I've been grappling with an exterior design problem lately: my [big ugly privacy fence style] garden gate is falling off it's hinges. Not attractive. How to replace it has been an open question for a while. Cast iron? Make one out of scrap metal? What sort of motif?
After seeing the 3 Rings office yesterday, in particular the bike rack, a light bulb went off: Pipes! Pipes are nice and steampunk. What if I built a gate out of copper pipes?
So today, I spent some time researching copper pipe fabrication. There are a number of really interesting furniture pieces that people have made out there. The plant stands above are a particularly nice example, but there are many many more. I'm including a slide show below of some of the ideas I found.
Mirrors! Frames! Trellises! Tables!
So I'm going to investigate my garden gate idea some more, but I'll leave you with some ideas for using copper piping in your own home:
--on top of a chair rail. perferably oxidized a nice cool green.
--framing an entry way or room division (a nice 4-5 inch pipe would be good for this)
--in the kitchen as a pot rack
--towel racks in the bathroom
--curtain rods
3 comments:
This isn't exactly steampunk, but it's good fodder for coming up with a version that is. http://www.mtv.com/onair/crib_crashers/episode_5/project_3.jhtml
Ah, cool, a copper bed frame. Very neat! Thanks, Sarah.
Sara...I'm sure you have solved your garden gate problem by now...but consider building a frame with standard plumbing pipe, then "drawing" within using flexible copper wire from electrical soldered together + add steampunk items. I've used the wire to fashion hummingbird feeders using bottles & glass tube/stopper feeder parts. Cradles to hold gourd bird houses...your imagination is your limit. Deb
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