Posted by Kristine Brabson, Ecologue.com – October 7, 2008 9:00 AM
Tags: earth friendly, furniture, wood

I got an unhappy shock when I pulled into my folks’ driveway last month — our old, towering oak tree had lost all its leaves. “Disease got it,” my stepdad said.

A downer, no doubt, to see such a beautiful tree die, but this doesn’t have to mean the end of “Old Oaky.” After the arborists bring him down, I plan to scavenge the remnants — specifically the thicker limbs and trunk parts — and make my own recycled tree trunk end table like this one from Michelle Kaufmann:

Of course, some stores sell their own variations (check out these stools), but Kaufmann shares easy DIY steps — just strip it and seal it. The wood is free so this is definitely an inexpensive and eco-friendly design project.

The limbs and trunk would make great rustic indoor/outdoor plant stands, too. I love the mix of Mother Nature’s new and old materials and that I'd be giving Old Oaky lush, green leaves again. I also want to snag some thin cross-sections of the limbs or trunk to make trivets or textured wall art — the gnarlier, the better. And I found this simple tealight candle idea from Natural Home magazine:

My stepdad thinks the tree's trunk might be hollow from rot, but I’ve got another idea for that. I have an old glass tabletop in the basement. Maybe I can take a piece of the trunk’s base, chip out the bad parts, top it with the glass, and voila, insta-coffee table! I’d be creatively reusing two things and getting a free, much-needed coffee table refresh. But best of all, I bring a bit of my beloved West Virginia outdoors into my Brooklyn apartment.

Now I wish the NYC Parks Department had let me keep scraps from the huge Aspen that crushed my car this summer. They wouldn't even hand over the mulched limbs for my yard — so stingy!

So any other ideas for reusing fallen trees or wood scraps?