Plenty in store(s) for 2015!

Hey everyone,

Looks like things are starting to warm up, both outside and here at Square Peg Designs! We are proud to announce that we will be working with Rowan Homespun Market & Apothecary who are getting ready to open their new store in Toronto this spring. Dominique and her gang are transforming the shop at 2196 Queen Street East into must see market of small-batch holistic skincare products, artisan preserves, natural fibres, vintage finds and handcrafted goods including products from Square Peg Designs. We are thrilled to be involved in this exciting new venture.

To help you stay updated on the fine establishments carrying our creations we have added a Links page with direct connections to their websites. Click here to see it!

And last but not least, with spring just around the corner, it also means it’s nearly time for the Spring HandMade Market happening at 13th Street Winery on May 8th and 9th. We hope to see you out there!

 

It’s cold outside but new things are springing up…

Little Light on WalnutHi everyone! It’s been a long, cold winter with much hibernating. But warmer days are coming and the ‘square pegs’ are gearing up for a busy summer. We’ve started making new lights, like this little one with a walnut base, hounds-tooth cord and candelabra-sized bulb. What do you think?!

Mechanical Pulley LightWe have been quite fortunate lately to find some really cool treasures from yesteryear, and are very excited to transform them into beautiful and creative new pieces for you to enjoy. Like a lovely old metal pulley that we were able to incorporate into this new mechanical looking table lamp. The way the red cord winds around the pulley and through the lamp reminds us of those old film projectors from back in the day. Just flick the classic looking switch set into the rich, salvaged walnut and let your imagination run away with you. Anyone else craving popcorn now? We hope you like it as much as we do…

It’s beginning to look a lot like…

Hey Everyone!

It’s been far too long since we’ve posted a new blog post on the website which is both bad and good… Good because we have had such a busy summer and fall. Thanks to everyone who has come out to see us at the different events we’ve been at. And a special thanks to those who have taken a Square Peg Design creation home with them!10639723_722370504515263_3914709241937568608_n

This year has flown by… We can’t believe we’re already into December… Which means it’s time to look for that unique gift for those special people on your lists. Except… Has anyone noticed how hard it is sometimes to find a unique gift idea? Well as luck would have it there is a new pop up shop coming to St. Paul St in St. Catharines just in time for Christmas full of one of a kind hand made items for you. Train LightPerhaps you will find just the thing for everyone on your list. Like our train light for that railway loving member of your family…

Finally, we’d like to wish all of you a happy and safe holiday season…

Cheers!

Lots happening…

Hello All,

With the arrival of summer comes the busy summer festival and market season around Niagara. And here at Square Peg Designs we’re gearing up for a busy run too, including our stop at The Ripe & Juicy Market at Stratus Vineyards tomorrow (July 13th) from 11am – 6pm. In addition to checking out what new things we’ve been working on, you will also find a variety of other great stuff from the other vendors sharing their latest work. Plus there will delicious gourmet food and fantastic live music along with other fun things to see and do. Come check it out! Stratus Vineyards is located at 2059 Niagara Stone Rd, just outside the old town here in Niagara-on-the-Lake.

In the meantime we’re working away on some great new creations which we are hoping you love as much as we do. We have some lovely new pieces of reclaimed and live edge wood and really cool items from yesteryear like an old copper heater and a vintage sprinkler which have become beautiful new lights. Have a look…

Vintage Lawn Sprinkler LightLive Edge Walnut Side TableOld Copper Heater Light

We hope you are enjoying the summer so far. Come out and see us… We’ll be out at more events all summer long including the Market at the Village here in Niagara-on-the Lake (various dates) and the Happening at the Forty on July 26 in downtown Grimsby. We’ll post more on upcoming dates soon!

See you out there…

Fun at the market

Thanks to everyone who came out to Saturday’s Antique Market at the Village! It was great to meet so many new people, and to see some familiar faces as well.
A special thanks to the new owners of our grey mold light. We hope they love it in its new home! Just for fun, next to the finished product is the concept sketch we did before we made the light–pretty similar, right?!
The Grey LightThe Grey Light Drawing

Come and see us at the fabulous Supper Market at the village this Wednesday night. We’ll be there 4:30-9 p.m. Come and grab a bite, a beer, and hear some great local music!

 

Busy spring

Hey everyone,

We’re a little overdue for an update I’ll admit but it sure has been a busy spring at Square Peg Designs. We have been up to quite a few different things and it’s been great to see the response that we are getting from you all as we get out to some of the Niagara area markets. Plus we have been working on a few special projects too for some new friends too… Table LightBut I’ll wait and write a couple of blogs over the next couple of weeks about those individually as opposed to glossing over them now. So stay tuned…

Over the weekend we enjoyed the hospitality of Vermeer’s Greenhouses in Welland for the Heirlooms Artisan Market. We enjoyed meeting all of you who came out to see us and even saw a few familiar faces… Your support is just great! Plus the beautiful sunshine and warm temperatures made for a fantastic day.

Next up is an appearance at the Niagara-on-the-Lake farmers market and antique market on Saturday, July 5. We hope to see you there!

Thanks for a great weekend!

Hey everyone!

So first off we’d like to thank all of you who came out to see us at the Spring HandMade Market at 13th Street Winery over the weekend. And a very special thanks to those who decided to give a good number of our creations wonderful new homes.The Booth In fact both Arthur and Heather took the time to send emails after their individual purchases to share with us how much they were in enjoying their new additions to their homes… Thanks for that, what a thoughtful thing to do! We really do appreciate all the kind words and sentiments we heard about our furniture, lights and accessories from so many of you as you walked through the booth. It certainly provides more than enough inspiration to head back into the design and build phase again.

