Ash Live Edge Kitchen Counter and Floating Shelves
About The Project
Live edge ash slabs were used to make a buffet top, a matching set of four floating shelves, and a reading lamp.
The project started with a live ash slab top for the kitchen’s built-in buffet. Live edge wood refers to lumber that retains the natural, outer contour of the tree along its edges, rather than being milled into perfectly straight, square planks. The bark is peeled off to expose the undulating and often insect bored outer edge. Because the outer edge is new growth sapwood, it is a different color and texture than the inner heartwood.
The customers and I found this slab at a local sawyer who specializes in turning diseased and downed trees into lumber. Unfortunately due to the emerald ash borer there are a lot of dead ash trees. The live edge on this slab complements the kitchen cabinets and their stone countertops, with the swoop of the edge and the insect holes adding character to the buffet top.
With the remaining piece of wood I fashioned four floating shelves next to the sink, on which the customer displays her birchbark box container collection. I also had enough wood to make a chairside reading lamp which sits in the corner across from the buffet.
