As new restaurants pop up all over Seattle, Ballard furniture maker Marian Built is in high demand, creating unique bars, tables and other items from reclaimed materials. “People are getting sick of Ikea,” Michael Marian tells the Seattle Times, which produced a profile on the business that’s located near the base of the Ballard Bridge on Shilshole Ave.
If you’ve visited the new Ballard restaurant Brimmer and Heel Tap, or the Ballard bar Barnacle, you’ve seen Marian Built’s work. Or at other Seattle-area hangouts like The Hollywood Tavern, Westward and Fremont’s Rock Creek (below). They also create signature pieces for residences, but it’s not cheap.
Materials include the pews from a Baptist church, basketball and bowling alley floors and wood from a weathered barn. Marian even visits junkyards and yard sales to find hidden wooden gems. “It doesn’t look like a machine built it,” says Marian. “It looks like people did it.”
You can see lots of photos of Marian Built’s work on its website.
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In the wreckage of the auto shop that used to be next to the Viking there are some big chunks of car decking that could be made into awesome bar or table sections in this style.
Someone should go by there tomorrow and see if they could score some pieces before they get hauled to the dump. If my truck wasn’t out of commission I’d be all over it.