SCHRÄNK: Oil can to kitchen cupboard

An object with so many yucky connotations, a spent oil barrel, is treated to a useful and unexpected afterlife with the help of a repurpose-happy German design firm.

Thu, May 12 2011 at 9:00 PM

Related Topics:

Green Design, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Oil & Gas

SCHRÄNK repurposed oil barrel cabinets from Germany

Images: Lockengeloet

On the prowl for clever, repurposed-industrial-object furniture that oh-so-perfectly complements your repurposed shipping container home? Well then, meet SCHRÄNK, the finest handmade-in-Germany-upcycled-oil-barrel-cupboard in town.

The creation of St. Pauli, Hamburg-based Lockengeloet, a product design firm that specializes in the “redesign and misappropriation of common objects” (check out the recycled vinyl toilet paper holder!), each SCHRÄNK cabinet — available in black, white, and red — is handmade, unique, and has three roomy shelves just waiting to be filled with whatever you fancy (I’m thinking dinner and glassware although the unit could work in a bedroom or kids' playroom just as well). The cabinet measures just under three feet tall and weighs nearly 50 pounds.

A bit more on the origins of SCHRÄNK from the crafty fellows over at Lockengeloet:

First we use a special tin opener for these big oil cans, then the door is stabilized with two guitar strings and closed by two magnets which sounds and feels really good. Also, you can expand your cupboards by piling them up and then fastening their top cover latch: The sky is the limit. And money, actually. Oil cans may have small scratches, due to being reused. We get them from a company located in the Hamburg harbour, we take care of the cans that are not leakproof.

Love ‘em. It’s great to think that the much maligned oil barrel — an object that has come to represent greed, distrust, and environmental degradation for so many — is given such an agreeable afterlife. Not so agreeable? The fact that these bad boys (each costing €350 or $500) are currently not shipped abroad although you can send an email to be kept in the loop as to when they will.

Via [TreeHugger]

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