Recycle Ann Arbor News
Tuesday, July 3, 2012
Beautiful Examples Of Urbanwood Furniture
Recycle Ann Arbor’s ReUse Center is one of a handful of locations where you can buy Urbanwood. Urbanwood is southeast Michigan’s reclaimed wood market place. The organization saves and recycles the best logs from dead urban trees and works to create a varity of beautiful, high-quality urbanwood products.
In 2005, Recycle Ann Arbor and the Southeast Michigan Resource Conservation and Development Council were encouraging more recycling of dead urban trees and the Urbanwood project was launched based on this work. Today a wide selection of high-quality, sustainable woods products are available. Typically Urbanwood Partners are small, family-owned businesses that have found ways to recover good logs from landscape tree removals.
The Urbanwood suppliers and sellers both contribute to efficent resource management. When trees are removed from communities, Urbanwood ensures that they become usable products that conserve resources and support local jobs.
ReUse Center customers were asked for examples of items they had made using Urbanwood purchased at the ReUse Center. The following example was recently received:
Andrew Daley, a New Yorker and recent Ann Arbor transplant, says of the Urbanwood section at the ReUse Center:
“Thanks for doing what you do!
The wood section at the ReUse Center is incredible!”
Andrew recently bought two planks of walnut from the ReUse Center, which he transformed into a custom-designed shelving system with galvanized steel pipe and fittings. The boards were originally 3/4″ x 9.5″ x 8′ and 3/4″ x 7.5″ x 6′. Andrew sanded them down, cut each in half, finished with clear polyurethane, and incorporated them into his shelving system. The total supply cost was about $250, and Andrew put hours of labor into the project.
Andrew also bought a piece of walnut 3/4″ x 15″ x 100″, which he used as a countertop for a small desk over two 34″ cabinets. The walnut top spans the 30″ distance between the two cabinets. It is currently used as a makeup station in Andrew’s guest bedroom.
Recycle Ann Arbor’s ReUse Center is open Monday through Saturday 9am – 5pm, and Sundays 10am – 2pm. You can follow them on Facebook at www.facebook.com/reusecenter, or call 734-222-7880 for more information. Staff will be happy to assist you with any questions on sales or donations.
If you have any Urbanwood or other projects using ReUse Center products, please e-mail service@recycleannarbor.org.
