Finished with a live edge topper from a Macadamia tree.
Although it wasn't much, I was excited to be able to save some pieces of a Macadamia tree from being turned into wood chips when my
neighbors had their tree felled some time ago.
I asked the tree loppers on the day if they could save a few of the bigger logs for me. They were glad to, and left me with a nice few short logs
at roughly 150mm diameter.
I cut the logs into 50mm slices on the band saw then left them stacked up beside the shed in the elements for almost 2 years.
This project was basically designed on the fly. Of course the overall width (King bed) and height restriction to sit neatly under the window were set in place. Other than that, staying within the constraints of the materials I had on hand to complete it with were my only boundaries.
There were a few challenges to overcome while figuring out the best way to complete the glue up. Although all it really took was to make some
custom width spacer pieces to help make sure things stay in the right place during the assembly.
Testing out what the old Macadamia timber was going to look like once cleaned up was an exciting stage. I hadn't had the opportunity to work
with this species before.
I was blown away by the look of the grain once sanded and oiled.
I chose the best suited Macadamia planks and cut them down to roughly 60mm width with the live edge showing.
The Macadamia planks were too short to be able to span the king bed in only two pieces, so I designed the top piece to be three pieces.
Two equal length outer pieces with a shorter centre piece.
Prior to the installation of the Macadamia topper I painted the main frame in a gloss white paint. This helps the Macadamia topper stand out as a key feature.
And as I wouldn’t be much of a sparky if I didn’t finish it off with some lighting. I added a little 12v LED strip mounted inside a
diffused aluminium channel mitred around the top corner behind the timber frame on each side.
Each side switched by the stunning Clipsal Saturn architrave switch.
