In 2005, living by the Cumayasa River, close to La Romana in the Dominican Republic, Jean-Pierre Frey was struck by the number of large pieces of drift wood scattered around its shores, which gave him the idea to begin making furniture for his first time in his life.
But because of its irregular shape, it limited the types of furniture he could make.
All that changed when a friend of him told him an old house in the city of La Romana was beeing torn down.
As fate would have it, it was years early during a visit to the country that he found the same house. Sitting on the porch in a rocking chair and shirtless was an older man.
"The house was really interesting, painted in pastel colors reminiscent of old Victorian Caribbean houses, and it was made for a perfect picture", Jean-Pierre Frey explains.
So last year when the house was demolished he bought the wood, loaded three trucks of wood boards and brought them to his house.
"What's interesting about the wood is that although it had this pastel blue color on the outside underneath there was a rainbow of colors", he says. Jean-Pierre FREY counted more than 10 coats of paint on some pieces!
First panel made with the old wood from the destructed Caribbean houses, recycled by Jean-Pierre FREY...
First vanity created by Jean-Pierre FREY, with the old wood from the destructed Caribbean houses...
