In the world of interior design options, one of the hottest new trends is furniture and flooring made from reclaimed wood. There are many high end furniture and flooring options that are readily available in the US and the world from many sources, so why choose reclaimed wood? The purpose of writing this article is to give a brief overview of the process we go through at manymoonsdesign.com to reclaim antique lumber, why antique lumber is better than any new lumber available, and the economic impact to our country.
First, in the day of facebook, tweets, and smart phones, it is all too easy to get wrapped up in the virtual world, and lose track of the history and heritage of our great countryI know, I am guilty of it myself. There is nothing better to me than to go deep into the countryside of Kentucky to escape the madness of modern society to look at a century old falling down barn to see what treasures lie within. There is no better place in the world to me than climbing in an old Kentucky tobacco barn and smelling the aroma of tobacco stained oak lumber, in the backside of a once-was tobacco patch. The venture takes me to farms and lands that most people can only dream of seeing.
Often, the barns I am called upon to disassemble are far beyond their useful life in agriculture being that raising tobacco is all but dead, and most modern day farm machinery will not fit in the 100+ year old barn. In many cases, we pay a small sum to the farmer who owns the barn to have the opportunity to salvage the wood to recycle into flooring and furnituresome times we get there just before the barn completely falls in, or before it is pushed over and burned. It is as surprising to us that barns are still being burned, as it is to the farmer, that I am willing to pay him for rotten wood!!!!!
Once we have contracted with the owner of the barn, the real fun begins. We deconstruct each barn in a systematic manner in order to save each usable board. This is a labor of love, but well worth the effort when you find lumber cut from trees that took life some three hundred years ago, which leads me to my next point. Reclaimed lumber has characteristics by default that cannot be replicated by modern day lumber. Most of the reclaimed wood we recycle came from virgin forests that were slow growing thus leading to a more dense wood with very minimal annual growth.
Not only is reclaimed wood better because you are recycling an American natural resource, it is a great source of revenue for the local economy that has a stand of these antique lumber sources. At Many Moons, we take great pride in recycling these barns using rural labor forces, and local mills. We are happy that our products were made in America some 100 years ago by our ancestors, and now we are recycling their hard work into beautiful reclaimed flooring and reclaimed furniture, with some of our own hard work.
Reclaimed Wood, Wood
