From Fallen Trees to Forever Pieces: Handcrafted furniture and home decor from salvaged urban trees
Interior Styling Blog for Real Homes: Ideas, Advice & Inspiration
Hi, I’m Sandra, this blog is about interior styling for real homes. If you love interiors and want your home to feel stylish, pulled together, yet still personal, you’ve come to the right place. I’ll be sharing styling advice to help you edit, layer, and finish your home with confidence, alongside articles on what’s happening in the interiors world — from design events to colour stories - so you get the full picture.
I also take you on tours of beautifully styled homes from around the world, offering inspiration and styling ideas to steal for your own space. Ultimately, I’ll show you how a little bit of styling can be transformational and take your home to a whole new level.
In today’s post, I explore how fallen urban trees are salvaged and turned into beautifully handcrafted, timeless and sustainable pieces of furniture and décor.
Photo credit: all photography Steve Nyman
Living close to the New Forest in the South of England, I often walk with my dogs past fallen tree trunks and find myself admiring the grain and texture, wondering what they could become: an attractive table or chair perhaps. Hidden Gems Design’s founder Steve Nyman does exactly that, but goes way beyond admiring the wood by rescuing and reimagining it into beautiful pieces. I met Steve at Decorex, the annual interior design exhibition in London, and was immediately drawn to the wooden creations on his stand. Having wanted to write about sustainable interiors from a fresh angle, I knew that this was the perfect story.
Featured in this article are pieces handcrafted from fallen trees - timber that might otherwise be destroyed. Steve sources these trees from urban areas and transforms them into furniture and décor - like the pieces pictured here in his showroom. From statement furniture to sculptural bowls, no two items are the same. Guided by the organic form of the wood, each one has its own character and story, complete with distinctive grain patterns, knots and, in some designs, even the bark left in place. The result is not only sustainable and unique pieces; it’s a purposeful way to bring nature into the home that will last forever.
Hidden Gems Design is also part of a wider movement towards using timber in a more responsible way - salvaging tree trunks and logs that might otherwise become waste and transforming them into timeless pieces for modern interiors.
Surrounded by his creations on his stand at Decorex, Hidden Gems Design’s founder Steve’s lifelong love of nature's creative beauty is the thread running through every piece he makes. With years of creative experience and a dedication to authentic design, Steve crafts pieces that effortlessly bring nature in a rustic yet refined way into any interior space. On the right is a vast wood table made for a client from a huge oak tree that had fallen in their garden.
But what sparked Steve’s ideas and inspiration in the first place? While travelling in the Far East, he came across driftwood in all shapes and sizes and was completely captivated by it. ‘I wanted to bring home a really special piece, but it was too large,’ recalls Steve, although he did manage to bring back several unique shells.
Back in London, Steve felt inspired to realise his dream to design and create pieces shaped by untouched nature. With his team of wood experts, he began sourcing reclaimed timber and crafting bespoke pieces for the home.
CHARRED CENTRE PIECE
This stunning décor centrepiece has been charred to create that deep ebony tone. Charring is an ancient Japanese technique, known traditionally as Yaki Sugi (also called Shou Sugi Ban), where pieces from specific wood types are carefully burned to produce a striking black, textured finish.
Steve had a few of these centrepieces on display when he was approached by an interior design company to make something special for a London home. The piece became a treasured focal point in the client’s dining room.
For Steve, there’s a real meaning behind these centrepieces. ‘My speciality is my eye - sourcing the wood, digging it out and visualising a usage,’ says Steve. ‘In fact, these pieces are a result of that; found in areas of fallen trees, where I saved each one from being destroyed.’
ORGANIC SIDE TABLE
Made from organic spalted wood, this popular side table is unique in texture and pattern. It’s the ideal size to place next to a chair for your coffee cup, book or a simple vase of flowers. It even doubles as a seat, perfect for when you need that extra chair.
The black charred piece on the left of the shelf was crafted from Steve’s finds over the years and finished using the charring method to enhance its natural texture. On the right is one of Steve’s wood-and-ceramic-combination designs in the shape of an oak charred bowl paired with handmade ceramic servers - a striking contrast between earthy tactile timber and smooth white ceramics.
STATEMENT BENCH
This vast solid bench is a true statement piece, commissioned by a client already familiar with Steve’s style. ‘They drew me a simple sketch and left it with me,’ Steve explains. ‘It needed to sit beautifully in an incredibly luxurious home, so I wanted to create a bench that would be the focal point the moment you walk through the door.’
