While most furniture designers carefully avoid beetle-infested wood in their salvaging quests, Jesse Hooker embraces it with open arms.

This weekend, Brooklyn-based Hooker & Co. debuted their STAGG table at the Bklyn Designs booth at ICFF. Fabricated from salvaged steel for the metal base and tapered legs, and reclaimed barn maple for the main slab, the table comes in five reclaimed wood types and four lengths. The STAGG table is their first departure from exclusively making one-off pieces, which is a definite challenge when using reclaimed materials. While their work is not all insect-infested, this particular piece has dark swathes of beetle-made patterning, and is the direct product of envisioning something beautiful in something previously considered "damaged."

Preparing the infested wood is an arduous process. "I cleaned out each individual hole with a toothpick, then filled it with epoxy," said Jesse. "Then sanded it, then covered it in a finish."

Beetle-iful.