When the massive elm tree outside Joan Murray’s Madison Park home came down with Dutch elm disease, Murray and husband Mark organized a wake so the neighborhood could mourn the leafy, 100-foot giant boasting 120 rings. (They counted.)

But Joan Murray didn’t have a plan for the tree’s afterlife — not until Jim Newsom showed up and proposed one.

Newsom owns Urban Hardwoods, a Seattle furniture company that does custom work and builds elegant tables and other pieces using mostly locally salvaged trees. Back in 2003, when Newsom explained his company to the Murrays, he asked for the elm, offering in exchange a custom-built table. The Murrays agreed. Their 4-foot round table now sits near a window overlooking the spot where the tree stood. The rest of the tree went to two homes on Orcas Island, while some lumber is still waiting to be made into tables.

“It’s like good karma,” Joan Murray said. “I love that we can sit at that table and remember the tree.”

Tree tales

Not all trees travel such a personal path to Urban Hardwoods’ showroom in south Seattle’s Industrial District, but all their trees have an extensive urban history somewhere. Hundreds of trees later, Newsom can still recall where he salvaged almost every richly hued plank in his showroom.

“The local stories of where these trees grew and why they came down are almost as valuable as the material itself,” Newsom said.

Newsom works with tree-removal services to salvage mostly diseased or unsafe trees, which typically get cut into firewood or chipped. His business has grown so much since he stopped by the Murrays’ door that some homeowners come to him. He can barely keep up with the trees, which come from as far away as Ellensburg and Tacoma.

Big news, new showroom

Newsom has been lugging trees around the city since the late 1990s, but the company lately has attracted national attention, with mentions in the Los Angeles Times and magazines Western Interiors, Sunset and Home.

Newsom attributes the company’s success to a number of factors, including a rise in the interest of materials that have been salvaged in eco-friendly ways and trees that are available locally.

His new showroom and warehouse showcases the years of work collecting and drying salvaged trees into furniture-grade lumber.

Elms, madrona and ash planks in various lengths are propped up against walls that divide the showroom from the sawdust-filled woodshop. Some pieces look more like traditional, smooth planks of wood, but many have cracks, burls and gaps. Some have manmade scars, including chunks created by chainsaws or nails, all of which will be incorporated into the furniture design.

“It adds to the story,” Newsom said.

The making of monsters

Much of the pleasure in buying a piece from the company lies in picking out the wood at the showroom and working with a designer on a custom piece, though some finished pieces are available for sale.

But you will pay for the work put into reclaiming that wood and designing its furniture, with coffee tables starting at $900 and dining tables at $3,000, though prices vary depending on the wood.

“The beautiful hardwood logs that are hidden in our backyards and street sites are a very valuable resource,” Newsom said. “It’s just a lot of hard work and heavy lifting.”

Information from: seattletimes.nwsource.com

This entry was posted on Sunday, May 20th, 2007 at 9:36 pm and is filed under Antique Furniture, Furniture. Tags: Design, Elegant, Ellensburg, Furniture, Furniture Company, Laine, Los Angeles, Los Angeles Times, Madison, Price, Seattle, Set, South, Table, Tacoma, West, Works, . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.