AdrianMartinus: Up-Cycled Skateboards crafted into Modern Designs

In 2012, from the garage of their childhood home in Alberta, Canada, brothers Adrian and Martinus Pool began to up-cycle old skateboards into furniture and home décor. Having trained as carpenters, they were frustrated by the high levels of material waste involved in construction. To combat this problem, and as avid skateboarders with a passion for the industry, they turned to old boards to up-cycle them into a new and exciting product, with the launch of their brand, AdrianMartinus. 

The process begins with the boards being laid out in the sun, warming the grip tapes so that they can be easily scraped off by the team a few hours later. With these colourful tapes set aside, the boards are sanded and polished until the wood is clean and ready to use, with the tapes coming back into play to create the emblematic colourful stripes in the pieces during construction.While their process and materials have developed since their debut in 2012, as they now include new materials in the pieces too, the brothers continue to work with the least waste as possible while repurposing unconventional materials.

‘We strive to create high-quality, beautiful products that challenge the boundaries of conventional woodworking practice- all while paying homage to our roots in the skateboarding community’

Under the umbrella of AdrianMartinus, the company houses two different brands; the central AdrianMartinus specialising in handcrafted, custom-built furniture, art and exclusive homewares, and Pool Product Designs, which creates smaller home goods and accessories at an accessible price range, led by Danish designer Anne Tranholm.

Last autumn, the brand were the grand prize-winners for the 2020 Etsy Design Awards, for their show-stopping piece, the ‘Stackton’ Credenza. The colourful sideboard is made of solid walnut with horizontally sliding repurposed skateboard tambour doors. The highly elegant yet functional piece is inspired by classic mid-century designs, yet with a modern and vivid edge through colour and silhouette. Each credenza is made to order, finished with a durable and hard wax finish.

Another highlight of their collections is the ‘R5’ Coffee Table, aptly named for the 5 inch radius found throughout the design. The pointed formation of the colourful repurposed skateboards  appears to flow into the floor, with colour and grain continuity due to the solid walnut trim which was harvested from just one single board.