Trend: High-Contrast Metallic Wood Accents

Reclaimed wood and FSC certified materials get their shine on.

This season, it’s a winter wonderland. Appropriately so, as wood is somewhat transported back to its natural element – wrapped in icy high contrast metallics and wintry silver tones.

In these pieces, the hulk and bulk of wood gets pared down with an ultra shiny treatment that is both minimal and futuristic.

The 47 Table from San Francisco’s Council.

Pits and scars from blocks of reclaimed Douglas firs are coated in brilliant silver. The name is derived “from the atomic number of silver and the height of the piece in centimeters.”

Smart.

Like a blast of fresh winter air, a massive block of reclaimed Douglas Fir coated in dazzling silver. Also from Council.

Cabinets from the PCHseries by MASHStudios.

The series is named for California’s Pacific Coast Highway and made from natural, lacquer-free and FSC certified materials accented with cast aluminum.

From John Haushmand, a piece of Black Walnut microslab wrapped around a glass base – as if hugging a block of ice.

Shelving boxes from 2nd Shift Design Studio in Cleveland, Ohio. The interior is rimmed with arctic aluminum frames. The exterior wrapped in slats of reclaimed lumber.

Imperfection and impermanence are the two underlying commonalities in all of these pieces. The imperfection of the wood itself, each pockmark memorialized and encased under a hardened shell. Evidenced, too, is the impermanence of wood. An unrelenting tree standing tall season by season cum roller coaster, now reclaimed and “of the moment” in our cozy living rooms.

K. Emily Bond

K. Emily Bond is the Shelter Editor at EcoSalon and currently resides in southern Spain, reporting on trends in art, design, sustainable living and lifestyle.