This past Friday I went to the I Made It Market in South Side with some friends. While there were many amazing crafters tucked into every nook of the old Ann Taylor shop (even in the dressing rooms!), there was only one booth that attracted my attention over and over again. As I stood by the door to leave, after perusing the fair and not finding quite what I was looking for, I paused. For the first time, after attending many a craft fair, I found something I could not live another day with out. Maybe it was timing, maybe there was something in the air, but most likely it is all due to the amazing, whimsical, and rustic work of Never New Furniture.
I snagged a sweet shelf made from a found Coca Cola crate, a quirky little drawer filled with coasters sliced from either a very skinny tree or a very fat branch, and a three-hooked coat hanger made from old wood trim, whose chipping and deteriorated paint was given new life with some subtle color and a coat of varnish to seal in the sexy cracks.
Zakaria Tefft, a self-taught carpenter, and Meghan McCaffery, an illustrator, work as a team to make one-of-a-kind work from reused materials that is artistic, modern, and functional. You can find their work at WildCard or on their website.
