While it may seem that the idea of having a car or auto-themed furniture is unique only to gear heads and petrol heads around the world, you may be pretty surprised to hear that car furniture found its early roots as a way to restrict consumption and save costs.
The idea has been quite popular in southeast Asian countries where older cars that were destined to be scrapped were instead salvaged for perfectly usable parts and using traditional and skilled craftsmen, these car parts were turned into some works of art.
Fast forward to the modern-day – These furniture items, which once found their roots as a broke person trying to spruce up his place has now become an item of novelty and haute couture among the affluent.
Not just that, there are a whole new generation of auto enthusiasts and “petrol heads” who have brought about a complete revamp of this vintage tradition.
In short, Car furniture has found its place among niche adopters that can mainly be classified into two types.
Vintage Car Furniture
Basically, individuals who have taken the tradition & heritage of ingenious, cost-cutting middle-class men to a completely different tangent by appreciating the artwork and design of these decor items created out of desperation
Modern Car Furniture – These are the kind of folk who have been or are obsessed with everything “automobile” and want their own abode to be a reflection of their passion.
We list down the popular types of car furniture around along with examples of a few firms trying their luck with the designs, some successfully, others not so successfully. However, we think all of them deserve appreciation.
Engine Block Table
A staple of every brazenly passionate gearhead out there. The idea is that you take a worn-out or in some cases, even an artificially manufactured Engine block. Clean it thoroughly, file the sharp edges. Glue a flat panel of glass on the top and add a few accessories or ornaments to the piston holes and you’ve got a modern version of car-themed furniture. Here’s an example.
The interesting bit is that these items can cost anything between $400 to about $1,50,000 depending on the engine type used. A 4 cylinder will cost much lesser when compared to a V6 or a V8 engine based table. What’re more, tables made out of engines from vintage cars that only have their engines intact, tend to cost even higher than this.
Popular car enthusiast channels, portals, communities, and online shops have quite a few selections of car furniture items.
Themed Artworks
Popular in third world countries, these are the furniture items prepared by popular artisans, mainly in southeastern countries with a motive to promote the proverbial use of RRR, you know, reduce, reuse, recycle. Don’t worry, we’ve heard the abbreviation the first time too.
Anyway, sometimes, there are galleries full of these types of furniture items and to be fair, some of them are quite swanky and desirable. Think of Car Cots, Seats made out of brushed and remodelled tyres. Seats made out of trunks and couches made by joining the rear & front seats.
Popular auctions of these antiques are found online easily.
Vintage Car Furniture
When we say vintage, we don’t exactly mean cars your grandfather used to drive or peer at. We mean every iconic car to this day that has left a dent in the automotive market in any given country has become part of this cult.
Take this example of an ambassador (a vintage car) in southeast Asia that has has been turned into a mini-couch by skilled artisans working on car furniture at Furnitureroots.
Apart from seating & table furniture, even showpieces, wardrobes and cupboards and credenzas are made using scrap from cars like side panes, tail-lights, bonnets, and spare wheels.
All in all, car furniture has grown widely in popularity albeit, quite unexpectedly. And has a small but loyal customer base all across the world.
Few companies & designers have conquered the art of putting these masterpieces together and have made this world much less wasteful and in most cases, they have also managed to make it prettier.
