aeykelbo We have a wood paneled wall in our apartment that I HATE! I know that wood is back in, but this horizontal paneling (very similar in color and texture to the sixth picture above) reminds me of the 70s. I wish somebody would salvage it from my wall! Maybe I can propose a trade on Craigslist in my city.... cedar paneling for dry wall and eco friendly paint.

groveraxle I love the use of salvage materials in the projects here, but my own experience has been less satisfactory. I recently went to two salvage yards looking for tile for a patio floor mosaic. The first place wanted $3/each for 4x4 tiles; I can get similar from Home Depot for $0.39 each. The second place had some broken pieces of handmade ceramic plaques. They must have been there for years because the dirt was so thick, I had to wash them to see what color they were. She wanted $5/lb.

I decided to buy my tiles new and take a hammer to them myself.

Bud Dietrich, AIA Hi goveraxle - I know what you mean. Salvage used to mean inexpensive. Not so much anymore. Oh well, it's all about supply and demand. So the good news is there's a lot of demand for these materials.

aeykelbo - Yes, Craigslist is a good place to see if someone wants your paneling. Wouldn't surprise me if someone did.

foxhuntmom My home is a remodeled 1950's gas station near Fayetteville AR. I bought the 35 acres years ago, and the seller insisted that the station (already decommissioned) be sold with the land. We're located in the beautiful Ozarks, and repurposing here is a way of life. My ceilings are old weathered wrinkle tin, cabinets are heart pine salvaged from a Victorian demolition. The barn and bunkhouse above are framed with telephone poles. Horse post and rail fencing is oak from salvaged barns. Interior photos courtesy of laurie harris.

groveraxle foxhuntmom, I love your house. Is it still wearing the old Conoco sign?

kennedytarheel foxhuntmom...In my book, YOU will the award for most inventive, creative, artistic, and just plain nifty renovation EVER! Just WOW! So glad you posted photos! Love everything about your home, especially the turquoise doors! Thanks for sharing

jenberry72 foxhuntmom: you need to have a My Houzz Tour featured on this site!

Bud Dietrich, AIA I agree jenberry72!

foxhuntmom Thanks everyone, I greatly appreciate your comments, and am so glad to know that there are kindred spirits out there who are also committed to living a sustainable life. It's just what we need to do. You're all invited to our next farm party, and I'll post some more pictures soon.

foxhuntmom Outdoor shower built this summer, old barn door on my tack room. Most of these materials came from old barns and houses that I helped to demolish when they were about ready to collapse or we just beat the bulldozer. I'm not in the demo business, but am drawn to these old buildings and materials. Bricks made by slaves with handprints on them for counting, keystones, foundation rock, interior doors from the 1850's, almost lost forever. What have you found? How do you feel about losing all of these historic structures?

Bud Dietrich, AIA foxhuntmom - nice to see that the project is an ongoing labor of love - good for you!

summilux 15 years ago I had to replace a sagging carport and salvaged the 2x12 joists which have been used to make among other project decorative beams and a sliding door. Having learned from that, I requested the contractor for our last project to do what he could to salvage the usable wood from the living room alteration we did this summer. I was able to make the shelves for the new libary area using those beams. We used salvaged barn siding for the ceiling. Over the years I've used salvaged leaded and stained glass panels for cabinet doors and windows where insulation is not as important. BTW- the Hidden Manor interior is just astounding, especially the masonry work.

Bud Dietrich, AIA summilux - very impressive and handsome too!

summilux Thanks, Bud. I very much enjoy your articles.

foxhuntmom Summilux, your work is amazing. I love the doors, tracks, library!

Linda No photos yet, but I just finished a project with salvage oak and maple floors, plumbing fixtures, cabinets, lights, bathroom mirrors, doors, and trim work. We even salvaged glass by cutting down old storm window panes to replace cracked window panes. My favorite piece in that house is a mudroom bench made from an old maple kitchen cabinet top, complete with scratches and stains. We also cut down old door jamb stock to make the spindles for the stairs...the original railing was still there but no spindles remained.

I probably wouldn't do it all again, especially old flooring unless I took it up myself. The flooring I got cheap turned out very expensive by the time we sorted it all, cleaned it up, got rid of the excess and unusable parts. It is truly beautiful but too much work for a cheap house. Salvage plumbing fixtures, cabinets and doors can be a good way to get higher quality products at a low price, but only if they don't take too much customization to make them work.

trixylarue We have used beadboard from a lake cottage (in orginal paint colors) flooring from an 1891 Iowa farmhouse (for the countertop and flooring) , my grandma's old music to give our guest bathroom personality, the light is off a windmill.....here is the before and after

patricia beharry @foxhuntmom-- What a wonderful, wonderful home. Thanks for sharing your photos. I can almost feel the warmth of your home through the PC.

