I coined the term "Adaptive Misuse" to convey old objects or materials in a new life.

An incurable flea market scavenger, I trawl the world's antique shows, garage and yard sales, architectural salvage warehouses, estate sales, and junkyards in search of items with "good bones" on which I can impose an imaginative new purpose. My "finds" provide the raw material for these playful flights of fancy.

A dentist’s tool cabinet used to organize kitchen utensils, an antique truck bumper with functional headlights above a boy's bed, a huge wooden mold for an industrial cog as a funky playroom table… the possibilities are endless when you think outside the box.

Here are a few more examples of adaptive misuse in my designs:

• The pinnacle from above the door of a Gothic Revival house is stripped of its protective tar, re-glued, re-finished, and upholstered as a dramatic headboard.
  
• An antique bronze bank table now divides a living room and dining room, and serves as the buffet. Napkins and silver are stored in the bronze cubbys.
  
• The hands of a four-foot diameter French enamel clock face are outfitted with hooks for towels in a small powder room. The dramatic and unexpected change of scale with the towels “melting” on the hooks is reminiscent of Salvador Dali.