About a year ago we wrote out a list of handy Reclaimed Wood facts(here!) In doing so we skimmed over some of the locations where our salvaged materials come from, but didn't give you any real indicators on where your particular table(or dresser or bed or desk or bookcase!) lumber was salvaged from. So, here's our Reclaimed Wood timeline. We have more info on some of the structures than others, but for those wondering, here's the Croft House Reclaimed Wood Source Breakdown to date!
If you bought a piece of furniture that was considered pine, Railcar or Hudson from us anywhere between when we started using the material in 2010 up until about April or so of 2011, your material came from one of two buildings in NYC. One in Times Square and the other on on Orchard St. We bought the two buildings together, most of the lumber in these two buildings was old growth heart pine. Our suppliers tell us these building were put up in the early 1900s.
If you went with our local SoCal fir, Railcar or otherwise, between 2009 and late 2010, then you received salvaged wood from a SoCal Rail Station. Mostly 2x10 and 2x12 material, this is what we used to build the very first Railcar Table and was the namesake for the entire line. It's some of the oldest wood we've used, dating back several hundred years.
Any Croft House furniture that is a Mossam or oak/hardwood piece, purchased from 2009 all the way up until about June of 2011, was repurposed from a barn in Alabama. The bar was used as a whiskey distillery in the late 1800's and early 1900's. The wood was a hodgepodge of oak, maple, birch and alder. This building is where we received the boards with the faded blue paint that gets mixed into each of our Mossam Cabinets.
The reclaimed Pine from the New York gradually switched over to a new source in Spring of 2011. Up until February of 2013 we used pine, mixed with hemlock and spruce, that was used in a building being demoed for an expansion project by Columbia University. The same city and look just a new building, it made for a seamless transition for the look of our furniture.
Currently, and since 2011, our reclaimed douglas fir has come from various architectures throughout the SoCal area. Since we're never too far from the demo sites, we get a special locals only deal in which we're able to pick and choose the material stocks that we need. We've used a large selection of lumber sizes, ranging from 1x6 to 2x10 and all the way up to 8x16s. Though most of the material comes from housing demos, we've had a couple of particularly special sources including an old recording studio!
The oak and mixed hardwoods that we're repurposing now were salvaged and brought to us from a barn in Ohio. This material marked the first time we were lucky enough to get our hands on some 2" thick hardwoods.. getting the nails our of the material was just as hard as you would think!
Lastly, our current pine stock arrived to LA in early 2013 and has been going strong since. This material was all salvaged from a single dairy barn in Wisconsin. The material came to us covered in milk paint(wonder where they got that from.) Though the tone of the wood trends slightly lighter than our previous NYC pine, it will look every bit as lovely in your next piece!
Though we don't have large stocks of our previously materials, we certainly have boards mixed in here and there with all of our current lumber. We do our best to use each inch of every board, so you're likely to get a combo of all of the above in any given piece of Croft House furniture. Which one are you hoping for??