Railroadware Nice collection demonstrating and Salvaged Materials. The obvious manufactured materials are brick and terra-cotta which would never end up in a landfill but sometimes do. Consider some lighting & hardware products that would fit under this heading that transforms glass & steel industrial materials into usable and everyday objects that stand the test of time with a new purpose in life.

tcufrog Last summer we had a very bad drought in our area and three of our trees died. :( Before the tree crew cut them down I asked them to turn the best tree into a balance beam in the backyard. Two of the the stumps hold it up.

queenopearls Habitat for Humanity ReStore is one of my favorite places to find items to repurpose/reuse.

wandm I very much enjoyed this post and the comments and photos from people who have undertaken a project using repurposed materials (or a repurposed gas station!). Initially I was confused by the pictures, which seem totally incongruent...is that the ocean outside the house in a Chicago suburb? Then I realized they are not all from the same house!

schloess We recently converted an open space in a 100 year old building in downtown Salt Lake into a condo. We used a number of materials from my Memphis-based reclamation business. The base and case throughout the unit is reclaimed white oak. We used reclaimed white oak to make table tops, desk tops, and a powder room counter top. The stained glass is from a church in Memphis. We also used reclaimed white oak beams for an art niche and bedside tables.

michaelag The floors in my kitchen came from a neighbor's house. The same fir flooring was used for the kitchen window trim. The counters are Paperstone, which are made here in Washington from recylcle paper. I salvaged my living and dining room oak floors from a friend's farm house. They were donating their farmhouse to the fire department to practice putting out fires and then they did the ultimate recylce job and moved the house and barn from across the street onto their own property, as those owners were tearing them down to build a bigger house.

I made my stump table out of a walnut tree I had cut down a year ago and the potting bench came from a local guy who makes them out of old fences and then sells them at our neighborhood garage sale. I added the mirror afterwards, as it doubles as a sideboard for summer dinners on the patio.

marcie31 @schloess: So you SHIPPED salvaged material from Tennessee to Utah?? Kind of defeats the "green" element.

Bud Dietrich, AIA beautiful flooring michaelag - there's so much fold fir flooring that gets thrown away that could get a new lease on life as you've done, congrats!

summilux Linda- your experience reflect the price difference b/w Barnwood Naturals "off the barn" price and their "ready to install" products. Another aspect of the higher cost of recycled wood, especially fir, is that old growth fir is of a much better quality than what's available at the big box stores.
Foxhuntmom- I envy your interior walls; look like old brick in some walls and lath/plaster others. Hard to see from the resolution of the photos. I hope Houzz shows your home in more detail.
This article is shaping up as way fun; both the aspirational "money was no object" homes shown in the article and seeing fellow Houzzer's projects

Two if by Sea Gallery Don't forget the light fixtures! I specialize in restoring antique and vintage lighting at my shop www.twoifbyseagallery.com. There are many beautiful fixtures which are just thrown away, which is too bad since the quality of the old fixtures is so much better than what is being imported from china.

Eco-Strip Often the challenge of stripping old paint and worn varnish off salvaged wood can be daunting. If you want to unbury the beauty of old, salvaged wood cabinets, doors, windows, porch flooring, and even siding....our Speedheater™ Infrared Paint Remover does it safely, cleanly, and efficiently. The low 400℉ heat softens the paint for gentle scraping without damaging the wood and with low risk of fire or toxic lead dust. Historic restorationists favor it over chemicals and gouging sanding or paint shaving. www.eco-strip.com

Modern Address Design Salvaged and reused brick is such a great way to mix modern asthetic with a vintage style. I think it looks great!

Justin
www.modernaddressdesign.com

CAROLE MEYER I love the patina that the use of salvaged materials gives these homes.

psmudz Does anyone have any suggestions for companies in the Michigan & Ohio area for salvaged materials? Thank you.

Eco-Strip OHIO REGION ReUSe People of America
http://thereusepeople.org/locations#Ohio

Regional Office

Joe Rettman - Bio - email
Tel: (216) 325-3019

MI
http://www.aswdetroit.org

Hull Historical We used salvaged materials from a Roman Catholic church in this new Gothic Revival home, and created new millwork to match the salvaged materials.

patricia beharry @ Hull Historical. I can almost hear the choir singing, and smell the incense. It is beautiful.

Hull Historical Thanks so much! @patricia beharry

foxhuntmom Hull Historical, Stunning craftsmanship!

Monarch Stone International Love all the creative uses of salvaged material for interior use, but you can continue with salvaged materials in your landscape and paving. Consider antique salvaged cobblestone and/or curb for driveways, walkways, motor courts from the Historic European Cobblestone collection. If installed on a natural base, it can be moved and re-used over again! Now that's recycling!

lakeside53 Even better than salvaged materials are materials lovingly reused. The 1968 photo is the Lake Cabin my parents bought in 1968. Over the course of the years various additions and remodels were done. I saved everything I could. The front door and barn sash windows sat in the back of a shed for many years until I was able to build a magnificent garage on 2008. They now proudly highlight the design which also sports the colors of the original cabin.

