In with the old: Local furniture business reuses wood from barns

Tag : wholesale furniture

WINCHESTER — At this busy workshop, old wood gets new life.
Sawdust blankets every surface. The humming of sanders and planersserves as background noise. Various pieces of custom furniture indifferent states of assembly stand in line — although thereare no assembly lines here — ready for the next step on theirway to completion.
In another room of the workshop, itself an old barn, boards arestacked nearly ceiling-high.
The one-of-a-kind pieces that Shenandoah Furniture Gallery LLCsells at its shop in Purcellville are made right here, but thejourney from boards to furniture actually started at variouslocations in the valley more than 100 years ago.
Fence posts, barn beams and siding as old as that all find theirway into Shenandoah Furniture Gallery pieces.
Charlie Funk and Vickie Kelley took over the furniture-makingbusiness about a year ago, keeping the store in Purcellville andmoving the workshop to Winchester.
About the same time, Mrs. Kelley's husband, Hunter Kelley, startedhis own business, Hunter's Aged Woods LLC, tearing down barns aftera career of doing the same thing for another business.
Funk, who has decades of experience constructing pieces for avariety of furniture makers, buys the usable wood from Kelley'sdemolition projects for his furniture.
It's a process that Mrs. Kelley says preserves both history and theenvironment.
Some people hate to see the old buildings torn down, but she has ananswer for that: "They burn them, they bury them or theydisintegrate — we find a use for it."
It starts with Kelley, when through word of mouth he hears about abarn or other old farm structure that someone wants to get rid of.
A lot of these people like to get some value out of the barn asopposed to demolishing or burning it, he said. Many have respectfor the old wood and would like to see it used again in some way.
For most, it is cheaper to rebuild a metal barn than it is torepair an old wooden one for use, according to Kelley.
"It's nice to just think that it's not going to be just going tothe landfills," he said.
Kelley makes arrangements with each customer, most often tradinglabor for the lumber, stone, tin and metal that they can retrieveand resell, he explained.
He has done work from Timberville to Martinsburg, W.Va., and fromWinchester to Loudoun County.
On average, 50 to 60 percent of the barn can be salvaged for thingslike flooring and table tops, he said. What can't be used isburned, hauled away or buried.
The most prized lumber from barns and fences is antique white oak,but he finds buyers for pine and poplar too.
Kelley and his small team start by tearing all the siding off ofthe barn, then pull it over to take the rest apart.
They take the lumber back to Purcellville where the painstakingprocess of pulling out each nail is performed.
The wood is also kiln-dried.
Meanwhile, Mrs. Kelley and Funk accept custom orders from theircustomers — a sketch or a verbal description is turned in toFunk, who draws out a plan and an estimate.
He buys the lumber he needs from Kelley and then the process ofmaking the furniture begins.
The challenge for Funk, he said, is to make the finished productturn out even better than the customer expects — that, andselecting wood that has the right look and will match for eachpiece of furniture.
"It's not like going and pulling lumber off the rack and it alllooks the same," he said.
The beams and boards of old barns, he explained, were cut from thelocal trees by individuals, not mills, and so each piece is usuallyof a different thickness.
But there are also many benefits. Funk said the results include adistinct look — something not mass-produced, and that nobodyelse has.
He also likes the liberty of being able to make design decisionsfor trusting customers.
Another benefit for the customer is furniture that has an aged look— "You can't manufacture patina," Mrs. Kelley pointed out— but functions like new as the result of modern equipment andtechniques.
Shenandoah Furniture Gallery uses several different types of woods— "horse country oak," reclaimed from fences; antique oak frombarn siding, floors and rafters; antique walnut, which was oftenstored in barns; tobacco wood pine; poplar; and rustic cherry, notold, but "rescued" from the center of cherry trees, a portion thatis normally wasted or turned into mulch.
Funk will design kitchen and dining pieces, bedroom furniture,occasional pieces such as end tables and coffee tables, and evencabinetry.
Each piece is custom made after it is ordered, but the gallery alsois working on a wholesale line.
So far, customers have been happy with the results, often wanting apicture of Funk with the finished piece or his autograph somewhereon the furniture.
"We can make them cry when they see it," he said.
Mrs. Kelley, who mans the Purcellville store, dealing with theoffice work, customer service, arranging sales and deliveries,estimated they have been getting six or seven orders a week andthat each order takes six to eight weeks to complete.
"When I started I didn't know a thing," she said. "I like sellingthe furniture because it's so well made."
She also loves the idea that her business is a "green" one thatmakes use of what would otherwise be wasted and does no damage tothe environment.
"I love this. I love what we're doing," she said, and people "lovethe idea that we have saved history. We did not cut down a singletree for any of this."
Information about Shenandoah Valley Furniture and Hunter's AgedWoods can be found online at www.farmwoodcollection.com or by calling (540) 751-2163. The furniture store is at 151 W.Main St., Purcellville, and is open Wednesday through Saturday from9 a.m. to 5 p.m. The workshop in Winchester is not open to thepublic.
*Contact Jessica Wiant at jwiant@nvdaily.com