Making Old New Again

Storyboard Furniture, located in Toronto, takes old trees that are going to be or have been knocked down and brings new life to them by recycling them into beautiful furniture.  "Oftentimes we are commissioned to make furniture from ill fated trees. We coordinate with a certified arborist to safely do the tree removal," says the company.  Each tree has a story and they want to save that story for generations to come.  From sitting in a chair that was an tree stump that you played on as a child to a mantle from an old church that was torn down, each piece from this company has a story to tell. 

Toronto Spalted Sugar Maple from Cohen and Master Tree and Shrub Service

Split Branch Bench - Huttonville Apple from Big'r Apple Farm

The above table is from an apple farm owned by Nick Potovszky that was bulldozed to create a housing development.  When the family heard of Storyboard Furniture, they contacted them in hopes of creating a family heritage piece.   His great-grandfather, Nazzareno Ferri, planted the trees in the 1930's.  He planted the trees very far apart, unlike they are planted today, so that the trees could grow large.  “It’s not just any wood,” Potovszky told the Toronto Star. Storyboard salvaged 400 trees from the farm that were going to be made into firewood and created a line of furniture, bowls, and cutting boards from the apple wood.  "The legacy of those trees will last forever,” Potovszky added. 

      

The Plane Cloud Pendant Lamp

The company also has a line of decorative geometric pendant lamps, above, that were made from strips of wood salvaged from Toronto's urban forest.  The lamps have been highly acclaimed for their beautiful and unique design. 




"We approach this work both as makers and artists. While we seek perfection in function and form when designing our furniture, we also look at this process through a different lens, one of storytelling and meaning making. Beginning with the material form and beauty of the wood that is unveiled by milling a tree, the stories that tree has witnessed in it’s life are drawn out in our furniture with intelligent design and exacting craftsmanship," says the company.