Happy New Year!

Connell Hull Co. has been on location for the months of November-December, working on a residential remodel project. The work in Portland is done - the house flipped, on the market and sold! The past few months have been busy!

We are happy to be home, back in Bend, and getting settled into the routines of daily life and work. As we welcome the New Year, we look forward to all the amazing experiences and opportunities that are yet to come in 2016. We want to thank all of our clients, customers, future customers, and especially our family and friends for all of their support in this past year, and always. We truly would not be able to do the work we love without it!

Thank you for giving us the opportunity to work with you and for you in 2016. The creative implusivity is always flowing at Connell Hull Co. and we are ready to design you a beautiful space in the New Year; one that is filled with our impressionable, one-of-a-kind objects, furniture, fixtures, and signature Connell Hull Co. looks. We look forward to designing for you in the New Year!

Love and best wishes for a prosperous 2016, 

Julie + Ben

Connell Hull Co. standing proud in front of 8536. The mid-century ranch, in the heart of Portland's historic St. John's neighborhood, took 32 days to complete the full remodel. 

Connell Hull Co. standing proud in front of 8536. The mid-century ranch, in the heart of Portland's historic St. John's neighborhood, took 32 days to complete the full remodel. 

Design Spotlight: Hydro Flask

We feel privileged to be collaborating with some of the leading businesses in Bend. Designing for companies that we find inspiring and innovative makes our work all the more meaningful. We are especially excited to be working as the lead interior designers for key interior elements of the new Hydro Flask corporate headquarters, slated to open early 2016. 

Here's a peak at the final design renderings of the front lobby entrance and the product development area with timber screening and privacy sliders. 

The Tom Desk

The Tom Desk. Designed for and named after a client, The Tom Desk is inspired by the need for a design forward stand-up desk. This task desk is topped with reclaimed ponderosa pine and detailed with a formed steel monitor or book shelf. The steel table legs are finished with a gun-blue finish to give the steel a darkened, antiqued look. This stand-up, task desk is both functional and beautiful! 

Bend Design Conference

Some seriously inspiring and exciting design driven days are coming to Bend in the next few weeks. "Make Design Matter" is the tagline for the 2015 Bend Design Conference and it's wonderful to see that this event is not only attracting local, but national design talent. 

The two day event will include a day of workshops, one of which will be a panel moderated by OPB's April Baer. Ben will be a panel participant in which he will join other local designers to discuss "The Design Process." Sure to be interesting! Check out the website and schedule! Buy a ticket! Join us! We want to see you there! 

Summertime and the patio living is easy. . .

Who doesn't love sitting on an outdoor patio on a beautiful summer day? Well, The Sparrow Bakery NWX has added one more thing to love about the place, outdoor seating! We're stoked to have our fingerprint on both the interior, and now exterior of this favorite establishment. 

Cedar table tops and benches rest on formed plate steel legs. These babies are just waiting for your sweet little arse! And an ocean roll and latte, of course! 

CON LO Chair Challenge -- Chair #3

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Well, it's called a challenge for a reason, right? Not always easy. And we have to fess up that we missed last month's chair. Where did May go? And now June is rapidly passing and I find myself asking the same thing. This summer is already flying by.

I have to pause though and acknowledge that we've been super busy and stacked with projects. So, it's actually a good thing that we've missed a chair post because that means real, money making work trumps fun, project work that doesn't pay the bills! If you buy a chair, that could change things around and this could be a profit making challenge. So buy a chair already! 

Back to the chairs. Since we missed May, and June is almost to a close, we decided to combine both months and deliver FOUR chairs. Well, stools, actually. The stools are re-purposed industrial shop stools with reclaimed ponderosa pine tops. The upper parts of the legs are branded with our racing stripes, our signature, in Montana Gold "gravel" spray paint. 

Ben is already working on July's chair and it's shaping up nicely. Stay tuned for next month's chair, soon. 

The stools are for sale on the store link. Get your hot little buns in one of these handsome stools! 

All for now, 

--Julie

Design Spotlight: Ruffwear

Each month we will be highlighting one of the amazing companies we get to represent with our design work. Our feature design spotlight is on, Ruffwear. We love this company and the amazing products they make for our four-legged friends. 

We were given the task to convert a large warehouse into their new corporate headquarters by designing out an entry reception area, retail area, employee break area and meeting/conference spaces. 

Together on the water. . .

. . . is the tagline for a Bend's KIALOA paddles. Inspiring and innovative stuff is coming out of this company. We are impressed by the company's culture and authenticity. Great people, great products. We are excited to be collaborating on some design work for an upcoming trade show. More to come! 

