White Oak Epoxy River Table

Life has a peculiar way of intertwining beauty and danger. I encountered a unique opportunity to craft a White Oak Epoxy River Table using wood from a tree in my yard that fell and nearly took the life of my beloved mother-in-law. This is the story of resilience, craftsmanship, and the transformation of tragedy into art.

We had a White Oak that was at least 150 years old in our yard. It had a huge, beautiful canopy with broad branches. We had an arborist come assess its health and they said it was generally in good health but had a split in the trunk we’d need to keep an eye on. Time went on and the tree continued to stand tall.

On the fateful day, my mother-in-law was gardening in our yard. She could hear the tree making popping noises and distanced herself from it. Within an hour or so, it fell with a thunderous crash. Realizing she was near that tree just a short time ago left us a little shaken and filled with gratitude for her escape.

When we had the tree service come to clean up the felled tree, they offered to leave some of the wood with us in large pieces for slab cutting. We were able to then harvest the wood from this both loved and feared tree to continue the memories with it.

The first project from this tree was this standing desk for my wife. She wanted it extra wide so I had to configure some of the pieces together. On the next tree we have to take down, we’ll ask them to cut the slabs longer so the slabs will be ideal for dining tables and large desks. The epoxy river is the first f the many creations I’ll make from this tree. I guess I better make the next one for my mother-in-law – I think she’s earned it!

The Bat House

We try to be ‘au natural’ in our yard with use of chemicals and how we treat wildlife around our home. In fact, our property is a Certified Wildlife Habitat – bringing in lots of birds and pollinators. However, this lack of chemical spraying sometimes brings more mosquitoes.  I found out that one of the natural predators of the mosquito is the bat. We knew we already had bats in our area, as we already see them circling around our house every evening scooping up flying insects. My thought – I’ve already made several birdhouses, why not a bat house? Not only does it provide a safe place for the bats to live and raise their young, but it will also help us enjoy our yard with less mosquitoes and less chemicals.

This is a relatively simple project that you could do with your kids over the weekend – whether it’s a bat house or a birdhouse. Also, you can paint them or customize them in any way you like to add some fun and creativity to the project. We customized ours with a hand-burned batman logo, of course.

We’re placing this bat house about 10-20’ up in a bare tree trunk where we’ll have a clear view of the bat house from our deck.

Contact us if you’d like us to make one for your yard or to give as a gift to one of your nature enthusiast friends.

Refinished Captain's Chairs

A customer came to me with antique Captains’ chairs that were in need of some love. The leather was greenish and the beautiful cherry wood was covered with layers of dark red lacquer. Basically, they reminded me of some chairs you’d see in your grandparents’ house that you know were very expensive and weren’t allowed to touch. My customer was going to be using these chairs on a stage while filming a performance, so they need to be camera ready.

A LITTLE HISTORY ABOUT CAPTAIN’S CHAIRS

Captain’s chairs are called so because this was the style of chair sea captains had in their quarters. These chairs are known for being sturdy, yet having simple frames constructed from cherry wood and comfortable, genuine leather seats. Restoring them is a way of preserving a little piece of history.

THESE CHAIRS WERE A PERFECT CANDIDATE FOR REFINISHING

One of the reasons why these chairs were a perfect candidate for refinishing is because they were made from solid cherry wood 100% genuine leather. Because these chairs were not made from a composite or plywood (like in cheaper furniture), this allowed me to use heavy duty strippers, sanding and scraping without ruining the integrity of the furniture. The genuine leather also withstood some clean up and conditioning.

So now you get all of the rich grain and characteristics of the wood.  Had it been made from cheaper construction, this refinishing would have been impossible. The best option for those types would be to just slap some paint on it.