10/07/2021
Live edge furniture: Sustainability in imperfections!
While interned at Camp during World War II, Japanese-American architect George Nakashima learned to improvise and celebrate the imperfections of natural wood. In the camp “You couldn’t draw something and then go buy materials. It was the other way around; the material came first.”
Working first with scrap wood and then with offcuts from a local lumberyard, Nakashima developed a style that celebrated nature’s imperfections.The lumber was full of knots, cracks, and wormholes.Things ordinary furniture makers would throw away.
Check out One By Two live edge collection here https://onebytwodesigns.com/collections
Nakashima embraced those flaws, giving rise to a look we now call live edge, where the natural texture of the tree’s exterior is left visible. Butterfly joints, a.k.a. Nakashima joints were used as reinforcement on unruly bits or to book-match two slabs of wood (he favored black walnut and selected pieces on instinct alone) into long tabletops.
Are you looking for trendy, edgy furniture? If you have answered yes to this question, you have come to the right place! At One By Two designs as part of sustainability and efficient materials usage we create high-end live edge furniture pieces. If you are an outdoors type of person, and you want this reflected in your home, this furniture style is what you need. The theme is gaining traction within interior design circles; the majority of people are not familiar with it, so we are going to provide a brief guide about it.
All table tops, desks, and shelves come in a particular shape; well, live edge is now one of the many shapes that a piece of furniture can come in. These pieces are uniquely designed without taking away from the edge’s natural appearance. Live edge wood has been crafted by hand, this includes the coating, staining, and finishing and we then use it to build our furniture. There are no changes made to the original look and texture of the wood; however, we fill in any knots so that the furniture surface is even, but the authentic look of the wood remains the same.
People are tired of everything looking the same, (like MDF boxes from mass furniture makers) and they want to incorporate something unique and dynamic into their homes. When it comes to wood cutting, there is a very specific skill to it, and most craftsmen have been trained to cut away the natural edge as well as the bark. However, when those lines are left, they preserve the natural look of the wood. Contrary to popular belief, logs or wood slabs with live edges can be used to build furniture and to decorate your home.
Each piece of live edge furniture has its own unique star quality, no two chairs, tables or footstools look the same. They are like siblings who look alike, you can tell they have the same parents, but they each have their own unique look.
The term “one man’s trash is another man’s treasure” is certainly applicable when it comes to live edge furniture. It is made out of wood that had been discarded as not fit for use. When wood that has been left to rot is used to create a work of art, everyone benefits, and that includes the environment. This is because live edge furniture is not made from freshly cut down trees, but from trees that had already been cut down. If you are a consumer who makes purchases based on the effect that products are having on the environment, you can rest assured that live edge furniture is the perfect option for you.
-One By Two Designs
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