Designer Gavin Munro Casts Trees Into Beautiful Furnishings

An ingenious British designer has taken the craft of furnituremaking back to its roots—literally. For nearly a decade, Gavin Munro has been using a 2.5-acre parcel of land in Derbyshire, England, to grow some 3,000 willow, oak, ash, and sycamore trees into distinct shapes. Using plastic molds, he guides their branches to form chairs, bookshelves, chests of drawers, and lampshades.

When Munro founded his firm, Full Grown, in 2006, one of his goals was to create the world’s most eco-friendly furniture design company. “My chairs and tables are formed from one solid piece of wood,” he says. “No joints, no nails, no weak points, and no unnecessary waste.”

Munro and his team of gardeners spend long hours casting trees into their ultimate form. Once the branches have grown in, the designer carefully trims, cuts, dries, and treats each piece. Munro has created several prototypes (seen here), but the furnishings will not be available until spring of 2016. “By the time each piece goes on sale, it will represent four years of careful tending by us and four years of growth by Mother Nature,” Munro says.

For more information visit fullgrowno.uk .

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