New Blog Location

Hi Everyone! We'd like to take this opportunity to invite you to visit our new blog, located at http://fromthesourceny.com/blog/
Here, you'll be able to quickly navigate from our blog to our new webpage and see the latest that from the source has to offer. Also, remember that our Dumbo location is still having a 50% closing sale on all stocked merchandise. The biggest news is that our Greenpoint Warehouse/Design Studio is now open to the public everyday from 11-6, so you visit any day and get lost in the new space, which we've expanded from 25,000 - 35,000 square feet!

Wooden Trophy Hunter

Bob Fireman, president of From the Source and expert on sourcing exotic woods from Indonesia, is featured in today's New York Times Home section article (D9) titled "The Trophy Hunters". In it, he briefly discusses the legalities of sourcing wood from remote lands and how we apply the ever-changing taste of design to foreign woods and reclaimed materials.

Ample Sample

If you need wood, we sure have plenty variety to choose from. If you're stuck on the fruitful concept of mango but want something with a little more pop, size it up to ingas. If you like the blend of light and dark in our rosewood called sonokeling but need just a little more chocolate, try staining it light brown.

These samples and more can be found at our locations, so you can mix and match, and get a nice visual for how our color-schemes and grain-blends can work with your project. Whether you're building from a blank slate or anxious to move in that one last piece, our samples (not for sale) will help you get there.

CLOSE-OUT SALE in DUMBO

This summer we're working on some really exciting renovations and updates at our Greenpoint warehouse. If you've been by in the past few weeks, you've noticed the changes we're making to our main showroom...


In the upcoming months we'll be expanding and taking over some new beautiful space there as well, and making many more improvements along the way. Our goal is take advantage of the space, stock and location along the beautiful East River waterfront, and make our Greenpoint warehouse a real FTS Brooklyn destination.

With that said, we will be closing our Dumbo location. In the next few weeks, we will be holding a 50% OFF CLOSE-OUT SALE on all merchandise at that location. If you have been to our Dumbo showroom in the past few months, you know that it has been transformed into the FTS Outlet, selling discontinued and damaged goods at discounted prices. However, we are sending over much more variety and quantity, and again, everything in the store MUST GO, and will be 50% off the retail price.

Sale begins this Friday, 5/28

Come by for a look:

65 Jay Street
Brooklyn, NY 11201
718.260.8833

ICFF Wrap...

Whew! It's been a hectic and long show season. We wrapped last week at the closing of this year's International Contemporary Furniture Fair. As always, the amount of creativity, innovative use of material and incredible booth construction was both astounding and inspiring. I found the student exhibitors to use the least amount of boundaries, like Michael Savona's "Goose Cones", which completely left me in awe. As he put it "who doesn't stop for geese?". Some other favorites were Courtney Fikri's eye catching booth design for Amaridian's display of Design Africa, and my personal favorite, Saletti's new folding Pantone Chairs.

As you can imagine, we at from the source are really proud of our accomplishments too. Whether you met us for the first time, or are an old friend who came to say hello, we want to thank you. This year our booth was dedicated to raw material, our design and production process, and ultimately, custom capabilities. If you didn't make it to the show, here's a glimpse of what was on view...

Hopefully we can collaborate soon...

Thanks from all of us at FTS

come see the booth...

so the last day of our run at the ICFF is tomorrow. it's our 2nd year having a booth here, and we feel like we learned a lot, a lot of great contacts, and gave us a lot of confidence going into last summer.

as we've talked about, a ton of time and effort went into making our booth this year, from creating & constructing the floor plan to nearly breaking our necks to get the perfect shot for brochures. from the looks of how he maneuvered on that ladder, we think philip may actually fight crime as spider-man in his spare time...

super hero or no, our ICFF team did a fantastic job putting everything together, and if you're not one of our friends from the trade who got a sneak peek over the weekend, we hope you'll get a chance to see us at Booth #1244 tomorrow when it's open to the general public.

here's a preview just in case you can't make it. hope to see you there.

reduce, reuse, reclaim?

Anyone who's ever visited our warehouse (or read our post about those painted reclaimed planks) will know that we're always excited by new ways to showcase items that had another life.

Whether it's eggshells used as vase facing,

using discarded teak scraps to make a mirror frame,



transforming old bottles into frosty blue vessels, or simply giving some love to a starfish top that just a tad too small to be a table,



we just love it when amazing results come from the unexpected.

