Walked through a high-end showroom in Scottsdale and the 'distressed' finish on a $12,000 table looked like it was done with a belt sander and a bad attitude.

3 comments

3 Comments

My dad's got this beat up old workbench in the garage that he's had for thirty years, and seeing that $12,000 table I used to think he was just cheap for not buying new stuff. But honestly, after reading faith12's take on raw craft, it sorta clicked for me. There's a difference between something that's genuinely seen a life (like my dad's bench with real coffee stains and accidental paint drips) and something that's fake-distressed with a belt sander for a quick buck. The real charm is in the story a piece tells over time, not a manufactured scuff mark that tries to skip ahead. I used to roll my eyes at the whole "rustic" trend, but now I get the pull of something that feels like it's lived a little.

nelson.gavin1mo ago

You know, that reminds me of something. My brother-in-law does custom woodwork, and he showed me a "rustic" bench he made for a client. It looked like it had been left outside for twenty years, but it was brand new. I asked him why he beat it up so much, and he just smiled and said the client paid extra for that look. Faith12 has a point about the raw craft idea, but sometimes I wonder if we're just paying for someone to mess up nice wood on purpose. There's a line between art and just making something look old and worn out.

faith121mo ago

Maybe that's the whole point though. A lot of that high end rustic look is about raw, imperfect craft. If it was too clean and perfect, wouldn't it just look like a factory made it?