Our flags for heroes program is a way for us to give back to those who serve us. A portion of the proceeds from each of our handcrafted, barn wood American flags goes directly back to helping our nation’s heroes.
Each month we will partner with a different organization that directly impacts military veterans, firefighters, and their children.
Our #flagsforheroes can be purchased in our online store or storefront in Springfield, IL.
Roger Brabant of Rigaud relaxes inside a disassembled barn as he works to reclaim some of the wooden beams and planks Monday, October 27, 2014.
Known in the area as Roger “Barnwood” Brabant, he has spent the last 20 years dismantling old barns from local farms, recuperating the aged wood they’re made of and either selling it as is or turning it into furniture. Montreal café and bar owners, especially Irish pubs, have become popular clientele, condo owners and designers as well.
via Barn whisperer: Rigaud man gives centuries’ old wood new vocations | Montreal Gazette.
There are no shortcuts in the realm in which Dan and The Rustic Way operate. The keys to producing products of the highest quality that are cherished for generations are really quite basic: ˜scouring the Midwest region, and beyond,for the best sources of reclaimed wood ˜taking utmost care in dismantling/deconstructing aging structures to preserve as much usable wood as possible in its natural, weathered condition˜and then relying on two decades of experience-proven techniques to massage the reclaimed wood — through planning, hand-sanding and multiple layers of finish to enhance what’s already there, bringing out the beauty nature created in 100-plus years of life.
With the walls, ceiling and floor made of salvaged wood and other items, Lanette and Jim Carlson’s great room serves as a showroom for their business, Carlson’s Barnwood Co., in rural Henry County. Jeff Cook photos, QUAD-CITY TIMES
The show’s theme is “keeping it local,” and that fits right in with what the Carlsons do. They salvage materials from a roughly 100-mile radius and re-mill the lumber in a shop on their property, employing several full- and part-time workers.
But from there the Carlsons cast long lines, selling to homes and businesses, particularly restaurants, all over the country, and even overseas. Pictures of high-end homes incorporating their products, particularly in Colorado and California, are posted on their website.
When the Carlsons started, they mainly sold raw barnwood and other artifacts that could be used as “decor.” But in 2001, they began manufacturing reclaimed flooring, and that has become their biggest product, Lanette said.
Each base measures approximately 3″x3″, and is made with reclaimed lumber, this ensures that no two bases are the same. Hang them in a group, hang them by themselves, or break them up for three separate gifts.
via Set of Three SMALL FORM Air Plant and Barn Wood Grab by NiaCraft.
Ann liked the fact that the lumber would be used, but letting the barn go pained her. She could see all the effort that went into the building’s construction. Details such as the markings on the hand-hewn beams were evidence of all the painstaking, backbreaking work.
“It hurt because at one time it was a beautiful building,” Ann said. “But Mother Nature takes its toll, I guess.”
…
No one knows for sure how many wood-framed and stone-foundation barns there were in Marathon County at the peak of the family farm era, or how quickly they are disappearing. But according to an agriculture census survey, in 2007 the county was home to 1,267 standing timber-framed barns built before 1960.
via Wanted: Wisconsin’s lovely old timber barns | Sheboygan Press | sheboyganpress.com.
May we introduce to you Urban Tree Salvage from Toronto, Canada. Oh, and their amazing live edge tables.
Our reclaimed lumber and timber come from a variety of local sources. Barns across Ontario are slowly falling down if they have not been repaired from years of non-use. Ontario barns that were built many years ago were all constructed with locally grown trees that were harvested from the build location and made into lumber. The hardiness zone of the barn as well as the date the barn was built usually dictated what material was used for construction. Reclaimed barnboard is typically made of pine, hemlock and spruce and is offered in grey board, brown board, red board and threshing.
Urban Tree Salvage also recycles demolition and construction waste such as excavated historical timbers that were discovered when building condominiums in downtown Toronto and reclaimed building timbers that were salvaged from old buildings around Ontario. Urban Tree Salvage reclaims these materials and sells them as raw lumber and furniture such as reclaimed dining tables, reclaimed coffee tables, reclaimed console tables and reclaimed benches.
By JAN NORMAN / THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Ben Bonin and Collin Gibellino search rural America for centuries-old barns that are on the verge of falling down.
For property owners the old structures are attractive nuisances for young kids, property tax burdens and eyesores. Bonin and Gibellino see them differently.
True American Grain in Laguna Niguel buys barns originally built in the 1800s, such as this one in Michigan. The company tears the barns down and sells the reclaimed lumber, doors and hardware for residential remodeling and commercial interiors. The hand hewn wood has a unique look and a historial story to tell, the owners say.
One man’s hazard is another man’s business opportunity.
Bonin and Gibellino are partners in True American Grain, a Laguna Niguel supplier of what is called reclaimed or vintage wood that is used for residential and commercial interiors.
In a little more than a year, they have torn down five barns in Tennessee, Ohio and Michigan and resold the wood for interiors in several homes, a shopping mall in Las Vegas, a couple of restaurants and a cheese shop.
The company’s slogan is “giving new life to old America.”
Strolling through one of three local warehouses, Bonin pointed out beams that still bear the hatchet marks of 19th century farmers who built the barns to house dairy cows in northern Michigan. Boards from Tennessee tobacco barns are destined for a home being remodeled in Pelican Hills. A barn door in the corner will soon go to a wine bar in Las Vegas.
“Each piece of wood has a back story, where it came from, what it was used for,” said Gibellino, who keeps a jar filled with handmade nails that have been removed as barns were torn down. “It’s a conversation piece, unique.”
The partners, who tear the barns down themselves with the help of locals they hire, salvage everything they can from brick-sized blocks of wood to metal pulleys that they convert into track lighting.
“Every piece has a home,” Gibellino said.
Reclaimed wood “is very trendy; it’s popular to do repurposed furnishings,” said designer Sherrie Jordan, owner of Incorporate Orange in San Juan Capistrano who has used True American Grain products in wine bars and shops. “Environmentally friendly interiors are popular in California. You can tell right away that it’s authentic.”
