Modified Greene and Greene Tissue Box

This little project is a happy coincidence of practical need, perfect leftover wood, and a desire for a new stylistic experiment. We became intrigued with the background story of the rise of Greene and Greene style furnishings, and how it was born of a need for efficiency of production and a willingness to literally let the nuts and bolts of construction shine through. At the same time, I wanted to cover up the increasingly ugly choices available in ‘decorator’ cardboard tissue boxes. And, we had one remaining piece of reclaimed white oak flooring from a now nonexistent bar in Baltimore. Not enough to use in anything larger than the exact project we had in mind. We removed the tongue and groove edges, re-sawed the piece for proper thickness (and it still smelled like whiskey when we cut it), cut proud ‘dovetails’ along the edges, and assembled it with small deep bronze screws, also left proud. With the final scrap from this final floor board, we cut the removable lid. We finished the piece off with water based, brush on clear polyurethane. We consider this piece, like some others we have made, to be a prototype for many more covers for unsightly cardboard tissue boxes.