Have you ever heard of live edge furniture? If not, you may be wondering what in the world it is.

Source: Jennifer Ekstrom via freedigitalphotos.net

Live edge (or natural edge) furniture is where the craftsman allows the natural edge of the wood to be a design aspect of the furniture. We often see salvaged wood that could not be used for traditional woodworking used to create this unique style of furniture.

Typically, this type of furniture is very pricey due to its uniqueness and effort required to craft it. However, this DIY blog called Remodelicious found an occasion where a live edge dining table was crafted out of a walnut tree that was chopped down for a city road project. Walnut has the tendency to produce beautiful furniture since it is resilient and offers tremendous character.

Once Aria, the woman behind Remodelicious, got her hands on the live edge walnut slab, she had to find someone to dry the slab. While this can take years for walnut slabs to dry naturally, you can find local services that will dry the wood in their kiln. Kiln drying speeds up the drying process from years to weeks, but it’s important that the wood is not rushed through the drying process as you want to reduce cracks.

After the wood is dried, the sanding begins. Since Aria planned to use the wood slab as a dining table, she applied several coats of polyurethane to protect the wood from everyday ailments such as spills, rambunctious children, and anything else that life could through at the table.

As you can see, the legs to the table embraced a mid-century design and when it was paired with 6 vintage Herman Miller fiberglass chairs, the look was complete.

When you’re commissioning a piece of furniture, it’s always important to remember that anything is possible. Contact me, Richard Oedel, Fine Furniture Master, to get start on your piece.