Live Edge Dining Table

A Live Edge dining table is the perfect accent for your country, shabby chic or naturalistic interior design. Live Edge tables use the natural edge of a woodcut as the table edge or the wood grain as an important part of the table decoration. Often made from the center pruning of giant trees, they can even hold back the bark around the edges.

Using the natural swirls and shapes of the wood grain itself can also produce amazing artistic results. For some tables, the designer can use a natural flaw or join two central tree panels and fill the space with acrylic resin. This fill section can be transformed into the representation of a river, especially if the nodes are also filled with acrylic to represent smaller bodies of water. The central resin strip can be of other colors. A very nice table with living edges from India has a dark resin center that connects the natural edges of two pieces of rosewood. The cut edges of the panels are positioned outside of the tabletop, creating a milled outer edge.

George Nakashima was famous for his use of live edge wood and natural nubs. Despite being a natural citizen of the United States, he was interned in 1940. He met Gentaro Hikogawa in the internment camp and studied woodworking with him. In 1943, Antonin sponsored Raymond Nakashima’s release. George Nakashima then designed furniture for Knoll, including the straight-back chair (a design that is still in use today) and 200 pieces for Nelson Rockefeller.

His most famous pieces were living edge tables, known as “Altars for Peace”. Nakashima hoped that by installing a Peace Altar in every nation in the world, the world would become a better place.

Mira Nakashima continued her father’s legacy. The Nakashima company continues to produce beautiful furniture and create altars of peace. Perhaps your Live Edge dining table can become your family’s altar of peace. Of course, dining tables are often the hub of family activities, where everything from family meals to homework is done.