There is much more to a successful office than one of Weld House’s modern metal tables. Being visually impactful is a great addition of almost any environment but the practical use of space is equally important. No matter what type of custom furniture our clients request, we always try to think of every possible design characteristic that would make their piece more tailored to their needs or application. For today’s office, storing paper documents is less and less of a requirement but some businesses still need to organize and file paper, even if for just a short time during transactions. These mobile storage cabinets were made for a repeat mortgage company client in Sewickley, PA. Their entire team was outfitted with one of these cabinets and a desk plus a large conference table and a couple of modern metal tables in common areas. They were made with a 1×1 tubular frame and skinned with a 10ga blackened hot roll steel with a matte clear powder coat finish. Ball bearing, soft-close glides, and heavy 14ga drawers make opening and closing the drawers a satisfying activity. The reclaimed Department of Transportation (DOT) signs were cut down and bolted onto the drawers, mixing and matching the colors and graphics to a satisfactory result. There really isn’t a right or wrong way to choose which panel goes where, trying many different configurations naturally results in a happy balance that feels right.
Over the years of finding and collecting old various types of metal throughout the western USA, a few DOT signs here and there gradually grew into a small pallet and eventually grew into a couple of large pallets of old signs. Some scrap yards will resell DOT signage they take in but others say they are restricted from reselling these signs. Thinking these old signs were cool, we never really had a designated purpose for collecting them, we just knew that someday a project would or could utilize these cool colors, messages, and graphics. After shipping this order out, we were really bummed that we didn’t take the extra time to make one additional cabinet to keep for ourselves. Each cabinet had cool details in the signage that, while it doesn’t photograph well, really gave each cabinet a personality of its own. Some of this signage had to be 25 or more years old complete with gunshot holes, lovers’ initials or road rash from a collision. This was a very simple project but combing visual impact with practical usefulness always makes for a successful design that we feel good about and take pride in.
Weld House is experimenting with more uses of reclaimed DOT signs in a limited edition series of products coming soon and we will probably circle back and make one more of these cabinets, or maybe 10 of them. Bookmark Weld House as your vendor when the time comes for you to build something useful and impactful!
