Something to wine about

For oenophiles who take great pleasure in serving wine to friends from the comfort of their own homes, 2-Day Designs has created furnishings appropriate for the occasion.

The Georgia-based company makes stools, tables, wine racks and more out of recycled wine barrels. And like the barrels they are made of, all furnishings within the Wine 2 Night! and World Vineyard collections are handmade, one-of-a-kind pieces, said Tim Key, president.

Key said the very nature of the wine barrels they use to create their furniture won't allow them to make anything identical.

"The biggest challenge we encounter in production is the fact that no two barrels are ever exactly the same. All wine barrels are handmade and each stave is individually fit by the American or French coopers that supply the barrels to the wine industry. The staves all vary in width, sometimes thickness, and all have compound curves and tapers. Some barrels are shorter than others but have a bigger circumference so as to achieve the desired capacity."

Additionally, because the barrels were originally used to make wine, they vary in color depending on the variety that was stored inside.

Key said the color of the wood also is influenced by the "degree of toasting" each barrel receives.

According to World Cooperage, which has been making oak barrels for the wine industry since 1912, the inside of each barrel is toasted with a flame to release specific flavors.

Due to the size and shapes of the wine barrels, large pieces of furniture from the collections are made from rough-sawn lumber from mills near the company's base in Eastanollee, Ga.

"A lot of complementing larger pieces simply cannot be built from barrels," Key said.

The rough lumber is sanded by hand, leaving in many of the saw marks and defects that give the wood its character.

"In addition to getting a look that works better with the wine barrel pieces, we also cut out the energy intensive planing and dressing process that finished pieces undergo."

Key said the company's approach to its furniture line is to create a look that is casual but sophisticated enough for nearly any décor.

He started 2-Day Designs about 14 years ago, creating furniture out of recycled lumber from closed Sears catalog distribution centers.

He had started tinkering with memory boxes and switched to furniture after learning that he could showcase his wares during one of the trade shows for the home-furnishings industry in High Point, N.C. That was 48 hours before the show opened.

"We had never built the first piece, so we had to design, build, finish, price, name and transport the pieces to the showroom about six hours before the show started," he said, noting that is how the company got it name.

Primarily a family-run business, Key works with his wife, Susan, daughter Amy, sons-in-law Rufus Honeycutt and Parker Whiten, and the husband of one of his godchildren, Jeremy Moon.

While admitting that none of them have any formal design training, he says their joint design approach and willingness to listen to customers' suggestions guides their work. They look at each project with a can-do spirit and will only accept the failure of a design about halfway through the sample process if no one can figure out a way to make it work.

The Wine 2 Night! collection began about four years ago out of Key's desire to continue recycling wood to make furniture.

"One of my friends had a single barrel, and when I looked closely at the beautiful wood I had to try a few pieces. He graciously let me break it down and we came up with about 10 items from the single barrel."

When he showed the wine barrel pieces to buyers at the market in High Point, they were such a success that he became frantic trying to find a source for more barrels.

Today, he obtains used barrels from several places in California's wine regions and ships them to Georgia where they are broken down and used to create pieces in the collection.

Key said his company takes apart about 70 percent of the barrels they received, with the remainder being used intact for pieces such as the full barrel cooler and cabinet.

"We hope the pieces in our Wine 2 Night! collection will give your home the same comfortable enjoyment as the wine you drink and that our efforts to reuse, recycle and revalue helps in some small way to improve the view from your veranda," states a brochure about the collection.

The Wine 2 Night! and World Vineyards collections can be purchased at Patty Morgan Designs in Henderson and Gift Quest in Pahrump.

Additional information is available on the company's Web site, www.2-daydesigns.com.