Doug Regen | The Wood Whisperer
“It takes a certain kind of person to fall in love with my work. It’s not as polished and finished—I’m not saying that it’s not cool and wonderful, it’s just maybe not as perfect—as what you’d find in most retail furniture stores. It is all handcrafted using old techniques. It’s more organic and natural. My work is a bit rustic and unrefined. It’s going to have weirdness to it; it’s going to have interesting knots; and it’s going to have scratches. All the wood I use has imperfections. Many of the people that are buying my work are people who have really contemporary homes, and they want to bring a history and a warmth into that space.”
Doug Regen’s transition from advertising agency owner to furniture maker began because of a silverware dilemma. “I remember being in a meeting with some senior-level managers, and we were discussing why all the forks in the kitchen had disappeared,” said Regen. “And I remember sitting there thinking, ‘I am so far away from what I love doing.’ I still refer to that day as my ‘fork in the road’ moment.”
That moment marked a turning point, and a short time later Regen left the advertising business after 20 years of working on some of the most recognizable brands including Bridgestone, DuPont, HCA and Singer and soon thereafter found himself constructing furniture. The switch wasn’t as much of a stretch as it might seem.
“I come from a family of builders and architects and contractors,” said Regen, who counts William Strickland, the designer of the Tennessee State Capitol, among his ancestors. “I’ve always been building stuff.”
With time on his hands Regen didn’t have to look far to find a place to put his skills to use. “My wife and I acquired a farm up in Kentucky about eight years ago that’s adjacent to a family farm, and back behind the main house is this old barn that was built in the late 1800s. It was all chestnut and oak, and it was beyond repair, so we were going to have to tear it down. I’ve always been a big believer in trying to reuse materials and fashion new objects out of them, and I didn’t want all that wood to go to waste,” said Regen.
“So here we had this old house that’s got all this space, and we did not have much furniture for it. I thought I could probably figure out a way to build some interesting furniture pieces, and that’s exactly what I did. I took these old beams and planks, the old square nails, everything I could salvage out of the old barn, and I started building functional yet cool rustic furniture to go in the house.
“I ended up bringing a few pieces to use in our Nashville house, and some friends fell in love with the rustic yet functional designs.” Word of his talent spread, and within a few years Regen was in demand, creating site-specific works of art. His trademark use of recycled materials may seem both utilitarian and consistent with the ethos of the day—and it is—but it comes primarily from a deep-seated emotional connection he feels with old buildings and materials, a connection that gives a meaning to his work that goes beyond form and function.
“I’ve always had this attraction to architectural salvage. Anything old that comes out of a building or that can be rescued, I have a kinship with it. It’s always been this thing that I collect this stuff. Actually it’s more than collecting; I have to have it. I can’t stand to see it torn up, burned or thrown away.
“I was driving home one day, and they were dismantling this house that had burned,” said Regen. “It was awful, but sitting out front were six big old columns. And I said to myself as I drove by, ‘You don’t need those.’ But I could not get down West End without coming back and negotiating to buy them and give them a new home.
“I don’t know if it’s because of the craftsmanship of things that were built pre-1900, but there’s just some attachment I have to it. I love old textures. I love old wood. I love old paint. I love all those things,” said Regen. “Some people would look at some of the material I’ve got and say, ‘What in the world would you save that for? That’s just a piece of junk wood.’ I mainly use woods that are at least 100 years old when I can find it, and most of the things I use have a story. Once I get it and start sanding and getting into it, something new comes out of it. I try to take it and give it a new chapter.
“I basically let the wood talk to me and tell me exactly what needs to happen. It’s a total emotional connection.” After pausing and reflecting for a moment, he says, “I think maybe it’s my job to save this stuff.”
Regen says his pieces tend to resonate with a specific niche market. “With my work I feel like I’m taking things that were carefully and lovingly handcrafted before by someone else, and instead of seeing those things thrown away or sent to the landfill or left to rot, I take them and give them a new life alongside the contemporary. It’s really exciting when you have that juxtaposition.”
Doug Regen’s work can be seen at
www.raintreecollection.blogspot.com.
by Tony Lance | photography by Larry Boothby
