Mantelpiece

Richard made the wonderful suggestion of re-purposing a slab of maple (possibly myrtle wood - it's actually hard to tell) for the mantelpiece. This is a slab that came from his father-in-law's wood shop where it was used as a workbench and is shown leaning upright below:

It's a gorgeous piece of wood and we took Richard up on his offer. Of course the slab needed to be cut to size, sanded and polished and, in the process, a number of interesting elements were found. An old-fashioned square head nail had been hammered into the tree early on in its life and the tree had grown around the nail completely burying it in the wood in the process. Similarly there were some old buckshot holes as well as a small rock that had similarly been incorporated into the tree's interior. These made for some interesting scars hinting at the history of the tree. Here's the mantelpiece after it had been cut to size and polished which really accented the grain and textures within the wood. We decided to keep the lovely gnarly outside of the tree as the front edge:

And here it is installed with the green tile surround that matches the tiles we used in the kitchen:

We are delighted to have such a delightful, natural feature in the house that is so fitting in the context of the wooded environment.