Someday a luxe table from a reclaimed urban tree. Today, a funky table made from shipping pallets. 

Someday…

I would love to add a touch of nature to my home with a luxurious table from Urban Hardwoods. They offer furniture that are works of art made from reclaimed urban trees. These one of a kind pieces are rich in character and have unique organic forms. However, with prices that range from $1,000 – $10,000, nature doesn’t come cheap.

Urban Hardwoods is part of a growing movement across the nation to help harvest urban trees. In May, the Friends Of the Urban Forest hosted the first California Urban Wood Conference in San Francisco. It brought together forestry experts, cities, and woodworkers to educate them about the urban forest and alternative uses for wood gathered from city landscaping and local yards.

Trees in cities that are cut down are usually cut up and mulched right away. These trees are often very well taken care of and grow to be quite large. Although mulch is used, making a table from the tree can have more value.

Urban Hardwoods is a beneficiary of this new industry specializing in wood from urban trees.

Today…

I can make a funky table constructed from shipping pallets. Pallet furniture is everywhere these days because pallets are easy to find and cheap if not free. I adore the recessed areas for plants. This table would be perfect outdoors for a summer dinner.  You can find the directions on ReadyMade.

Someday/Today is a weekly column that inspires you to dream big for your home, and scale it to your lifestyle, always keeping sustainability of the planet – and your wallet – in mind.

It’s the kind of lab I wish they offered in school instead of chemistry.

Meet Chroma Lab, a collaboration of two furniture doctors, Alicia Cornwell and Tony Bevilacqua, who merged their fine art skills and history backgrounds to transform “neglected but promising” decor.

Salvaging the treasures in the attic beats buying new any day. Why not go the distance, like Cornwell and Bevilacqua, and reclaim one man’s junk instead of tossing it?

The artful pair began dabbling in recycling, repainting and repairing castaways from their work digs in Boston a couple of years ago for their own pleasure. It was so much fun (Yippee, pass me another chair!) they went legit, embellishing everything from timeworn, high quality furniture to tired handcrafted lamps and clocks -  customizing oldies but goodies from clients with pick-me-up colors and geometric flourishes.

Check out the lab’s new online store at Etsy. You can order painted treasures ready to ship. Or, if you live within 50 miles, they will deliver for free.

Bright spots from their lively portfolio include the Gum Drop Table; Glowing Tree Nightstands; Limeade Plant Stand; and an orange Table for a Rainy Day. The team has  partnered with Grand, adding its furniture and clocks to one of Boston’s design most well-curated haunts for home accessories, clothing and gifts.

Images: Chroma Lab

There’s a sad sight. After they’ve lugged your belongings from one corner of the world to the other and obviously won’t last another mile, the final stop for your careworn companions is the trash. There’s no alternative. It’s a fact.

Nonsense, says the team at Junktion!

If you’re keen to make your life a trashless one (particularly on Tuesdays), there are many ways to upcycle your garbage – but there’s a limit, surely? There are some items that you can’t do anything with – like empty gas bottles…?

No trying this at home, please. Junktion are professionals and know how to get into gas bottles safely!

Based in Tel Aviv and founded in 2008, this upcycled design company is interested in all the everyday things folk leave behind (rather like the Wombles, then). They’re keen to challenge our concept of “junk”, and they think there’s quite enough stuff in the world already for their creative purposes.

A car trunk door becomes a sofa. A chopper bicycle reforms itself, Transformers-style, into a stool. Metal piping becomes a classy-looking towel rail.

And if it’s attention-grabbing decor you’re after, how about this industrial-style octopus of a lamp, made from a metal cooking pot writhing with swarms of illuminated teapots? Or desklights make of bakelite-style phones?

Junktion trades out of their shop in Tel Aviv, asking locals to supply them with the raw materials. If they opened near you, would you be a regular customer?

Images: Junktion (via Haute*Nature) and Phineas H.