Wood Slab Tables - Uniting Precious Natural Wood Beauty and Rustic Style
We recently had the privilege of working with a beautiful walnut wood slab table, which is one of our favorite types of furniture pieces. Marina’s Crafts offers not only refinishing and repair services for wood slab tables made of precious wood types, but we also provide custom made-to-order furniture manufacturing for these truly unique furniture pieces.
Walnut slab wood table with epoxy inserts, sanded down, buffed and now applying oil to preserve the wood and bring out the natural beauty of the precious wood grain pattern
Types of Wood Slab Tables We Make
First, a few words about the types of wood slab tables which can be found. The most simple one is a basic rectangular all-wood table, where the slab is worked into a conforming shape. These types of tables preserve the natural wood grain pattern, and are typically finished with a special oil to preserve the wood while showing it’s most natural and beautiful characteristics.
Second type of wood slab tables is also rectangular, but it combines the natural wood with epoxy resin filler to fill gaps between the wood pieces, and to fill out the edges. This is the type of table we worked on recently, and you can see it in pictures below. The surface of these tables can either be mixed (part epoxy resin, part wood), or all-epoxy. The former presents a more sophisticated look and feel, while the latter provides greater durability.
The third type of wood slab tables is a “live edge” table, where the shape of the table only loosely conforms to a rectangle, but at least one of the edges of the table is not straight, but is kept free-form to follow the natural grain of the wood.
We consider all three types of wood slab tables to be a pinnacle of natural wood furniture making. The relatively simple design, gives space for the viewers to appreciate the natural beauty of precious woods. Walnut, oak, maple, redwood, teak and pine are only a few of the wood species we’ve used to make wood slab tables, and each presents a unique side in both the manufacturing process and end-user experience.
Process of Making Wood Slab Table
The process of making a wood slab table has been around for centuries, and This Old House has a very good description of the steps involved on their website. The key to a successful project is to select the best wood slab to start with. Wood slabs need to be dried for years, and sometimes decades, in order to ensure their shape will not change or warp after the table is made. There are specialty suppliers and lumber yards who have wide selections of wood slabs available, and one needs to know what to look for when purchasing the wood slab for this project. We offer our customers support from start to finish, beginning with the selection of the slab itself, and all the way through the design of the table legs to help the piece blend in with the customer’s interior.
Where to use wood slab tables
In terms of applications, we typically see the wood slab tables used in commercial settings where a flagship interior centerpiece is required (e.g., restaurants, hotels and various public halls), or as the family’s union place in the dining room. The pieces we’ve manufactured typically went to large family homes with spacious modern or semi-rustic interiors.
Marina’s Crafts creates custom-made wood slab tables of all kinds. We are the premier furniture restoration and manufacturing business, serving the San Francisco peninsula and the larger San Francisco Bay Area. Contact us now to begin work on the custom wood slab table of your dreams!