Amid a busy plant-hire business off Gonubie’s main road is a “love factory” which designs and handcrafts cutting edge furniture heirloom pieces from reclaimed Oregon pine for the online market.
The driving force behind the Milkshed is product designer and philanthropist Blaire Rieger, 31, who uses profits derived from her innovative furniture business to perform “small acts of kindness” with her non-profit organisation.
Rieger, who has a BTech degree from NMMU, once worked for an architectural firm in Cape Town designing high-end interiors, but these days her creative energies are focused on the Milkshed workshop which is situated in what used to be her grandfather’s milking shed.
One large room is devoted to rafter-high piles of old Oregon pine floorboards and beams which are to be fashioned into the Milkshed’s sculptural range of articulated desk lamps, desks, children’s tables, shelving units, hand-turned pendant lights, hatstands and dining-room tables.
“They are designed to be flat packable because we sell them online,” said Rieger, whose mantra of sustainable living and helping the less fortunate are perfectly realised in her NPO.
“These days everything is mass produced. I’d rather buy one table or chair that can be passed down in your family than buy five cheaper ones that break.”
Products created in the sunny workshop do not come cheaply and Rieger has yet to make a sale in East London, relying instead on big city clients who snap up the Milkshed range online.
Her designs, which were featured at the Cape Town Design Indaba as well as glossy design magazines like House & Leisure and Visi, are brought to life by carpenter Douglas Grobbelaar, 31, and three local carpenters who help him prepare the old timber and then sand and varnish finished products.
Surrounded by neatly displayed tools, as well as larger machines, Grobbelaar has become known as the “wood whisperer” for his ability to transform dingy, nail-studded planks into works of functional art. “A lot goes into each piece,” he said.
Most of the products, including the modular “Mob” shelving unit which has quirky blackboard inserts and the “Segment” desk organiser and iPad holder feature clean-cut contemporary lines, but the Milkshed also mixes things up and matches intricately turned legs with smooth tabletops in a nod to the historical origin of the timber.
“We started by refurbishing retro furniture, but decided to do more and now our focus is craft and respecting the unique character of the reclaimed wood we have,” said Rieger. — barbarah@dispatch.co.za
Old timber reveals new beauty
The driving force behind the Milkshed is product designer and philanthropist Blaire Rieger, 31, who uses profits derived from her innovative furniture business to perform “small acts of kindness” with her non-profit organisation.
Rieger, who has a BTech degree from NMMU, once worked for an architectural firm in Cape Town designing high-end interiors, but these days her creative energies are focused on the Milkshed workshop which is situated in what used to be her grandfather’s milking shed.
One large room is devoted to rafter-high piles of old Oregon pine floorboards and beams which are to be fashioned into the Milkshed’s sculptural range of articulated desk lamps, desks, children’s tables, shelving units, hand-turned pendant lights, hatstands and dining-room tables.
“They are designed to be flat packable because we sell them online,” said Rieger, whose mantra of sustainable living and helping the less fortunate are perfectly realised in her NPO.
“These days everything is mass produced. I’d rather buy one table or chair that can be passed down in your family than buy five cheaper ones that break.”
Products created in the sunny workshop do not come cheaply and Rieger has yet to make a sale in East London, relying instead on big city clients who snap up the Milkshed range online.
Her designs, which were featured at the Cape Town Design Indaba as well as glossy design magazines like House & Leisure and Visi, are brought to life by carpenter Douglas Grobbelaar, 31, and three local carpenters who help him prepare the old timber and then sand and varnish finished products.
Surrounded by neatly displayed tools, as well as larger machines, Grobbelaar has become known as the “wood whisperer” for his ability to transform dingy, nail-studded planks into works of functional art. “A lot goes into each piece,” he said.
Most of the products, including the modular “Mob” shelving unit which has quirky blackboard inserts and the “Segment” desk organiser and iPad holder feature clean-cut contemporary lines, but the Milkshed also mixes things up and matches intricately turned legs with smooth tabletops in a nod to the historical origin of the timber.
“We started by refurbishing retro furniture, but decided to do more and now our focus is craft and respecting the unique character of the reclaimed wood we have,” said Rieger. — barbarah@dispatch.co.za
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