More homeowners are using reclaimed wood from barns, factories, and log cabins to decorate their modern homes, The Wall Street Journal reports. They’re using the reclaimed wood to decorate everything from ceilings and flooring to window accents. “They want it to look as primitive as possible,” Klaas Armster, co-author of the upcoming book Reclaimed Wood: A Field Guide, told the Journal.
Old-growth timber is no longer available in the U.S. construction industry. Suppliers today use wood from trees cultivated to grow fast that can be quickly processed into timber. Homeowners looking for antique wood from mature trees are calling on wood-reclamation companies to look for planks to reuse. They can be costly. Large structures of wood can cost anywhere from $300,000 to $1.5 million. On a smaller scale, homeowners may find costs much lower, such as $55,000 to use reclaimed accents on their kitchen or living room ceilings.
Charles Preston used antique timbers reclaimed from an 1800s Vermont barn for a vacation home he built with his wife several years ago in Texas Hill Country. The couple used the wood on the living room and kitchen ceilings, as well as to decorate interior and exterior lintels over the windows. He told the Journal that the reclaimed wood became a focal point in their home.
Preston also says that in the 7,000-square-foot, five-bedroom home, they also have a dining room ceiling adorned with 1900s oak fencing from Minnesota and exterior siding made of hemlock that was reclaimed from Midwest barns built from the 1850s to the 1900s. “That’s the first thing people talk about,” Preston says.
Chestnut barn frames from the 18th and early 19th centuries are a big draw, James Dixon, an architect in Chatham, N.Y., told the Journal. “If you find a chestnut frame, that’s like gold,” he says.
Source: “Homeowners Get Into the Groove of Reclaiming Old Wood,” The Wall Street Journal (Sept. 5, 2019) [Log-in required.]
