FromAndToNature

For the last four years, we've owned a little piece of heaven in PEI, Canada.

In 2016, we purchased a century old farmhouse that sat upon just under 60 acres of mixed habitat. In the first days of owning this land, we felt called to establish it as a nature reserve.
We built and installed bird feeders and bird houses, bee houses and swallow boxes. We cut dedicated walking trails early in spring so that we wouldn't be walking in the long grass where tiny eggs were lying underfoot. Our swallow boxes filled up with nests, the long grass provided spaces for sparrows to hatch tiny eggs under dandelion flowers. Cavity dwelling bees filled the hollows of our bee houses, providing our garden and apple trees with pollination. Our family grew from two to four, and our toddlers ran screaming with joy through the walking trails, helping us collect wildflower seeds.

Inside, our home changed as it went from dark colours to whites, from empty to overflowing. Plants were brought in one by one, and eventually occupied every window. Our children learned about gentleness through treating plants with respect both indoors and out. With the abundance of greenery in our home, we started to build different plant stands for walls, window sills, and corners. Customized designs for natural oases, both indoor and out, became integral to our lives.

As a result of the pandemic, I left my job as a result of a lack of childcare for our two toddlers. I had opened my Etsy shop, selling bird houses and bee houses, the year prior. Being at home with our children provided me the opportunity to create more designs for our home and for our nature reserve, and to share them with the world.

We live by the policy of doing no harm, so all of our wood is reclaimed. For us, this is no buzz word. Barn board is provided by our 70ft long on site century old stable, which we're slowly disassembling and turning into items like our window sill risers, angled plant stands, and all of our "Homes for Wildlife", including our bird houses, bee houses, and bird feeders. We have partnered with local fishermen to salvage damaged or retired lobster traps that would otherwise be burned. We break them down and turn them into items like our lobster trap plant stands, coat hangers, and floating shelves. We take regular trips to the local beaches that PEI is famous for, to collect garbage from the shores, as well as washed up lobster traps and driftwood for our one of a kind plant stands, woodpecker feeders, and business card holders. We visit a local miller to salvage cut offs from massive piles, which would otherwise be burned as biomass. These milled pieces of local lumber are turned into our live edge shelves, and two of our favourite products, our tripod plant stands the real bark birdhouses.

With two decades of carpentry experience in custom renovations in heritage homes, I've acquired the skills necessary to build customized products out of many different materials. Each piece starts as a piece of wood that few people would attempt to work with, and is turned into something unique and functional. The wide range of finishing products that I use are chosen to bring out the full potential of the wood. Each piece is unique, with varying grains, colours, and wear such as nails, nail holes, cracks, and knots. I prefer to include and highlight these characteristics as a product feature, versus try to work against them. I like the idea of celebrating a second life for the wood products, instead of trying to make the wood look freshly milled.

We take custom orders for whatever you desire, and thank you wholeheartedly for visiting our shop. I look forward to building for you.

From and To Nature,
Robias Wood