CON LO Chair Challenge -- Chair #2

Chair #2! Each month we are creating or better yet, re-creating a chair. Here's what we've come up with for April's chair. 

This chair was recently featured in the Habitat for Humanity Restore "Furniture Flip Design Challenge." All proceeds of the sale of this chair will go to Habitat for Humanity. Part of the design challenge competition was to take an item from Habitat's Restore shop and give it new life. This chair has received a full make-over. Check out the after and before pictures below. 

The wood back and seat frame are made from salvaged beams from the Brooks-Scanlon Mill in Bend, Oregon. This reclaimed wood gives this chair history and adds to its story. The base, legs and bottom arm bases are original to the chair. 

She sits pretty! She has a nice recline and rock. No swivel, but she rocks! She'd be a great addition as a lounge chair in an office or front room. She'd also weather nicely on a covered front porch. The chair is for sale on the shop link and could be yours!

After

Before/During

shop bench

Part of creating and designing amazing spaces is filling them with amazing pieces! Ben is working on a design for a client who is looking for an iconic shop bench/table. This massive 10x14 maple top has a cantilevered base made from powder coated, structural steel, and a hopper bin. It has just the right clearance for shop stools to fit under and weighs a whooping 600 lbs! This is going to be a shop table that can be passed on to generations!

longing for summer

I'm ready for summer. Sunny mornings on the back porch. Planting and tinkering in the backyard in the late afternoon. Working long days and eating late dinners on the back deck. Shirts off and doors open.

I'm most excited to get our back living area in tip-top, summer shape. I love planting succulents and unique plant pairings. I'm especially excited, now in my full time role at Connell Hull, to bring our line of containers to life and showcase them in our outdoor living showroom. Summer, you are near, and I am ready for you! 

--Julie

lighting as art

We strive to create unique, impactful experiences for all our clients in the spaces we create and deliver. At Sparrow Bakery NW Crossing in Bend, our custom lighting was key in setting the tone and overall feel of the space. This massive chandelier serves as a focal, signature piece. It is a utilitarian piece of light art!  

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containers

First release of containers for sale on the online store. Ben's custom containers have been in the works for awhile and we are excited to finally have them available for sale. Racing stripes are Connell Hull's signature mark. These containers come in the signature racing stripes or the original, natural steel. They look great grouped together -- on a desk, on a back porch step or living room mantel. Succulents and orchids look beautiful in these containers!!

CON LO Chair Challenge

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"Con lo que tengo" is a saying in Spanish that my Cuban mother would say in many different contexts to mean that you've got to use what you've got in this life. My mother, who is a excellent cook, would often use the "con lo que tengo" saying when she would be cooking. A little this, a little that, and a beautiful meal would be prepared out of what seemingly appeared to be nothing. 

We've adopted this idea and we've abbreviated the saying to: CON LO. The "Con Lo" spirit can be applied to all aspects of life -- the idea of taking something that you've got, simply using what's right in front of you to create something wonderful. 

And so, in the spirit of CON LO, we're launching a year long challenge. Each month, we will be releasing a CON LO Chair. These chairs will be re-purposed and re-designed from old chairs and found materials.

Why chairs? We love chairs and the utilitarian nature they represent. We are always finding, collecting, and acquiring unique chairs. We are drawn to the classic bases, modern lines, and old-school colors. There is generally something amiss with these finds -- a ripped seat cushion, a busted leg or a scratched up base. While most people would look past these finds, we see potential to breath new life into these old gems. We are always seeing something in the ones we're drawn to, and have quite a collection.

The CON LO Chair Challenge fuses our love of chairs with the spirit of "con lo." Using materials we have in the shop -- wood, metal, parts, paint, and whatever we have laying around (con lo!!) -- we are going to re-design and re-purpose a chair, a month. The chairs will be posted on the blog and on the site for sale.

Here's to embracing what you've got by making what you have work. Here's to creating something out of "nothing" to create something beautiful and functional. Here's to CON LO!

--Julie and Ben

Chairs ready to be re-purposed for the CON LO Chair Challenge!

Chairs ready to be re-purposed for the CON LO Chair Challenge!

pendant lights

We are working on a new series of industrial pendant lights. These are a release for a residential client and we'll soon have them for sale on the site. More to come. Stay tuned! 

product development

Hydro Flask is an amazing Bend, OR company that produces amazing products. We just delivered a new product development shop bench for their workspace. This massive 6x6 maple top is resting on a 5x5 formed plate steel base.