For this second project I was able to get some nice black acacia from a tree that grew in Oakland. While getting the planks back to the shop, I noticed a nail embedded in the side of one plank that the sawyer had missed. I have intentionally included that piece of wood in the left side rail as a “truth window” - a sign of the tree's urban integrity. The nail can still be inserted into the rail just as it had been years ago. I enjoyed working with this urban tree. I imagined kids climbing it, couples napping under it, and garage sale signs being nailed to it's trunk. Its foliage and flowers bringing some form of nature to an otherwise concrete habitat. I am happy to have given this tree a good second life in the form of a functioning sideboard.

photo: David Welter