The 30-Year-Old Salvaged Coffee Table
My grandfather pulled this slice of a Cypress tree out of the trash on the side of the road
That was over 30 years ago. He gave it to my dad who was going to make a clock out of it. Fast forward to 3 years ago and he ask if I wanted it to “do something with.” I said yes, mostly because my wife liked it, threw it on a metal base, and called it a side table.
Then, a few months ago, we decided to go all in on it.
At this point it was stained and covered is some type of epoxy
The color was terrible. The bark was gross. The finish was plastic feeling. We knew that if we wanted this to be a great centerpiece, it needed a facelift. The only problem was we had no idea what was under all this terrible finish (or how we would get it off either).
We decided to wing it, and it worked
We used a router and a homemade flattening jig and just started taking layers off the tree cookie. It was wild seeing what was under it after years of this wood being “hidden”
Well now, we got excited
And we could not get the bark off this slab quickly enough. After hours of chisel work, sanding, filing, and sanding some more, we had it ready for a base. We decided to go with a round slatted white oak base because it’s cool looking.
At the end of the day, what do we end up with?
We end up with a one-of-a-kind piece of furniture that will carry a story for a lifetime. This literally went from trash to our treasure.
It’s weird.
It’s wild.
It’s got a crazy story.
It was discarded.
It has found a new life and new purpose.
It matters to someone.
Are we still talking about a piece of wood?
*Shoutout to Propaganda’s spoken word “I Hate Cats”