Scrap wood challenge

Outside opportunities

Weather on the Isle of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides can change rapidly. When it’s not tipping it down or blowing a gale, you need to make the most of the moment.

This looked like a good time to tackle a couple of small outside tasks. Plus a bit of physical work always helps to keep me warm.

Remember my little outside store where the Mission Hall funeral bier was kept? The plan was that this could provide me with some much-needed storage space, if only it had a roof that is!

Future preparation

Well, before a new roof structure could be built, the remains of the old roof needed to be removed. Hopefully now not too long in the future, a replacement roof can get sorted.

Once again, things go backwards before you can make progress going forward. Things get worse before they get better, roof now all gone!

The moorland grass and some moss had begun to encroach on the outside walls. Before it took hold, I wanted to clear it back from the building perimeter.

Nice distraction

Good to get these outside jobs done. Unfortunately, there were still plenty of nails to remove. I can’t help but wonder what I’ve started taking on this task.

I still hadn’t got myself a clear idea of what I was even going to use this scrap wood for that I was trying to repurpose.

Mind you, my collection of old rusty nails was growing very nicely!

Boring or brilliant

Sometimes answers can be staring you right in the face. Or in this case, a boring brown door was. The Small Mission Hall only has one internal door.

It was a nasty, thin, hollow brown door with a fake satin brass look handle. The only reason I hadn’t removed it for use as a temporary worktop or something, was that it helped keep the draught out.

That was its only saving grace.

If you only have one of anything in a building, even a door, my thought is that it should at least be something of interest. Something that brings you joy.

This door did neither for me. However, I did like the way that the door’s location was a canvas for the play of light during the day.

The sun’s daily journey around the building cast cool shadows on the interior elements within. It brought a playful movement into the building, a form of moving texture which I loved.

Right ingredients

Ping! My light bulb moment. Maybe I could design a door that took advantage of the light’s movement? A door that had added texture to interact with the light and amplify the resulting shadows?

I had plenty of timber ready to repurpose and explore ideas with, I had a different kind of design brief for a door, and I had a wall to scribble ideas on. What more could I want?

After taking a look at the scrap wood I had available for my challenge, my first problem soon became apparent. Lots of shorter pieces of wood. Longer, door-length pieces, not so much.

Look sharp

Producing lengths suitable to make a door was going to be the first part of the challenge. I needed to figure out a way of joining shorter pieces together.

This would take a bit of experimenting to see what works best. Good job I kept all that scrap wood then. Plenty of raw materials to play around with.

It would also mean I need to finally get around to sharpening my chisels – something that was well overdue!

Trying to join different individual pieces together was part of a bigger structural conundrum. I’ve never actually made a door before. This was going to be a bit of a challenge, so working stuff out on the fly was very much the way ahead.

It would be a combination of acquired skills, some en-route problem-solving, plus working with the limitations of my available tools/skills I had at my disposal.

Rageddy aesthetic

Then of course, after the form/function aspect gets resolved, there is the issue of aesthetics. This door will be made from repurposed wood.

Wood that in normal circumstances, just gets binned. Despite that, this insignificant, basic plasterboard framing timber, was still part of the Small Mission Halls heritage.

It has its own unglamorous story. I liked that.

Nothing is too good for ordinary people
– Berthold Lubtekin

Being ordinary doesn’t limit potential. There’s no reason why it cannot be elevated to something of importance.