Ellen's Design Challenge Season Two: See Sef Pinney's Designs
Get a closer look at the work of modern furniture designer Sef Pinney and HGTV and DIY Network carpenter Chip Wade.
Meet Sef Pinney
Sef Pinney, an L.A.-based furniture designer and business owner, characterizes his design style as modern with Danish and Asian influences. He says he prefers to work with any type of beautiful wood and veneers, as well as industrial materials such as aerospace plywood, aluminum, steel and titanium. Sef says his strength as a designer is his ability to envision and execute complicated, elegant pieces.
Chip + Sef
Carpenter Chip Wade and designer Sef Pinney are paired up to bring Sef's designs to fruition.
Challenge 7: The Final Three
The remaining three designers face their toughest challenge yet: Create a multi-functional furniture piece that wows the judging panel.
Challenge 7: Hard at Work
Here, Sef cuts metal parts for his interpretation of the challenge, a multi-functional desk.
Challenge 7: The Finishing Touches
Sef and carpenter Chip attach the blue powder-coated metal legs to the modern desk shell.
Challenge 7: Sef's Finished Design
This modern take on a secretary-style desk opens to reveal a desk surface, light and storage compartments.
Challenge 7: Pivot, Pivot, Pivot
Sef's desk pivots into a vertical, magnetic writing surface.
Challenge 7: Bright Details
Sef's modern desk features hardware and metal accents decked out in powder blue paint.
Challenge 6: Ellen-Inspired Design
This week, it's personal, as Ellen gives each designera copy of her new design book with a personal note instructing them to build a specific piece of furniture for her. Sef's task: A modern dresser.
Challenge 6: A Sofa for 'The Ellen Show'
Ellen challenges the final four designers to create a modern sofa to dress up The Ellen Show's green room.
Challenge 6: The Sofa, Before
The show's green room sofa, before the designers tackled its replacement.
Challenge 6: It's All in the Details
True to his style, Sef decides to create a 21st-century take on a classic modernist design. Here, he works on the pointed legs for the sofa's wooden frame.
Challenge 6: The Finished Sofa
Sef's finished midcentury design looks as if it was pulled from a Mad Men-era office waiting room.
Challenge 6: Built-In Coffee Table
This stunning piece features a built-in coffee table, a common feature in midcentury-era sofas.
Challenge 6: Moveable Armrests
This waiting room-inspired piece features armrests can be moved depending on the occupants' needs.
Challenge 6: Back Detail
Carved wood spikes add a graphic detail to the sofa back.
Challenge 5: Under Construction
Sef works on the joints of a modern dresser designed with Ellen in mind.
Challenge 5: The Finished Design
Designer Sef Pinney's furniture piece has a beech top with a bright turquoise, textured front surface and custom steel handles.
Challenge 5: Detail
The angular edges of the piece contrast with the rippled front and custom handles.
Challenge 4: International Inspiration
In the competition's fourth challenge, Ellen asked each designer to create a piece of furniture inspired by an international destination. Sef's choice? Denmark, home of the sleek Danish modern style that inspires many of his designs.
Challenge 4: Easy Chair
Sef and Chip work the wooden frame of this wide, sleek easy chair, inspired by traditional Danish modern design.
Challenge 4: The Finished Design
Chip and sef pressed layers of wood to make the curved seat and back of this chair. Bright blue upholstery adds color and comfort.
Challenge 4: Chair Detail
The Danish modern-inspired chair features sleek wooden armrests, as is indicative of the style.
Challenge 4: Chair Detail
A continuous wooden leg arches from the front to back on each side.
Challenge 3: China-Inspired Design
For the show's third challenge, the designers were asked to choose a china pattern to inspire a dining table design. Sef chose an ornate, metallic dish as his inspiration.
Challenge 3: Ornate Pattern
Chip and Sef finish the detailed scrollwork on the underside of the dining table.
Challenge 3: Sef's Design
With time running out on day three of the challenge, designer Sef Pinney sands the inner edge, where glass will be set. Chip and Sef will mount a mirror inside the table, reflecing the routed design on the underside of the table.
Challenge 3: Sef's Finished Design
This modern table features a surprise detail in the center of the table.
Challenge 3: Leg Detail
Custom-made metal brackets add an industrial detail to the top of each table leg.
Challenge 3: Sef Takes the Stage
Sef presents his modern-meets-traditional dining table to the judging panel.
Challenge 3: The Inspiration
Sef's table is set with the dishes that inspired the table's design. The scrollwork featured on the plates is carved on the underside of the table and reflected with a mirror into the center of the table.
Challenge 2: Outdoor Design
Chip and Sef pose with power tools as they plan their challenge two design: An outdoor dining table.
Challenge 2: Construction Time!
After fabricating the modern steel base of the table, Sef adds a light yellow hue.
Challenge 2: The Finished Design
The finished table combines a bright metal base with an acrylic top – a design that would look right at home inside or outside the house! The panel loved this modern take on midcentury lines, and awarded Sef with a win.
Challenge 2: Design Detail
See the legs of the table up close, as seen on Ellen's Design Challenge.
Challenge 1: Sparks Fly
For the show's bed design challenge, Sef dreamed up a faceted headboard made of metal trianges. Here, sparks fly as Chip creates the pieces.
Challenge 1: The Finished Bed
The finished design features a faceted metal headboard, accented with trianges of wood veneer at the bottom of the design. A footboard, complete with an upholstered seat, provides a comfortable place to sit.
Challenge 1: Judges' Take
Judge Cliff Fong exmines the metal headboard. Though the design was innovative, the execution and functionality of the piece left the judges wanting more.
