Elsie Low Table and Elsie Side Table are part of a series of pieces designed by Nine Storie Furniture of Brooklyn. The company is going back to its roots, once again using reclaimed automotive sheetmetal to create furniture. The reclaimed material maintains much of the original allure of the American salvage yard—the “textures and colors that only years of sun and rain can create.”

Elsie Low Table. Manufactured by Nine Stories Furniture.

Tables Crafted from Old Cars

The Elsie tables use over 70% of “otherwise wasted material.” Nine Stories Furniture reclaims this scrap and reworks it into colorful tables that highlight geometric forms. The triangle is in full display in the Elsie Series, which puzzles together slices of the shape made from different pieces of “roof and panel” that “preserve the original factory finish.”

The whole project highlights what crafty people can do with the flotsam and jetsam of modern life. Besides the “obvious environmental benefits” of using unwanted scrap, the Elsie Series makes an aesthetic statement about the discarded material: something old and ugly can be transformed into a new type of beauty. The afterlife of these cars is heavenly.

About the Manufacturer: Nine Stories Furniture Co. is located in the Brooklyn Navy Yard, a complex that dates back to the early 1900s, which is now home to many designers and artists. Although the company started in the East Village, it has continued to operate under its original philosophy—“that a way a thing is made should inform the final outcome.”