THE PIANO [AKA RECYCLED ‘TRASH’]
A few years ago, in the early days of the bkyard, I had no money. And of the little money I did have, I could not afford to pay the price of outdoor luxuries (furniture, lights, planters, etc).
My solve came from the sea of ‘donations’ left on the streets of Brooklyn. For anyone who lives in the city - and Brooklyn especially - you know the treasure trove of items that are left out the night before pick-up (including pallets and old wood tables for this project).
The idea for the ‘piano’ was born out of the need to separate the front driveway (where our landlord parks a utility truck) with our bkyard space. My first thought was a fence or gate but eventually figured I could build a freestanding piece with built-in utility - especially for BBQs.
(The ‘piano’ is on the far left - vertically aligned in this picture, covered with BBQ food)
As I said, I found old lumber, old restaurant cafe tables and pallets in my Sunday night scavenger walks.
First, I built a frame using 2x4s I found on the street.
Then, I broke down pallets and used the wood to cover the frame.
The ‘counter top’ came from 2 tables I found on the street. The counter top provides the single most utility of the structure. It measures the width of the piano and is used for food and drinks during parties.
To make, I sawed off the legs and cut down the tops to fit perfectly in the frame (plus, they can be removed for cleaning).
Lastly, I found an old kitchen table on the street and used the legs for the front braces of the counter top. This might be the exact model:
The piano was a jumping-off point for the bkyard in terms of creating new pieces out of trashed/recycled ‘junk’. In the past few years, the ‘piano’ has gained legendary status for a couple of reasons:
1. After being named by Greg, friends thought we had an actual piano in our bkyard; some still do.
2. It has been blown over 3 times (embarressingly) and has not broken (…too badly) yet. Knock on pallets.
3. The surface can hold more food and beer that our crew can consume in a party which has really cemented it’s legendary status.
4. Most importantly, friends don’t believe it was sourced from recycled materials and are impressed when they understand how it was constructed.
Bottomline: When evaluating what your bkyard/terrace/garden needs are, look around you for free items which can be re-purposed or rebuilt to serve new utilities.
Future posts will contain more helpful hints and links for your pallet-project endeavors.
