Cover story
Scavenged Splendor
Gathering and rethinking the old makes for an ingenious new
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 BENJAMIN BENSCHNEIDER / THE SEATTLE TIMES West Highland white terriers Peggy (left) and Margaret are the only pale note in a living room distinguished by shades of eggplant, chartreuse, red and baby blue. The coffee table is crafted from old machine molds and arrayed with creatures and characters from Archie McPhee.
BENJAMIN BENSCHNEIDER / THE SEATTLE TIMES The Westies keep David Chatt company in his studio during the painstaking work of beading his latest creation. His purple chair is the only new piece of furniture in the house; the stained-glass window was made by David's brother, Mark Chatt.
BENJAMIN BENSCHNEIDER / THE SEATTLE TIMES The tall, old Victorian home of David Chatt and Ron Cole sits elegantly atop the new rockery of scavenged stone. Chatt calls the heavy work of placing all the stone the yang of his yin — a contrast to the precise work with tiny beads that occupies much of his time.
BENJAMIN BENSCHNEIDER / THE SEATTLE TIMES Betty the cat finds the front hallway a good spot to snooze. Chatt and Cole raised the ceiling wherever possible around ductwork to create the Gothic-archway effect. The glowing patina of the recycled fir paneling and floors suits the age of the old house.
BENJAMIN BENSCHNEIDER / THE SEATTLE TIMES "I love bunches of little drawers," says Chatt of the old secretary's desk salvaged from Emerson Elementary School and topped with yet more drawers. The painting is by local artist Lois Silver.
BENJAMIN BENSCHNEIDER / THE SEATTLE TIMES Somehow, Chatt and Cole have combined a stainless-steel backsplash, used appliances, custom cabinetry, a yardstick-paneled breakfast bar and a bottle-cap-covered refrigerator into a harmonious whole of a little kitchen. The rhythm and complexity of yardsticks and bottle caps is reminiscent of the intricate color play and patterning of Chatt's beadwork.
BENJAMIN BENSCHNEIDER / THE SEATTLE TIMES Sheets of painted plywood beadboard contrast with the rolled airplane aluminum lining in the shower stall in the eclectic bathroom. The light wells capture illumnation from the dining room, as well as supply some of their own with screw-in LightTro bulbs that cycle through various colors.
BENJAMIN BENSCHNEIDER / THE SEATTLE TIMES David Chatt (seated in the chair) and Ron Cole relax with their Westies in front of the bead wall in Chatt's studio. Peter Taylor designed and built the cabinetry, which has been temporarily moved to the Bellevue Art Museum for the one-man show "David Chatt: Two Hands, Twenty Years and a Billion Beads," which runs through Jan. 1. |
DAVID CHATT AND Ron Cole bought their house eight years ago on Halloween, and it came with a black cat. The Capitol Hill Victorian, built in 1900 and converted to a duplex during the Depression, was badly in need of some magic.
"We took out everything that wasn't holding something up, and from there it all evolved," says Chatt in describing the years of remodeling that followed. With help from architect Mike Iverson and cabinet-maker Peter Taylor, the tall, old house has not only been restored to splendor, it's been garnished with a few funky innovations true to an artist's vision.
Chatt is a bead artist and Cole is a nurse. The two men were short on cash but long on talent. Cole did the plumbing and electrical work. Chatt was the designer, go-fer, painter and scavenger supreme. He comes by it honestly. Chatt describes his father, Orville, former head of the art department at Skagit Valley Community College, as "the prince of yard sales." Chatt caught the bug so badly that instead of looking up at the Eiffel Tower on a recent visit to Paris, he found himself scanning the ground for discarded bottle caps. Just one of his many collections, the bottle caps cover the refrigerator in multidimensional color. His father foraged the hundreds of yardsticks that panel the breakfast bar.
Isn't remodeling old houses into works of art, while creating artwork made of beads, unusual work for a kid from Sedro-Woolley? "It's not like I was the logger's son," says Chatt. "I was the artist's kid — always kind of an oddball. Besides, I like paradoxes and irony."
Whether sewing minuscule beads to form teapots or pulling together found objects to create a room, Chatt sees his work as bringing order out of chaos. And playing around with color, which he does with supreme confidence. From the eggplant and lime-green interiors to the home's freshly painted yellow, orange and turquoise exterior, the house is an assemblage of color as much as it is of found materials.
"I haunt these places," says artist David Chatt.
• Second Use. 7953 Second Ave. S., Seattle, 206-763-6929; www.seconduse.com. "The best source for salvage," Chatt says. If Chatt comes across something he can't use, he takes it to Second Use and trades it for store credit.
• Boeing surplus sales. 20651 84th Ave. S., Kent, 425-965-4400; www.boeing.com/assocproducts/surplus. Bring cash and a truck to take advantage of a constantly changing array of items from drill bits to computers.
• Garage sales, construction sites, neighbors, sidewalks. Old windows and doors, furniture, pop-bottle caps, even rocks, which Chatt persuades contractors to dump at his place rather than pay to dispose of.
• RE Store. 1440 N.W. 52nd St., Seattle, 206-297-9119. Used building materials.
• Earthwise. 2462 First Ave. S., Seattle, 206-624-4510; www.earthwise-salvage.com. Salvaged architectural features and used building materials.
• Seattle Auction House. 5931 Fourth Ave. S., 206-764-4444. Preview items going up for auction at www.seattleauctionhouse.com.
"It was all really affordable by necessity," says Cole of the recycled furniture, wood and appliances used throughout. More than 80 percent of the wood used for flooring, ceilings and trim had a former life.
The bathroom is a recycling showcase, in part because by the time they got to work on it, their budget was "subterranean," says Cole. The architect's drawing showed a standard shower with lowered ceiling to accommodate heat ducts. Both men hate dropped ceilings, and no wonder, since each is 6 foot 4. Working with their friend, designer Marcella Diamond, they figured out how to vault the bathroom ceiling around the ducts, adding light wells to make up for the lack of a window. In search of a cheap alternative to tile, Chatt made a trip to Boeing surplus, returning home with shiny sheets of airplane aluminum to line the shower.
"We love pulling together pieces of other old houses," says Chatt. "They're built with such craftsmanship and integrity. We don't really restore houses, but bring them back to life in imaginative ways."
The two men, unable to resist the chance to do it again, just bought a 1927 church in Ballard. The plan is to bring the former "Church of the Divine Man" back to updated glory. Count on these two creative scavengers to work even more magic there.
Valerie Easton is a Seattle freelance writer and contributing editor for Horticulture magazine. Her e-mail address is valeaston@comcast.net. Benjamin Benschneider is a Pacific Northwest magazine staff photographer.
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