Steve already had the perfect piece in mind. ‘I had this huge spalted beech trunk that I sourced from a fallen tree yard and saved it from being burnt or chipped. I could immediately imagine it working. We started shaping it, whilst leaving a lot of its organic forms so it flows really naturally.’
The small shelves above, also made by Steve, pair beautifully with the bench and have been styled with sculptural vessels in aquas, greys and reds. Juxtaposed with the warm natural tones of the wood, they make a striking feature, adding colour and texture to the room.
DRIFTWOOD OUTDOOR SEATING
I’ve always admired the pale tone and weathered texture of driftwood, and once found a large branch on the beach that I turned into a decorative coat rack.
Together with the wood from fallen trees, Steve creates furniture from rare pieces of driftwood. For the stunning set of outdoor furniture pictured here, he worked with naturally sculptural forms. The seating was commissioned by an interior designer for a garden in the South of France with a brief for chairs, sun loungers and sofas made from driftwood. Luckily, Steve had the perfect pieces in his workshop. With their irregular shapes and pale shades, the designs make a striking statement and are finished with textured white seat and back cushions, and a few casually placed, soft-toned throw cushions, for that sophisticated, coastal feel.
COMBINATION PIECES - PAIRING DRIFTWOOD WITH CERAMIC REPLICAS OF SHELLS
Creating a synergy between materials was at the very start of Steve’s journey, and that fascination with driftwood and shells led to this gorgeous combination. Steve uses porcelain ceramics to echo the shape of shells and crafts sculptural pieces that are functional too.
The two materials pair beautifully together, the crisp white contrasting with the texture of the wood. Steve has made several designs that marry the two, including the bowl pictured here, which is actually two bowls in one. The ceramic element acts as an insert, doubling up as a second bowl. The same concept has been applied to serving spoons and bowls in different shapes and sizes that are all rather special.
RUSTIC SIDE TABLE
This rustic-style side table pictured here was commissioned for a house in the Cotswolds, in the UK. The brief was to source a piece of wood from a fallen tree that would flow naturally with its surroundings. Steve found the perfect organic form and shaped it from one solid piece. In this living room, the side table works beautifully alongside the layered textiles and earthy finishes, from the lime plaster walls and distressed lamp to the tactile linen of the sofa. The overall scheme feels effortlessly serene - with the natural texture of the wood and the other elements kept in soft, muted tones.
TREE OF LIFE SHELVING
The 'Tree of Life' was designed for a yacht as an impressive shelving unit with real wow factor. Commissioned by a yacht specialist interior design company, the brief was completely aligned with Steve’s ethos as the owners were also drawn to nature, sustainability and raw materials. Steve was asked to make this shelving unit from reclaimed trees and keep the timber as natural and untouched as possible.
Being on a boat, it also needed to be practical, so Steve added additional pieces to keep the displayed items secure when the yacht is in motion. In addition to the shelving, Steve also crafted a headboard and bedside tables for the owner’s suite, together with large sculptural bowls, staircase rails, and a whole collection of serving platters - bringing bespoke, organic woodwork into multiple areas of the boat.
BLOSSOM TREE TABLES
These blossom tables, pictured here, are one of Steve’s specialities, and they look stunning positioned beside luxurious green velvet chairs and an elegant pale grey rug - for that rugged meets refined look. ‘I find many types of wood from the fallen trees for these tables and cut and shape accordingly,’ Steve explains. ‘These were for a client who wanted them to be really unique. They already had an incredible shape but I was particularly pleased with these as we worked hard on leaving parts of the bark on in certain areas for an even more natural and unusual finish.’
CHARRED COFFEE TABLE
This circular coffee table was made from reclaimed oak beams. The client was very particular in what she wanted in a design, so she gave Steve the exact dimensions, and he crafted it entirely by hand using the oak beams which he had collected over time. Having shaped them into a perfect circle, Steve created a gorgeous coffee table that had the character of the reclaimed wood. Because the living room already had several different wood tones, Steve decided to char the table so it would tie in seamlessly with the other black furniture in the room and enhance the texture of the wood further.
LET’S SUM UP
I hope you enjoyed seeing how Hidden Gems Designs transforms fallen, discarded trees into so many gorgeous, characterful pieces, all sustainable yet without compromising on style. To explore the full collection, visit the Hidden Gems Designs Website.
Other blog posts you might enjoy, having read this one, include Interior Styling Elements, which looks at how every interior scheme can benefit from some form of natural, organic materials like wood. You might also like to check out other Interior Design Spotlight articles, including Focus on Design, which takes you on a tour of the design centre during design week.
