The Joinery is excited to announce a limited offering of new furniture designs to extend the legacy of a 257-year-old Oregon Oak tree, while helping preserve the fragile oak ecosystem in the Willamette Valley.
Although the story of this remarkable tree originally began in 1765, we will pick it up more recently, in January 2017. That’s when Ben Deumling, the owner of Zena Forest Products , was put in touch with a woman who grew up on a family farm on the Little Luckiamute River, just south of Monmouth in Oregon’s Willamette Valley. The woman’s 85-year-old mother still lived on the farm, and her sister lived in a house next door.
The woman wanted to work with Zena on a forest thinning and reforestation plan for trees on the farm. She hoped to use some of the lumber in a home she was building on the Oregon Coast, as well as to make tabletops for other members of her family so that the trees could live on in a different form. Zena would process any remaining lumber and offer it for sale.
The family worked with a local logger to implement their plan. Among the trees removed was a very large, old Oregon Oak tree. Its top was dying and it was clear that it was at the end of its life, so it needed to be taken down. As the Zena team began to process the tree, they were shocked to discover that it was 257 years old, and of stunning quality. Ben noted that it is by far the oldest tree that Zena has ever worked with. Most oak trees in Oregon are less than 175 years old, and the lumber from this tree is easily distinguishable from other oaks.
When Ben realized this, he contacted The Joinery to see if we would be interested in using the trunk of this incredible tree to build incredible furniture. With it being such stunning quality, he wanted to keep the entire lot together. We were happy to oblige, and now to transform the lumber from this phenomenal tree into our Legacy Oregon Oak pieces.
Once the lumber arrived at The Joinery, our team was as blown away by the quality and character of the tree as Ben was. We thought that creating new designs using this Oregon Oak would be the perfect way to commemorate our 40th anniversary and continue the legacy of this remarkable tree.
Our Furniture Designer, Taryn developed new designs for a Legacy Coffee Table and Legacy End Table. We are also building Live Edge Dining Tabletops that can be paired with the base of customer choice. We wanted to create designs that showcased the beauty and incredible grain character of the two-inch thick Oak slabs. See photos and more information on the Legacy Oak Coffee Table here and Legacy Oak End Tables here; to see photos of our additional Legacy boards click here.
We are pleased to donate a percentage of sales of these amazing pieces to the Oregon Oak Accord, which protects and restores the oak habitat in the fragile Willamette Valley ecosystem.
We currently have finished pieces at our Downtown Portland showroom, and lumber for tabletop layouts at both our Downtown and St. Johns showrooms. Please call (503) 788-8547 x 1 for further information or to come see in person.