About Burning Barn Burning Barn can build and distress a piece to look one hundred years old or fashion a one hundred year old piece of reclaimed lumber into a sleek, modern piece of your home or office’s personality. Our supply of salvaged lumber is always changing and being updated as planks, timbers and objects are being located and refurbished into usable condition. If you are looking for a truly one of kind piece of furniture that blurs the lines between past and present, as well as art and function please consider allowing us to design and construct the next piece of your home’s collection.
Why “Burning Barn”?
A few years ago, I noticed a barn near my home that had recently been damaged during a storm. So I stopped by one day to ask about it. The owner was really suspicious about me and after playing twenty questions about my intentions, she said I could have “one piece”, to which I politely declined. I always wondered why she was so slow to allow me access to the barn since it was obviously beyond repair and on it’s way down. I forgot about the barn until one summer evening driving home my wife and I noticed a huge billow of smoke. With little to do and a car full of curious kids we followed the smoke to it’s origin. Low and behold it was the barn I had inquired about nearly a year before. Often times when old buildings in our area get run down and serve no purpose, the volunteer fire department will be called out to burn them down and use them as practice. I appreciate our local firefighters, but I was so annoyed watching that building burn. It would have made a lot of really unique furniture and in my opinion it was being completely wasted.	Those old buildings have so much character and the wood has such a great patina that you can’t just re-create. Not to mention the potential to reuse and build green. So when deciding on a name, the image of that barn really jumped out, and if I’m being completely honest it may be a little jab at the barn’s “suspicious” owner. I’ve always had a love for old buildings, exposed brick, chipped paint, and generally trying to make something out of nothing. As a third generation carpenter I have tremendous respect for the men who built these structures. I can’t imagine constructing these massive buildings without power tools or forced air. Driving square head nails into hard oak beams, making every cut by hand, using only leverage and muscle to put beams and poles in place, having no fancy calculators or computer generated drawings to do the figuring. So I really hate to see these old buildings come down or get destroyed in the name of progress. I understand that some are beyond repair or perhaps in danger of collapse, but it’s my hope that with each piece that incorporates salvaged material the memory of those men and that time in history will live on.”-Ryan

FAQs

Can you turn this old door/window/board into a bench/headboard/coffee-table? – We can try. We have more fun letting the materials dictate the piece than we do following a specific plan or drawing anyway. If you have any old building material that holds sentimental value we’d love to turn it into a piece of furniture you’ll use and cherish.

Can I have dovetailed drawers? – Sure. We focus on custom work. We can dovetail drawers, mortise and tenon your table or do whatever you want really. We’ll adjust our estimate and go from there.

Do you do refinishing? – Not at the moment. If by refinishing you mean painting, sure. If by refinishing you mean restoring a family heirloom to it’s former glory even though it’s covered in scratches and stains, probably not.

Why does the barn wood cost me the same as new wood? – While it’s true that the salvaged wood is technically “free”, we still have to brave old, creaky, pest infected barns and buildings to wrestle it out. We also have to clean it, remove nails and other metal (that wreak havoc on our tools if not found), and bring it up to a usable condition. In using salvaged wood we believe that we’re reducing waste and playing a small part in saving the planet. You also get a truly one of a kind piece of lumber that can’t be mass produced and also carries incredible history and patina.