Lovely Stumps

Tree stumps have long been a staple of casual — even impromptu — outdoor furniture.

Now they’re moving indoors.

It’s another aspect of the continuing strong trend for elements of nature in interior design and home decor.

In fact, tree stumps seem to be turning up everywhere, whether in their natural form or in a more polished version, even as a hand-crafted representation — and put to use as occasional tables and stools and pedestals and bases for glass-topped table… the possibilities are literally unlimited.

On the up-market end, Hudson Furniture shows a line of tree stumps ranging from a gorgeous natural teak stump to an intriguing collection of petrified wood stumps with colourful striations created by the passage of time.

Or mxyplyzyk offers hand-carved stumps from the trunks of discarded Chinese fir trees, each one a unique piece of functional art in its own right.

And DFC goes a different route, with a tree-stump-inspired ceramic version, hand-glazed in bold modern lime-green or sculptural white.

Having lost a huge old maple tree in the past year, I’m looking at these stump stools and tables with a special interest.

Instead of trying to compost that giant tree stump, perhaps I should be thinking in terms of a new coffee table — natural spalled maple with a lovely smooth hand-rubbed finish?

[H/T to Moco Loco and Kingdom of Style]

Tagged as: decorating, furniture, nature, stool, table, theme, tree