One of the best parts of our jobs is getting to work on pieces with a story. When something has a history to it, it makes the piece come alive to us, and it becomes so much more than a piece of furniture. Maybe your favorite piece is from an old antique shop or has been past down from generation to generation or is something design and crafted especially for you and your family. We are fortunate enough to be involved in all the stages of creating a custom feature—from the design, to the woodworking, to the staining and sealing—The Heirloom Companies is a fundamental component of each piece. You could say that when we start working on a piece, particularly a piece that we will be wood-working, the materials are a bit more raw and their history, a bit more rugged than you would think. This is true for a pair of Redwood tables that we created and their story is quite an interesting one.
The Redwood tables came to The Heirloom Companies workshop by way of cross-country trailer and were not tables but, in fact, actual Redwood tree trunks. A client of ours was in California, admiring the lush, mountainous landscapes when he found the fallen Redwood tree and was able to salvage the wood. He loaded it up on his trailer, hitched it up to his truck and began the trek back across the country to Campobello, South Carolina. Quite literally from California to the craftsmen, he backed his trailer up to our workshop, dropped off the trunks and told us to do our thing. And we certainly did.
Our artisans sanded and finished the live edge tables with a gloss, filling in the nooks and crannies with an epoxy. The twin tables sit in two different homes as featured dining room tables. It warms our hearts to think about the conversations and connections that will take place around the redwood tables.
If you are like us, the next time you look down at your dining room or living room table, you will probably be wondering about the history of your furniture and just how exactly it came to be in your possession. And do not forget—always use a coaster!
