BRINGING THE OUTDOORS IN
Interior designer uses slabs of wood to create showpiece furniture
What most people overlook as a fallen tree or rotten stump, Chantal Hospodar envisions as a stunning dining room table, shapely bar top or funky stool tucked next to a freestanding tub or leather chair.
Owner of Serenity Stumps and Cutting Boards (serenitystumps.com) in Carp, Hospodar says it’s the natural beauty of the wood’s curves, rich grain patterns, and knots, nicks and crevices that are spurring the recent trend in live-edge furniture, tree-root tables and stump seating and side tables.
“People are trying to establish more of a connection to the earth. It’s about bringing more of the outdoors in,” says Hospodar, who sources all of the wood for her eco-friendly furniture and accessories from Ontario farms and her father’s rural property in Perth.
The interior designer tries to use the most irregular-shaped slabs of maple, elm, ash, birch or walnut to create showpiece tables, benches and charcuterie boards, often with the bark still intact. She even transforms slices of rotten stumps into quirky mirrors.
“It works in any decor. You can see them in a rustic cottage or you can see them in high-end condos. It’s the warmth and richness (woods) bring to the space that is attracting buyers,” she says.
Even Zen retreats, like the Nordic Nature-Spa in Chelsea, have integrated live-edge tables and stump stools into their decor to offer guests a “sense of calmness and relaxation,” says Hospodar.
For those who favour edgier designs, Artemano (artemano.ca) in the Ottawa Trainyards carries a wide selection of contemporary dining tables, dressers, platform beds and desks made from thick slabs of exotic hardwoods and reclaimed wood from Indonesia, India and Thailand. Rustic iron or stainless-steel legs give the furnishings a more modern, industrial look.
Esthetics aside, furniture built from salvaged wood, gnarly roots and fallen trees also appeals to the growing number of environmentally conscious consumers, says Peggy Bakker.
“People are decorating more casually now and they like that (our tables, benches, mirrors, etc.) are made from reclaimed wood,” says Bakker, co-owner of the Third World Bazaar (ThirdWorldBazaar.ca), an annual sale in Manotick Station that sells handmade furniture, art and home decor from developing countries, including Thailand, India and Mexico.
“People are interested in a more natural reclaimed product — not something mass produced in a factory,” says Bakker, who travels several months of the year with her husband Dick to buy beautiful teak-root coffee tables and chairs, mirrors framed in carved acacia wood and colourful dressers and side tables made with wood salvaged from old fishing boats in Indonesia.
“It’s artistic and functional,” says the mother of two, who buys the one-of-a-kind furniture directly from the artisans who make it, then sells the exotic finds inside a converted barn on Mitch Owens Drive, south of Ottawa. Now in its 13th year, the Third World Bazaar is open Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays until Nov. 20. “No two pieces are the same.”
When Carlos and Lisa Card opened Chaiya Decor, an imported furniture store in Merrickville in May 2015, they carried about two dozen live-edge dining sets and teak-root coffee tables. Now, they import 80 tables in a single shipment.
“It’s kind of caught us off guard being a new business,” says Card, a retired conservation biologist, of the increasing demand for exotic and reclaimed wood furniture.
“Most people like art and want art in their space. But it’s hard to justify spending money on art to hang on your wall,” says the avid traveller, who gave up urban life in Toronto to open the small business in the historic village, about 45 minutes southwest of Ottawa.
“These tables are functional art ... and each piece has a story to tell,” he says.
The Cards only buy furniture made from salvaged or sustainable wood, like suar, a fast-growing hardwood from Southeast Asia, and Indian rosewood and sheesham. Like the Bakkers, they buy directly from the villagers who make the furniture and won’t support child labour.
“We are very careful about the woods we buy,” says Card, who plans to expand his Merrickville store to house more imported furniture to keep up with consumer demand. “We don’t buy from factories and we are very careful not to buy wood furniture that requires cutting down forests.”