Rethink Renovations
Your choice for a healthy and sustainable lifestyle.
Our Furniture Line is now available at City Sprouts in St. Louis Ucity Loop!
Check out our new furniture line now available for purchase at City Sprouts in the St. Louis University Loop: City Sprouts 6303 Delmar Boulevard St. Louis, MO 63130 314 726-9611 www.citysprouts.com ———————————————————————————————————————————–
And here they are! Handmade Stools from Urban Recycled Black Walnut, Siberian Elm, Hickory, Silver Maple After their aforementioned coats of clear finish ensuring a durable, long life for these little beauties, they are finished and ready for new homes! I hope these brief explanations help to foster appreciation for what it means to own a hand crafted piece of furniture. These are truly solid, well built pieces that will last the lifetime of your children and will be around for visits from grandchildren! 
Handmade Stools from Urban Recycled Black Walnut, Siberian Elm, Hickory, Silver Maple “heirloom” [air-loom] : noun 1. a family possession handed down from generation to generation. Our furniture pieces are now available for purchase at City Sprouts on the U City Loop and on Etsy.com Check us out and tell a friend!
These images show the process that Patrick goes through to hand make each stool and each piece of our furniture.
The pieces of each stool are dry fit together, hand planed and sanded; adjusted as many times as necessary for a snug fit. The pieces are then permanently connected together with glue and clamped to dry.
The care and consideration even the smallest of pieces commands (like our stools here) is testament to the craftsmanship and pride we take in this process and the final product. After dried and unclamped, the stools are ready to be sanded and finished. The stools shown here are ready and waiting for their turn to be finished. Each one gets three coats of a water based finish, however, we also have water based milk paints in several colors that would be done at this time too.
After passing off the shop drawings, Patrick (our woodworker) puts in the order for the hardwood we need from St. Charles, MO based WunderWoods. The raw lumber is cut down to rough dimensions and delivered to Patrick’s south St. Louis shop. We see the most beautiful woods come back to us and things get really moving at this point! To know these beautiful pieces of hardwood will soon become pieces of our furniture is really exciting!
This picture shows our little stools in their infancy, all ready for Patrick’s skilled hands to assemble and finish them. Notice all the different species of woods we have here? Truly amazing the varied hardwoods we have available in Missouri.
I wanted to post a few entries about the actual process of creating our furniture pieces. Let’s take one of our darling little stools as an example, shall we. The first stage, of course, is the design. For our stools, we came up with a simple sketch of an idea, then tweaked the details with the help of our woodworker, and finally produced a set of shop drawings. These are the blueprints that are used to build from; from the pieces to the joints to the way it all goes together.
Craft Table & Stools in Missouri Walnut We are now selling on Etsy! http://www.etsy.com/shop/rethinkrenovations
Rethink Renovations: Ladue News Article Posted: Thursday, February 23, 2012 8:00 am | Updated: 3:37 pm, Wed Feb 22, 2012. In 2007, Gail Elwyn and her husband, Barrett, started Rethink Renovations, offering eco-friendly construction and design services. Soon after the birth of their first child, they decided to expand the company based on their own family’s needs. “I was becoming more aware of the environment, and eco-friendly has always been important to us,” Elwyn says. “We were doing a lot of research on products in the home, and being a mother, I’m also constantly shopping for products for our own home. That’s what led to our new furniture line—I just couldn’t find enough options in St. Louis that I liked. So instead of just the option of buying online, we want to offer a line of furniture that people can physically see and touch and really feel the quality. And it’s something from the Midwest.” The School House Collection, the company’s first line out this spring, features bedroom furniture designed by Anna Lampe (Rethink Renovations) and built by Patrick Chaney (Turnure Carpentry) for children and teens in multiple woods and finishes, including Siberian elm, cherry and walnut. The company currently offers bed frames, nightstands and craft tables and stools, with a dresser design in the works. “Our products are eco-friendly on all levels,” Elwyn notes. “We have pieces of upholstery within our furniture that’s organic, and the finishes, paints, stains and clear coats are all non-toxic.” And she says the pieces are made in St. Louis with wood that is locally sourced either from the Midwest or within the U.S. “Our woodworker (Chaney) has an art background, and he looks at woodworking as an art form. The design can really fit into any home because it has straight lines, but it’s not completely modern or contemporary. It could work in a Victorian home, Mid-Century Modern or an American Craftsman. And the bed frames are designed to grow with the child, so they have panels that you can pop out, as well as the ability to change the fabric. There also is a magnetic chalk board on the front (that can be changed out, too), which makes it interactive.” Rethink Renovation’s furniture will be on display at The Healthy Planet Natural Living Expo at the Webster Groves Recreation Center on March 4, as well as at the St. Louis Earth Day Festival in Forest Park on April 22. 
Craft table and Stools This Craft Table and Set of 2 Stools is part of our School House Collection coming March 1st, 2012. Features include all locally sourced materials and non toxic finishes as well as a craft paper roll holder and shelf. This St. Louis made table can also function as a bench and the stools are extremely sturdy! This set can fit into any style home, whether traditional or modern. Many options on color as well as natural wood finishes. We are taking pre-orders of the full collection (bed, nightstands, craft table, stools) at this time, if interested email “Pre-Order” to
The School House CollectionQueen Bed, Side Table, Craft Table and Stools
Rethink Renovations is ready to launch our eco conscious furniture line this Spring 2012! Our first collection, The School House Collection, is designed by Rethink Renovations and made by local St. Louis woodworker, Patrick Chaney. This collection is made by locally sourced Midwestern lumber and finished in non-toxic paints and finishes. The decorative panels are made with Organic Fabric and the Magnetic Chalkboard front panel is made in the USA with sustainable practices. We will be debuting this collection at the Webster Groves Healthy Planet Magazine Expo on March 4th, as well at the St. Louis Earth Day Festival Aprill 22nd. Please come out to see us! More information and photos to come. Our brochure will be available by February 30, 2012. Support USA Made Products! Stay tuned for more updates! |
