The Rising Trend of Urban Timber

Over the last few years, reclaimed wood and urban timber has been a large focus in the remodeling and custom furniture world. From counter tops to flooring to conference room tables, urban timber furniture is popping up in residential and commercial spaces more and more everyday.

Urban timber is lumber resourced trees that are diseased, become hazardous, or need to be removed for construction. Usually these trees would then be used for firewood or mulch. These older trees tend to yield better quality lumber than forest grown plantations.

When Susan K was building her home, she spoke to Journal Sentinel about an issue she ran into. She had a white oak and a cherry tree that had to be removed for her to continue building her home. Rather than having the trees go to waste, she had the trees become part of her home. The oak tree will become a bed frame and the cherry tree will be her fireplace mantel.

In the video below, Tom Marchetty of The Factory Workers talks about a project he worked on for a Wholefoods in South Jersey. Using locally sourced urban timber, they were able to refurnish the Wholefoods cafe seating area.