You're bound to know someone who likes to rescue old furniture from alleyways and garbage bins. Whether or not said person gives those pieces new life depends on a fair measure of initiative, creativity, and resolve. I happen to know one such dumpster diver who actually does reinvent all kinds of things: wine racks turn into floating shelves, file cabinets become side tables, and slatted chairs evolve into planters. The same mixture of imagination and handiwork pervades the work of Yinka Ilori, a recycled furniture designer who recently exhibited at 100% Design.

Kekere Chair. Designed by Yinka Ilori.

Found Furniture Gets Exotic

Three of Ilori's pieces in particular may garner your attention: SymmetrySix, a side table with arachnidan quality; Kekere, a chair with unusual dimensions; and Two-become-1, a lounge with Gemini duality. All pieces are constructed using found furniture. SymmetrySix combines an old unwanted table and chair that have been disassembled and patched together to make a six-legged side table. Finished in turquoise gloss lacquer, SymmetrySix gets a bit of the old world thrown in (perhaps an allusion to the furniture's previous lives), with a decoration of found maps placed beneath a glass top.

For a hint of the exotic, Kekere offers a new perspective on an old chair. Cut down to create a low seat, Kekere is then upholstered in Nigerian cloth and painted a bright orange with glossy lacquer. The change in scale lends what was formerly an unwanted piece into something that deserves a second look. Two-become-1 has a name that explains the lounge chair's genesis. An amalgamation of two discarded chairs, the resulting piece by Ilori contrasts straight and curvy legs. Like the yin yang symbol, Two-become-1 maintains the individual characteristics of the separate parts while also offering a funky blend (the resulting chair calls to mind intertwined male and female bodies).

About the Designer: Yinka Ilori recently exhibited one-of-a-kind furniture pieces at the Southbank African Afro-Caribbean Design Diaspora and at 100% Design. A recycled furniture designer, Ilori also uses exotic textiles such as Ankara, African wax cloths.