Old Wood Brings New Peace and Balance

Date: January 15, 2008 | Category: Green Building, Home Furnishings, The Home

When Tim O’Brien visited Sumatra’s Gunung Leuser National Park in 1998, he gained a wealth of knowledge about Indonesia’s landscape. He found out that parts of Indonesia’s old-growth forests were destroyed by unregulated logging practices, creating major floods, landslides and soil erosion, leaving the terrain and it’s people vulnerable to Indonesia’s climate. Shortly after his eye-opening trip, O’Brien started Tropical Salvage, a company dedicated to producing furniture from reclaimed wood. Whether salvaged from demolished homes, buildings, bridges, or rescued from rivers or lakes after the rainy season, the reclaimed hardwood is cleaned, cut and kiln-dried before it’s reworked into a brand new piece of furniture. Since 2003, Tropical Salvage has also been mining entombed wood - buried trees that are a result of volcanic eruptions that occurred hundreds of years ago. With the Peaceful Balance Table, Tropical Salvage has finally cracked the code on elegantly straightforward design. According to O’Brien, simpler structures, not only require less milling, but also highlight the beauty of the rare and intricate grains found in Indonesia’s hardwood. Designed by Agus Rafiqkoh, this modern and extremely versatile side table is available for $210 and ships from the company’s warehouse and showroom in Portland, Oregon. Dimensions:

27”L x 16”W x 16”

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