Sustainable Environmental Furniture
In the southeast United States, where the Tennessee River dips south into Alabama, scooping out one corner, and then turns back north toward its namesake state, the land is peppered with gracious old grand dames. Walnut, oak, maple, and cherry trees tower over historic plantations and new developments, beckoning to children young and old to climb, relax, and daydream on and under their shady branches. Sadly, there comes a time in every tree’s life when she falls. Whether taken down by a storm, Mother Nature’s own timeline, or by humans for the name of development or safety, when a grand dame comes down near his Florence, Alabama, Slow Studio, Robin Wade is there to pick up the pieces. “I give these trees a second life,” he says of the breathtaking, one-of-a-kind sustainable furniture pieces he crafts from locally harvested trees. Wade’s strict environmental policy is to only work with trees that are harvested within a 60-mile radius of his Slow Studio.
After its arrival, each specimen of hardwood is flitch sawn into natural-edge wood slabs, debarked by hand with a draw knife, and stacked to dry, usually for years, before the final cure in the kiln. From here, Wade and his team use both hand and power tools to bring Wade's vision to life, and then finish each sustainable furniture piece with a hand-rubbed finish.
Each organic, sustainable furniture creation by Robin Wade Furniture balances the raw, natural beauty of environmentally, locally sourced hardwoods with minimally invasive, clean lines—a juxtaposition Wade calls both rustic and modern. “I haven’t yet found a better artist than nature,” he says.