As far as the booth was concerned, Julie really outdid herself with the concept and design of how we were going to display our stuff in a 10’ x 10’ space. Everything just seemed to go so well together and had a really inviting look… Even the jars of spring flowers which seemed to like to grab my arm as I walked by… Of course, each time we sold something it became necessary to reset the display, especially when some of the larger tables made their way out of the booth.Light Building at the Show It even became necessary to create a couple more lights on the fly, one of which sold as soon as we put it on display. What a feeling that was! Here’s a picture of the second one being worked on behind the tent during the show. And yes, there are far worse places to work then at a winery, overlooking a valley on a warm spring day…

Suffice to say it was a great experience and we hope to be back out there again soon. We’ll post updates soon on a couple more markets and festivals we are hoping to go to as well.

Cheers, from the square pegs!

To market, to market…

Hey everyone, Mike here again. It’s been an incredibly busy week as we put the final touches on some projects that will make their debut at the HandMade Market in just a couple of days. One of these projects is a rolling cart with fold down arms which we have clad with some beautiful maple plus we have added some rejuvenated steel hardware. Light UpdateIt took a long time to reach completion from when we first started it but it has turned out so well. We have made a couple more tables and a few more accessories that are all turning out just as we had envisioned them (which I must say is very rewarding when it happens…). And for those who read the last blog, we have put the finishing touches on the light I was working on too. Check it out…

Of course with preparing all this wonderful new stuff comes the need to find creative and fun ways to display it all. Julie has been working tirelessly on designing and creating fantastic additions to help us display as much of our furniture, lights and accessories as we can… plus many of her paintings too (by the way, she has recently finished the last two works in her Niagara House Project and they are great!).Square Peg Design Sign We are especially excited about the way our new sign turned out. Julie had the idea to create a whitewashed wood sign, made of reclaimed pallet wood that would be framed by a big old frame she’s been trying to find a new use for. It has a new use… and one that we are very proud of.

Anyway, the HandMade market is happening this Friday and Saturday at 13th Street Winery, located at 1776 Fourth Ave in St. Catharines. And we’ll be there both days from 11 am to 7 pm. Come by and say hi and see what we’ve been up to lately!

Hope to see you there!

Getting ready for HandMade Market, May 9 & 10!

Hey everyone, Mike here. With the HandMade Market less than two weeks away we are busily working away on a few more projects that we are eager to show you. Lately we have been focusing on some tables and other items we think you’ll love. Plus Julie has been painting away, creating some beautiful pieces as part of her Niagara House Project… Check out her site to see more about it (www.julieponesseart.com).

So with all of the table building and problem solving that comes with that (yes “level”, I’m talking to you), I found myself missing the process of designing some of our lights. Today I decided it might be fun to revisit that experience and set out to design at least one more light in time for the HandMade Market (by the way, if you are curious about what that’s all about, click here: www.handmademarket.ca). We had found a wonderful piece of live edge walnut a couple of months back, and it is proving to be the inspiration for this particular light.Light In Progress The rings in the wood provide a perfect frame for where the light will rise up. I am pretty excited about how it is turning out so far, plus I have chosen to use a green cord which I always enjoy… Here’s a picture I shot earlier.

We’ll post the finished product on the website as soon as it’s finished or you can come out and see it yourself … unless someone buys it first. But then, I’m kind of attached to this one, but then, I often say that about the things we create.

Hope to see you out at the HandMade Market at 13th Street Winery on May 9th, and 10th!

A little introduction…

Hi everyone–it’s a pleasure to meet you!

If you are reading this on our website, and you’ve had a chance to browse around, then you will already have a sense of who we are and what we do. If you landed here from elsewhere, then some introductions are in order.

We are Mike and Julie, and we are Square Peg Designs.

WHAT DO WE DO?

The official, longer answer (which Julie likes because it has more words) has something to do with seeing ‘dormant beauty’ in ‘reclaimed objects’… ‘creating one-of-a-kind…with an industrial chic feel.’ All true but, you know, yada yada yada.

The short answer (Mike’s preference) is that we like to turn cool, old stuff into even cooler (if you can imagine) new stuff. Like these lights which we are really infatuated with!

WHY SQUARE PEG?        

Well, now there’s a story. But we’ll spare you the sordid details.

To get the gist, just think of the misfit, the nerd, the loner, the dork, the nonconformist, the oddball, the maverick…that strange species of human that is somehow a square peg in a round hole, an unusual individualist who doesn’t quite ‘fit.’

We are a couple of square pegs. No doubt about that. But the materials we use to make  our products are also square pegs in their own right: objects that were once valued but have, over time, been cast aside for something more functional, more useful, or more beautiful. We think that many of these objects–floor boards, industrial bases, Mason jars, shoe lasts–just need a little ‘encouragement’ to become something useful once again and, hopefully, pretty cool to look at as well.

WHERE CAN I FIND SQUARE PEG STUFF?

Check us out on our website, our blog, and on our Facebook page. And, of course, check back here where we will let you know what we are working on.

WHAT WILL THIS BLOG BE ABOUT?

Be prepared for a bit of a motley crew here.

We’ll post pictures of items as we complete them, and also include some shots and details of projects we are in the process of creating or finishing, like this light. L77

Sometimes, we’ll let you know about cool resources and events in the area, and sometimes the blog will just be a wonderful cathartic place where the square pegs that we are can muse about things we love (and don’t love) to eat, drink, see, think about, hear, etc.

The common thread is that we’ll give you some insight into our journey as our little venture unfolds, and hope that you will tell us what you like, what you don’t like, and what you’d like to see more of.

Well, that’s all for now folks. Stay tuned for our next post where we’ll show you one of the projects we were working on during our never-ending winter (that, apparently, did end)–yeah!

Cheers, everyone,

from a couple of square pegs