So for a couple of weeks, we've been pondering a profile of Ecovative Design in L Magazine at the end of April. Not for nothing, we can almost always be enticed to read articles titled "The Death of Styrofoam?" They were profiled in Treehugger & Popular Science last December, and have even showed up on CSI:NY.

Stumbling on methods of manufacture is certainly is of intellectual interest for the sustainably-minded. However, it's of distinct interest here at FTS. If for no other reason than trying to make sure your eco-friendly principles manifest themselves in all your dealings - including packing material for cross-country shipments - is always a challenge. Foam packing peanuts simply can't compare to this...

photo from Ecovative

That's why the profile about Ecovative's Ecocradle Packaging was amazing. Using materials like mushroom roots (aka fungal mycelium), seed husks, and even cotton burrs to create a cushioned, strong, and mold-able alternative to modern petrol-based styrofoam is inspired not only because you can dispose of it by tossing it in the garden,
photo from Ecovative

but it takes the refuse from agricultural production and gives it a new life.

If - like some of us - you're a bit of a specs nut, you'll even be impressed that the folks at Ecovative think enough of us put material specifications front and center, which is further proof of how serious they are about moving from pesky start-up to the global standard that could be used regionally in different ways depending on indigenous agricultural materials.

When we think about all the packing peanuts, foam spacers, and maybe even shrink wrap that could be grown for us instead of extruded it's an encouraging proposition. Ok, so maybe talk of using fungal mycelium as a bonding resin, saving money on costs by using agricultural waste products, and transforming lignin & cellulose into bio-composites doesn't whet everyone's appetite. However, if you're concerned at all about making changes the help our environment, and styrofoam that grows like a garden doesn't move you, we don't know what will.

photos from Ecovative

The Greatest Show on Earth

Ok, maybe not the greatest show on earth, but for design aficionados , the International Contemporary Furniture Fair has got to be high on the list! With  24,000 international furniture and design companies showing off their latest & greatest, it’s guaranteed to be quite a performance. The show runs Saturday, 5/15 thru Tuesday, 5/18 at the Jacob Javits Center. From the Source will be there & we hope you’ll join us!
Participating in a show like this takes a terrific amount of work, & our crew has done a stellar job. Every step of the game, even the small details, such as the traditional take-away From the Source post card, reflects a time commitment… as well as confidence on ladders! In this photo, Philip has masterfully positioned the slab that will eventually become our 2010 ICFF covergirl...Now smile!  This is the shot that made it onto our ICFF postcard, all that work, to capture a small butterfly! Hope to see you at the show,  booth 1244, be sure to grab a postcard on your way out!

Just a quick reminder...

In the realm of neighborhood news...

Spring/Summer is always a busy time, and near our Dumbo location things are no different. We just finished welcoming a lot of folks in the outlet who were headed to and from BKLYN Designs, which just finished last weekend. Brooklyn Bridge park will soon start all kinds of activities, including outdoor movies, and Brooklyn Flea is under way under the Brooklyn Bridge...

This weekend though (actually starting tomorrow) we'll be hopping with the New York Photo Festival. Because of the picturesque setting it only makes sense that Dumbo be the hub of the festival, and we hope to get to see some of the great exhibits and events this weekend - like Marc Garanger in the Bodies in Question exhibit . Of course, we'll be here, so feel free to stop by the outlet & browse, catch us up on all the going on (we'll be working), or just ask directions. See you this weekend.

Name It!

Reclaim:

One definition from Merriam-Webster's is "to rescue from an undesirable state." We should be proud of rescuing - it shows selflessness and heroism. As for an "undesirable" state, each piece has its own storyline and whether that previous state was undesirable or not...you should probably ask the wood. Regardless of its former life, the majority of our reclaimed wood is re-purposed and breathes new life as fresh, innovative designs - each with a new name. The minority of this collection remains nameless, hovering in a raw medium...waiting.


These 12-foot long teak planks only begin to tell a story. But without a purpose, they remain lifeless. Will you challenge yourself to reincarnate the raw and reclaimed, and give it a name?

Farm gets closer to your table

We've done a bit of restaurant work over the years.





Lately, we've been fielding increasing requests for bar tops, tables, and even some chairs, especially since our first restaurant show early this year.

So, now when we run across articles like Field Report: Fresh Direction in the NY Times magazine at the end of April there's a different level of interest. Like how eating in a restaurant is never the same if you've worked in a kitchen or waited tables.

