The Tree Design

The concept is a three-tiered shelf inspired by the graceful form of a tree.

A stationary base serves as the foundation. From it, a central pole rises like a trunk. Crowning the top is a dedicated tray for an essential oil diffuser. Below, two spacious tiers unfurl, each with clear, individual slots tilted at a 45-degree angle — like branches spreading out from the trunk.

I have to admit: the idea of tilting the slots was very exciting. What’s a tree without little branches, right?

The Cable Problem

There was another problem.Most essential oil diffusers have a cable — for charging or power — that dangles right where the rotating trays need to spin. I kept picturing it snagging on the bottle slots.

So I started sketching a solution: a dedicated central channel that lets the cable travel down through the trays and trunk, exiting cleanly at the base.

Later, I decided to try bamboo ply. I thought it would certainly work.

I cut about 100 units’ worth of bamboo ply and put them on a shelf while I worked on other things to get the product ready for the market.

The Failure

Five or six months later, I came back to the bamboo. It had deformed, warped, twisted, unusable. The cutting machine, the modified CNC, and the failed bamboo panels — all of them sat together in my garage. I was frustrated. I stopped working on the product entirely. It was never published as expected.

Two years later, I walked into my garage and saw everything still sitting there. The bamboo panels. The cutting machine. The modified CNC.

I just couldn’t make peace with myself. I wanted people to see this design. I wanted it to exist in their lives. I couldn’t let it die in my garage.