Using leftover stumps helps refresh a room. They would also be a vivid reminiscence of our place in nature and our power to destroy and care for it. Tree stumps can become bedroom stands, living room plant stands, end tables or bathroom seating. They can be gathered around a large wooden table in the garden to create a welcoming social area. Limited by just your imagination, the possibilities are endless.

Electric Choices

Tree stumps have this amazing potential to become part of a mosaic that leads to a creative interior design. Just imagine a few “slices” of wood creating your garden path or maybe a couple of tree stumps that adorn your spaces with their funky appearance, like the Tree Ring Lights by Vancouver-based furniture design studio Straight Line Designs. These fluorescent lights sitting on top of split pine beetle wood and covered with mirrored Plexiglas are deliciously reinterpreting functionality – use them outdoors for a stunning effect by night.

Aluminum meets wood

Abundance leading to progress is evoked in designer Hilla Shamia‘s Wood Casting pieces. The Israel-based product designer created a family of cypress wood and aluminum objects to use around the house. Showcasing this modern preservation of wood in sleek square aluminum “dressing” creates an imprint of burnt wood married to the liquid aluminum poured over it in the molding process. A random visual play of burnt wood and aluminum leaks creates a fabulous result, don’t you think so?

DiY tree stump furniture

Planting trees is just as important as enjoying their benefits – bringing in a piece of nature and transforming it into a DiY project can help you appreciate the importance of reusing, re-purposing and revitalizing apparently useless objects. One of designboom‘s readers submitted this project that shows how interest, focus and determination can can be joined to create wonderful hand-made furniture items. The person behind this project used collected pine logs to shape furniture items like a coffee table and spider-like chair. Using an axe, chisel and a wooden hammer to create the desired shape, these hand-made furniture items hold a double meaning – they’re both eco-friendly and molded with the owner’s passion and own hands.

Wooden Rocking Horse

Tree stumps can become organic-looking toys if they have been skillfully transformed by inventive artists. To exemplify this, the wooden rocking horse – another creation of Hilla Shamia – is a fantastic piece of furniture that maintains the uninhibited beauty of  the original tree trunk it comes from.

Unique tree stump vases

Rustic meets modern in an arrangement suited for any home – designed by Trine Andersen and inspired by Scandinavian surroundings, this tree trunk vase would make an elegant addition to a window sill or the coffee table in the living room. A removable ceramic cup inside the alder wood pieces cares for the wood’s integrity and the fact that each piece is unique, further deepens the idea on natural, one of a kind, as the flowers it holds.

Relax as you would in the countryside

The easiest way of using and displaying tree stumps in your home remains the natural state – take as example the Stump Table Nude Tree Trunk Stool Seat seen on Etsy – grouping a few of these together would even generate an alternative to the couch or they can be used as side tables, nightstands or bathroom seating. These are air-dried wooden pieces that have been then kiln-dry, leveled, smoothed, sanded on the sides and polish on the top, but you can always go out and find a few discarded tree stumps to transform to your liking.

Walking across the old oak tree

The garden is an ideal place to showcase slices of wooden beauties – each piece of wood tells the history of its life, each ring and imperfection the struggles in nature. A garden path made of recycled tree stump pavers as the one below – part of Sweetlake Interior Design‘s portfolio – can give new depth to your memories. The customer lost an oak tree with sentimental value and the design studio’s team recycled it into the pavement. Such a stunning idea!

These examples should spark up an idea on how to use tree stumps to decorate your home. If not, remember simplicity is key and go with an outdoor tree trunk seating scenario – enjoy nature at its best!