Just gonna brag a bit here about my talented husband! Back in January I mentioned in a post that he was working on a wooden-slab table. I’m happy to report it turned out really well, and is an amazing one-of-a-kind creation.

This table started life as our neighbours’ huge, old maple tree. Unfortunately, it had reached the end of its life and had irreparable rot in the trunk and had to come down. Our neighbours were kind enough to let Dave have a huge section of the trunk that wasn’t rotted out. They know he loves woodworking and he’s made them bowls and serving trays out of bits of their black walnut tree when it was pruned back. The table began as horizontal slabs of the tree trunk:

He spent hours and hours and HOURS flattening those slabs out and sanding them down. Literally days and days on this part. I think at one point in the process he would have preferred to be poking his own eyes out with a dull spoon.

He carved mortise-and-tenon joins in all of the pieces so they fit together firmly without any screws or nails.

The legs were created from 2 sets of X’s…he and I spent quite a while discussing how criss-crossed legs could be put together. I’m happy I can be of help in the design process. Often all you need is to bat around some ideas with another person to finally hit on the right solution.

Braces were added to attach the table top to the base and ensure the legs are completely stable.

Finally, the table’s surface was finished with linseed oil to bring out the natural colour and shine of the wood, then sealed with polyurethane to protect it from wear and tear.

Gorgeous, isn’t it? The ironic thing is, it doesn’t really fit in our house. We both knew that would probably be the case as he was working on it; because the table’s got a rustic, natural look to it we knew it wasn’t going to go so well with our modern decor. So Dave’s thinking of selling it. The next challenge is figuring out how to price it. As with all hand-made creations that take weeks of work and a lot of skill as well as expensive materials — ok, in this case, the materials were free, but it’s not every day that an 80-year-old tree comes down in your neighbourhood — it should be worth a LOT of money. On the other hand, if you actually ask for what it’s worth, that usually seems way too expensive to most people in our Ikea-saturated world.  He’s thinking of asking $1000 for it. But then, how does he get it in front of the eyes of the right people? You can’t just post something like this on Craigslist and expect to sell it in your own city. Or can you? Maybe Etsy is the way to go, but I get the sense that Etsy sellers need to have an established Etsy business — in other words, maybe it’s weird to set up an Etsy shop just to sell one thing. What do you think? Does the price seem reasonable? What’s the best way to try to sell it? Dave will appreciate your advice!