Like most concerned with sustainability issues and interested in living a more planet-friendly life, we've been encouraged by the steady growth of Slow Food, Farm to Table, and CSAs (community supported agriculture) efforts over the past two decades, and there seems to be a critical growth marker with places like Coon Rock Farm's, Eno Restaurant & Market.

There are all sorts restaurants focused on getting locally & responsibly produced menus. Some are even looking to supply their own ingredients in part - like the upcoming Breuckelen, for example. Detractors and critics of these efforts obviously point to challenges like where to source olive oil, spices or staples like rice and flour, but we think they miss the overall point that taking small steps toward a larger goal are required even if everything can't be solved at once.

Eno Restaurant & Market wants to take local production one step further by producing nearly all of its menu at Coon Rock Farms, which is only about 20 miles away. The partners at Coon Rock Farms - Jamie DeMent & Richard Holcomb - and chef Marco Shaw - formally of Fife in Portland, OR - intend for the farm to provide about 60% of their menu, with hopes to eventually reach 100%. Their goals include continuing to supply local CSA's and even customers in the restaurant (like that turnip salad? when you ask for the check, just tell them to include a few bunches for you to make at home)

photo: David La Spina, New York Times

Listening to chef Shaw discuss the challenges of sourcing locally and working seasonally in the present day restaurant industry you get the sense that he and the team at Eno can make this work. Eno Restaurant & Market could just become another part in the effort toward decentralized, regional production, which some point to as part of the solutions to creating sustainable cities and towns.

photo: Project for Public Spaces site

Of course, spend time with anyone old enough to remember when small, local family farms weren't an endangered species and when vacation planning meant navigating tight harvest schedules and they'd marvel that anyone would think that some of these concepts are foreign. We think that proves exactly how far and how quickly we've gone from having intimate knowledge of food's origins to thinking that pork chops just come wrapped in cellophane. It's like how we must feel when people seemed puzzled when we say that there's no such thing as a plywood tree and MDF isn't an exotic hardwood.

Even if it's not a new idea, we really appreciate the effort to get the farm even closer to the table (hopefully an FTS table). Looking in the past can sometimes point toward a great future path, and Eno Restaurant & Market and Coon Rock Farm will hopefully be one sign of the path to come.

The Hunt

The search for the perfect blend of elements in furniture design sometimes feels like a treasure hunt. Our design style is the weapon we weld and our experiences serve as our guide. We all have a perfect preconceived image of the thing we desire and we’re simply hoping to find it. Take this designer’s desk sketch from earlier this week at our Chelsea location.

Once the image is revealed to others, the hunt begins. Sketches like this act as a starting point and the terrain is our Greenpoint warehouse. We promise not to laugh if you ask for a compass and map while navigating through our 25,000 square foot labyrinth. Along this terrain, shapes and dimensions spiral out of control while grain colors mesh. Eventually a simple sketch morphs into something new. It could be the next best thing or the next best bust.

Either way, something was discovered this day, hopefully it has worth.

Did you see..?

We were in last week's issue of Time Out in their "The Best Indie Shops" feature. Just like everyone at Time Out we love quality and a good sale, so we're figure that makes us a good match for the article.

So, with spring seeming to have officially sprung, it's time for bike rides, walks to the park, and maybe taking a trip down to West St. to see us. Check out our tiny blurb on the Greenpoint page

We're glad to be part of the Greenpoint neighborhood that's been recipient of a bit of press lately, what with New York Magazine's latest round of neighborhood rankings, and subsequent article in the NY Times, one would think we'd be blushing from all the attention, but I think it's safe to say that since we've been here for about 7 years, we're pleased, but not all that surprised.

It's a great chance to visit not only us, but some of our neighborhood friends who were listed like Kill Devil Hill and Le Grenier (both of which we love), and other great places (we guess guides can only be so big?) like Pipsqueak Chapeau , Dandelion Wine, and Word, all on Franklin. Hope to see you soon.

Happy Anniversary, Earth Day

This coming Thursday is Earth Day - the 40th Anniversary - and we think it's a great time to mark all the progress that's been made, and simultaneously think about all that still needs to be done.

Here at FTS we've been really busy over the past year, joining the Sustainable Furnishings Council, experimenting with various eco-friendly finishes, working with the Rainforest Alliance's Smartwood Program to nail down VLO verfication, and prepping to make the next steps toward several different types of certifications. So, we're really aware of how much work it takes to get down in the trenches and make a push toward a sustainable world. It's takes a global effort, it's a local effort, and it takes individual effort.

