In this installment of Upcycling, I’d like to highlight my current favorite upcycler, Michael Smith from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA, whose Etsy store is named Destructive Testing.

In my last Upcycling post, I mentioned that I love how these projects range from useful new items to purely aesthetic objects, and Michael Smith does a wonderful job of creating imaginative, playful, even elegant pieces, most of which strike a harmonious balance between form and function.

His lamps, in particular, stand out for me, utilizing a wide variety of old found objects married with vintage-style bulbs, resulting in pieces that magically look decidedly modern.

Smith’s clocks are truly one-of-a-kind:

And here he combines the two:

Smith also has a good eye as a curator, which you can see in action at his blog.

I’ve written twice before about an upcycling coat rack made from a shipping pallet (original, my copycat), and today I’m excited to share a pallet project of my own design.

Pallets, as I mentioned in the post for my copycat coat rack, come in a variety of shapes and sizes. This project was inspired by a pallet I found that, unlike the one used for the coat rack, had top slats placed close together, with very little gap between them.

As soon as I saw it I knew I wanted to make a coffee or end table, because it had a surface that could hold things, such that said things would not fall through the gaps in the boards.

Here’s the finished product:

I settled on the shape for two reasons: 1. The roundness contrasted nicely with the squareness of the pallet from whence it came; 2. The clean, modern shape contrasted with the ragged industrial quality of the pallet.

Sadly, I didn’t get any photos of the earliest stages of the project, but here’s what I have.

The top after having been cut out, and before sanding the edges.

Close-up of sanded edges.

Used legs, found at the ReStore, our local outlet for recycled building materials and household items.

The painted underside of the top, showing: the bracing I had to add; where I moved the outer 2″x4″s which provide extra support and something for the legs to screw into; and how I trimmed the 2″x4″s in order to tidy them up.

Just the painted top.

Finished table, in place!

I’m pretty thrilled with the outcome, and it’s incredibly satisfying having a piece of furniture in my home that I actually built.

Full instructions on Page 2

I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this!

Discovered via the San Francisco Chronicle, it’s an awesome contrast between the fragile glasses and the rusty metal of the rake.

At the same time, you could say that the rake evokes the agricultural process from which the grapes in the wine were born.

I am a tad concerned that it could be easy to snap the stems on the glasses if they are not placed or removed carefully, but it seems pretty clear to me that this design is knowingly more about form than function.