Live Edge Walnut Console Table | Making Meaningful Furniture
Custom furniture is about the harmony of form, function and feeling. Does it look right for you? Is its function proper? And perhaps most importantly, does it evoke the feelings to make it a truly special piece. What lies within the design is where the magic lives. Today we’ll discuss how meaning was built into a handcrafted table.
A Console Table with Purpose
Not long after leaving my previous life in medicine a friend asked for a console table. She was a stellar OR nurse and we worked together for years, sharing an iconoclastic view of the world. She didn’t need the table for her entryway, but wanted one built by me. What an honor.
After deciding on a live edge console table design, we went on a field trip to the live edge wood store. If you go, make sure you have a few hours, because almost every slab you see is going to be beautiful. Deciding on the right one takes time. But it’s a fun time. Does shopping online or at a furniture store stocked with products for the masses bring the same kind of joy?
The initial trip around the showroom revealed any number of slabs that were striking and beautiful. How do you decide? Following a break for coffee, which always elevates these kinds of field trips, we were able to return to the supplier and choose a beautiful walnut slab that called to her the most. That’s the ticket here. Going with what calls to you.
Erie/Frederick, CO | Design for what calls to you
With the proper ingredients and purpose the build proceeded smoothly. Mortise and tenon joinery for the legs. A shelf below. Hard wax oil finish.
The impact of the table is significant. It’s something that greets her every time she returns home, housing a collections from her travels, as well as pottery that a former surgeon partner of mine made. The three of us have moved on, my partner to a different hospital, my friend out of OR nursing, and me into sawdust. The table stands, quietly and confidently as a symbol, literally and figuratively, of strong personal bonds, friendships and memories.
That is the value of custom furniture - making it your own, with purpose and intent. Creating the history. Enjoying the process. Elevating your home and lifestyle.
