Life and design come intertwined in the woodworking practice of John Randall. Having first piqued his interest working construction as a teen, it wouldn’t be until college where biology would find its way into Randall’s artistic voice before finally landing his practice where it sits today, working with reclaimed wood in both woodworking and interior design at his firm Bien Hecho.
“I had whole pads filled with ideas,” he recalls, working those formative years in construction. “What propelled me into design initially was to see these ideas made real.”
“It’s remarkable seeing a creation that’s been floating around in your head come into physical being. It’s a gratification that feeds back on itself. Before you know it, there’s no other path for you in your life.”
In working with reclaimed wood, Randall sees it as “an excellent workaround for an unfortunate aspect of the industry,” being able to bring to life objects that combine rich textures with modern sensibilities, respectfully and thoughftully giving old, worn wood a second opportunity to perform.
What sets his work even further apart, however, is how immersed he is in the collaboration process, inviting designers to his studio to select wood for the projects. “It gets them into the fabrication space, and it gives my team the chance to have input and a perspective that we don’t get on a day-to-day basis,” he says.
See Randall’s Work in the World
Since founding Bien Hecho back in 2007, Randall’s products have found their way to Kit Kemp’s Whitby Hotel in Manhattan; the 1 Hotel Brooklyn Bridge by INC Architecture & Design; and the Loren Daye-designed Le Crocodile restaurant in the Wythe Hotel in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.
Currently, he is working on a Michelin-starred restaurant with the partners behind Brooklyn’s Oxalis called Place des Fêtes.
As for the products, inspiration often comes from his dreams, he says. “The interior dreamscapes I wander through can be rich with ornamentation and furnishings from some recess of my mind that I have no waking access to.”
Another version of this article originally appeared on our sister site Hospitality Design.