In the run up there looks like they'll be a lot of different efforts and publicity related to Earth Day, and we found a couple of great examples.

A great source that talks about all the urgent work that still needs to be done is an article by Patricia Pooladi on the National Academies site. It gives great resources on global needs and efforts. One of the pieces we're excited to see is WLIW 21's "Going Green Long Island" a local documentary that goes into the efforts of some of the local efforts being made by our Long Island neighbors.

We have friends out there like the good folks at Gansett Lane out on Montauk, so there's special interest for us. There are a plethora of events out there, and we'll share the ones we know about, but if you know of one let us know.

While it's great that we've had a day every year to bring awareness to what can happen when we try to live within nature's balance instead of outside it, but we're trying to work for a time when everyday's Earth Day.

We'll let you know

Just a quick note of solidarity...If you've ever been to the warehouse to pick up a piece or strolled in on a weekend jaunt, you may have heard whistling or noticed friendly banter from across the room. For those who didn't know it's usually coming from our Tibetan colleagues, who are some of the friendliest, most valuable members of the FTS team - two of which actually make an appearance in our latest post about ICFF.



It just so happens that this week at the Film Forum, there's a film about the Tibetan struggle in all it's complexity that some of us are going to check out Tuesday evening - THE SUN BEHIND THE CLOUDS. - that is in large part about the demonstrations from March 2008.

Like most events at Film Forum, it always seems like you find out about the movie the day before it's over, and are left hoping that it gets extended. This time, however, we planned ahead, so we'll let you know how it was...hopefully our Tibetan friends will approve.

ICFF, headfirst...

If you didn't make it to the Restaurant or Architectural Digest Home Show, do not fret, ICFF is just around the corner...

Around here, we're busy trying to finalize our booth design, among everything else that goes into the show. This year, we're focused on materiality, and displaying the unique experience FTS offers its customers in custom capabilities. Take a peek at what's going on...

The crew, busy at work



An early shot of our postcard, and some sneaks from the show...


Some of the material that we'll using to create "experiences" in our booth


The boss in action

Just in time for spring

Some of you may not be surprised by this, but some of us here at FTS love creating. Project ranging from gutting & replacing a kitchen, painting or making flower pots, or making picture frames are frequent topics of conversation. Also from the department of the obvious, several of us subscribe to Ready Made, which always seems to have at least one project interesting enough to justify the subscription.

So we were really happy to find that in the current issue we ran across a feature that included one of our local friends Boa and her company Object Interiors. We were neighbors last year at Bklyn Designs, and really admire her work, which shares our love of all things sustainable.

These moss panels seem perfect for sprucing up a neglected wall for spring. Ready Made directions lean on shadow boxes. The more adventurous among the crafty faithful could probably find reclaimed wood to make a frame rustic feel, or even go with a metal frame for a sleek mix of the industrial and organic. Either way, it looks like a great project, and we're always happy when local folks get to share great ideas.

Time to get Dirty...and Sunkissed!

I've spent so many springs trying to plan how to attack planting seeds and creating a nice little windowsill garden of my own. This year, I've decided to take a stab at it and get it done. Not without the help of a fantastically talented customer and friend of ours, Sarah Copeland, who offers some great tips on her blog.

With the newly gorgeous weather those of us in New York are lucky enough to (finally) be enjoying, it also reminds me that it's time to start sprucing up the back patio, terrace, yard, or any other lovely patch of green grass available.

Below, some samples from our outdoor collection. As some of you may already know, teak is the most widely used material to whether any storm...hot or cold! The natural oils in the wood make it perfect for exposed uses, as well as making it termite and pest resistant. We are also particularly fond of the beautiful grain pattern and hue. If you're familiar with From the Source, you also know that we carry an extensive collection of teak root and reclaimed pieces, which are also perfect in or outdoors...have a peek:

The Steamer, $425


Low-back folding chair, $95Texas Bar, $795, with Umbrella, $350



Tall Rekal Side Table, $145

35" Round table, $295
For most of you, who like me, I'm sure may not have access to a fabulous perching post, most of our outdoor furniture is collapsible and perfect for a jaunt to any neighborhood park or beach!

Come by and check out the goods or email one of us for more info.

Enjoy!