Ian has made a beautiful new coffee table for Nuthatch Eco Lodge – from our own Wheatland Farm timber.
Yes, it’s rustic rather than sleekly smooth, but that goes with the eco lodges, set about as they are with trees.
The tree in question was a fast-growing birch that was too close to the farmhouse and was overshadowing everything. We took it down a year or so ago when we created our latest wildflower area.
As part of our overall sustainability ethic, we try hard to use resources we already have, upcycling what we can, rather than buying in imports from distant lands. That’s particularly important when it comes to furniture as it’s hard to be sure where that wood came from. This table will complement the hand-made beds Ian fashioned from reclaimed timber.
And since we continue to plant new trees and foster seedlings when they pop up, we don’t feel bad about taking one down and using this renewable resource for fuel (we’ve been heating with biomass for several years now).
But not just for fuel! This tree had 3 fused trunks – turned upside-down that makes a table doesn’t it? So some chainsaw work, some filling of cracks with dark coloured resin, some polishing and varnishing…. and here we have it, finally installed in Nuthatch Lodge.
That’s three lovely wooden coffee tables now. The other two, in Beech Lodge and Balebarn Lodge, came from storm felled beech trees on the road up to Chulmleigh, and were similarly redirected out of the fuel supply chain.
This latest one has a tougher coating – we want to see how well it stands up to all that spilt coffee – so we’re looking forward to welcoming you all back after the covid19 lockdown so you can really put it to the test!