this "before and after" is great.

I really liked the "before" better....

:-)

ThatDogGuy—hah!

I liked before the "before" better, but the table is lovely.

Wow, it missed the bird bath AND the house. They were SO lucky! Nice little end table.

@veslabeachgirl: They were very lucky, indeed! The end table turned out great! I wonder what happened to the rest of the tree.

I did a similar project with the base of a cherry tree and a few casters and some polyeurothane - instant coffee table. Love it, indestructable and rustic.

That's cool. Coarse woody debris *can* be left to feed the forest soil, but if you can also make use of it instead of purchasing wood, that's great. Table is very cute.

Love it.

Brilliant.

Now, THAT'S a piece of furniture that tells a story!

I like it! They could have made several of those from that size tree....and given one to me! :)

Love! I have a coffee table made from cypress driftwood that my grandfather pulled from a Louisiana river, left to dry for two years and then fashioned into a table.

very nice ... I have a sycamore bowl carved by a local artist of wood from a tree that fell during "Hurricane Elvis" .. ideas like this are a great use of downed trees :)

Thank you guys so much for your compliments! I'm totally freaking out that my house is on Apartment Therapy. Yay!

We had three big trees that needed to come down. An 80' pine that leaned toward the house, a 65' poplar and a 65' maple that were too close to the driveway, and pushing up the concrete. I called a furniture artisan to see if he wanted the wood. He was very excited, and asked that the tree crew cut the trunks in 8-10' sections. The trees were very straight, so he got a lot of wood out of them. He was especially happy with the maple, which had been affected by a disease that gave the wood beautiful patterns. The artisan got free wood, it cost me less to have the trees cut down, and it was less work for the tree crew.

Nice! And think of all of the wood chips from what was left.

Nice job. I could really use a stump that size for my jewelry studio. Stumps are perfect for metalsmithing - although hard woods are the best.

Looks great.

Man, they are lucky it didn't hit the house.

Want it!

I'm curious how it would look oiled? I bet it would look darker and show the color gradation better.. Any Wood People know?

PS I'm happy for you guys, too, that the tree falling didn't destroy anything!

I just picked up three BIG slices today. There's even more you can do with one of these!

This before and after is epic.

Usually there's some drastic change, but this is simplicity in its simplest forms. I was expecting a crafted and formed table with legs, not a hunk of log. I love it.

I would like to see a small framed picture of the "before" on the end table. Adds to the story….

nmrobertson, what a great idea!

You rock (pun intended).

that poor antique piece of wood ;)

Love the tongue-in-cheek comments from thatdogguy and gypsy marie! I was also waiting for someone to complain that the before & after pictures weren't taken from the same angle ;)

You're lucky, IMO, to have gotten a piece that was cut straight enough that it doesn't lean or rock.

Great project. Congrats on your wedding!

Thanks, everyone. It's so fun to see all these great comments. We feel like we have our own cheering section!