ollson & jensen

One unexpected outcome of Hurricane Sandy for us was our new obsession with trees, after we saw some mighty ones toppled over and wondered how we could give them a second life. We hauled a bunch of huge heavy trunk parts home and have found ourselves wandering the park daily to check out the progress of the Parks Department in clearing them away, hoping to snag some slices of the massive 3-foot in diameter oak we wrote about. Most of it has been removed, save the huge trunk and roots. Today we counted the rings and figure the tree to have been around 150 years old.

A reader named Susie Flax summed up what it is that hooked us about the fallen trees in an email, along with a link to the very cool sliced tree trunk coffee table above, after our own hearts:

Appreciate all the coverage you’ve been giving to how to use felled trees.

Trees embody such beauty and grace, so I love the notion of them serving some ongoing purpose even when no longer standing…

That’s why we hauled those sawn and broken tree parts home, to somehow give them a new life.  They’ve positively changed the feeling of the apartment. We find ourselves living in a “tree” house…

…learning tree lore, and scouting images of ancient trees, like this one once the oldest living tree

…and images of tree improvisations others have done, like this birch branch pot rack

Top picture via 79 ideas; second photo via Neatorama; bottom photo by Heidi Swanson via Remodelista.

Related post: more salvaged tree trunk furniture
foraging fallen trees for diy’s
fallen trees become cool park furniture
hurricane sandy: strange beauty amidst destruction
d-i-y bench made of stump, slab, stone
giuseppe penone’s tree + ‘the hidden life within’

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4 replies on “stacked tree trunk coffee table + branch pot rack

  1. I think you will enjoy checking out Polish Brazilian artist Frans Kracjberg and his fantastic work with burned forest wood:
    http://www.frans-krajcberg.com/
    Thanks for your great blog!

  2. While researching the poet Robert Frost, i stumbled upon a photo of him addressing an audience — probably giving a reading or accepting one of his many awards. The lecturn he stood behind was a section from a 5 foot tree trunk. It was simple and beautiful and so very appropriate for a poet who closely observed and wrote about nature.

    Yet another example of using a tree transformed…

  3. Hey Pamela, could you send that picture. I’ve been looking for it to no avail. DYING to see it.

  4. Wow, burned wood: intense and amazing. Thank you!

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