as we do.
We are thrilled to be taking part once again in the Uxbridge Studio Tour, and what a lineup of guest artists we have! Visit us Sept 17 -18 to see the spectacular leather work of Chandra Cutter, one-of-a-kind jewellery from Kim Price, and outstanding aboriginal fine art from Donald Chrétien - as well as our latest salvaged material pieces!!
Drop by to browse our one-of-a-kind functional and sculptural pieces. See some of our latest pieces here.