The Ground On Which They Walked by Asma Begum

Salam sisters,

I want to share with you this special upcycle. I made a herringbone coffee table out of solid wood flooring. I placed the pieces on a mdf board, attached foldable metal hairpin legs and castors on the base to stow away the coffee table under the sofa when not needed.

The story behind this upcycle is quite bittersweet. This whole upcycle had me feeling quite melancholic, however it was certainly a project that required dedication and completion.

It begins when my parents bathroom basin overflowed, flooding and damaging the solid wood flooring in their hallway. My husband and I managed to source the exact same flooring on eBay, so we took off the damaged pieces and replaced it with the new flooring. My husband was throwing the old flooring away near the communal bins outside but being the notorious upcycling junkie I sneakily brought them back in and hid some of the good solid wood in mum’s balcony. While I was sizing up the semi-damaged wood, my mum spotted my mischief and said something along the lines of “oh she’s at it again. She’s gonna make something with it”. 🙈 I didn’t realise that I had become that predictable! 😆

After much persuasion, the husband hesitantly agreed to load the car with the old wooden flooring. In August, my husband cut the pieces in half and cut the wood diagonally for the herringbone design for the top part of the table. Sadly shortly after my dad died in mid August and 6 weeks later my mum died too.

“Paradise lies under the feet of your mother”

It was a massive blow to me losing both parents and naturally I completely forgot about this half-finished project. Pretty much up until recently, I decided to muster up the motivation and finish off the table.

I remembered that although my mum went through some very hard times in her life, she never let it encompass her and get her down. My dad too was not wasteful and saw potential in things. I felt it would be a disservice if I just left the wood to rot away in the garden and be rendered useless.

Earlier this month I got the wood pieces out and it hit me that those pieces of wood are the very flooring that my mum and dad walked on when they were alive (and now the family home is up for sale too). My heart wrenched at the thought of this 😢. It was poignant reminder, albeit metaphorical of the Hadith that “paradise lies under the feet of your mother” 😌. These pieces of wood somewhat become significant in the sense that it is the closest tangible thing I have to evoke those sentiments.

“The very ground on which they walked”

 

Anyways after much blood (from splinters), sweat and (emotional) tears….I’ve finally finished making the coffee table, Alhamdulillah.

Muslim Mama Asma Begum