Lauren Elyse I am head over heals in love with this article

mmsalg Wow I think this looks better the second time around. Everything here is absolutely amazing! If you need a maker to help you create something fabulous with some of your salvage, I have a few ideas >>> http://custm.co/hz/101

Bud Dietrich, AIA mmsalg - nice link, thanks for sharing it

Kimberly Hoyt No photos to share yet, but we are using all salvaged doors and windows in the home we'll be building. We live in South America and the new ones are of such poor quality that we knew we didn't want to go that route. So we asked around and found a salvage business; it was like a little slice of heaven for us :) Found mostly cedar doors that will be beautiful after some time and elbow grease. Instead of the typical block or brick construction, we're using a styrofoam/cement system that should be a lot more energy efficient and comfortable (which I will particularly appreciate after sweltering through hot summers and freezing during cold winters in our current block-constructed casa). The foundation is in and the finished cement floor has been poured. We'll later stain and seal the cement for a low-maintenance floor.

thunder1 I found an old fish tank stand by the road. Added some old fence boards to create a solid top and lower shelf. Bought a metal scroll piece from Kirkland's and now I have a rustic Tuscon table for my back porch.

alexandrina Dear all above, you restore the faith in my sanity - I am one of the people who will cry over a photo of a torn gingerbread front and rather go to Habitat store rather than the jewelry one. I am glad I am not alone!

Eco-Strip I actually dumpster dive in our condo area on trash days. Got a beautiful oak end table that only needed waxing to return it to the old look. Also 3 thick glass tabletops. One is 3' diameter circle. We installed it in our new stairwell to add light from the second floor onto the stairwell. At night if the stair light is on, it looks like a moon on the inside of the house. We did reuse all the old doors from the foundation-collapsed 1930's cottage. Plan to safely strip the lead paint off with our Speedheater and reuse the old windows in an art studio in the planning now.

Louise Hockenson These pictures are just beautiful. Thanks for sharing.

Architectural Antiques Great post! We have been doing this since the '70s. If you are interested, check out http://www.archantiques.com/ and look at our inventory that ranges from the small (house jewelry) to the extra large (chandeliers, wood paneling, etc).

peterjh1964 My client wanted to saver her furniture but change the character of it, since she moved from the city to the beach. Here is what I was able to accomplish with her buffet. I used re-claimed red wood board for the top and with Annie Sloan paints and some elbow grease have transformed this piece to something completely new in character.

4neff I became interested in salvaged materials some years ago, and have watched the prices skyrocket. Living in California, it is also difficult to find good salvage that seems to abound in the east. I love the idea of salvaging materials but they are so hard to find and are now priced, for the most part, way out of my range.

Constable Construction inc We searched for an old mantel piece for one side of our see thru gas log fireplace.
We could not believe it when we found one that fit perfectly, NO cuts needed, just a lot of old paint to strip.The house that it was salvaged from was 120 years old ! Wonderful hand carved details were uncovered to our surprise , and it stained up beautifully.
Other side got the rustic treatment with stone and more antique wood from a local barn beam we used for another mantel.
Old beams were split and used on the ceiling . We even had some of the old oak beams milled to make the paneling and trim in the sun room .The wife says it is the coziest spot in the house.

Constable Construction inc We searched for an old mantel piece for one side of our see thru gas log fireplace.
We could not believe it when we found one that fit perfectly, NO cuts needed, just a lot of old paint to strip.The house that it was salvaged from was 120 years old ! Wonderful hand carved details were uncovered to our surprise , and it stained up beautifully.
Other side got the rustic treatment with stone and more antique wood from a local barn beam we used for another mantel.
Old beams were split and used on the ceiling . We even had some of the old oak beams milled to make the paneling and trim in the sun room .The wife says it is the coziest spot in the house.

pjtime I have always bought used rather than new because I just like the quality and patina better. Like 4neff said, there's not all that much out west, so we are limited in quantity and quality and really have to use our imagination. I built a bunkbed and underneath bookshelf lounge area for my son out of realty sign frames (double use as a ladder to climb up and a window and support for the lower portion and hollow core closet doors for shelving by attaching them with brackets to birchwood sides. I put a used loveseat underneath so we could cozy up together and read books. I used an old bookcase headboard with sliding doors, painted sage green and then crackled it with a cream color. Right now I'm refinishing white oak flooring that a prior renter covered with laminate that had peeled and warped. That involves scrubbing off years of paint and drywall mud with Mr. Clean and hot water, and judicious use of a palm sander. I use old windows for cold frames for the seedlings and as framed shadow boxes. I use one side of sliding glass doors supported at each end by floor cabinets or filing cabinets for cutting stained glass, and have used old hollow core doors for simples computer desks, again supported by filing cabinets. A lot of this is less about aesthetics and more about being frugal, using what you have, and has the benefit of flexibility and not feeling too sad if configurations must be changed due to moves.

Eco-Strip Just remember, if you salvage old wood windows, doors, cabinets, or other wood trimwork, test it for lead-based paint with a simple LeadCheck swab from hardware stores. If it is coated with this paint, strip it safely. Do not use toxic chemicals, open sanding (without a HEPA vacuum attached to capture all the lead dust) or high heat guns which release toxic lead fumes. Use a low heat Speedheater Infrared Paint Remover (eco-strip.com) to soften the paint and scrape it cleanly and quickly.

eCustomFinishes Salvaged materials is the way to go. Eco friendly and the old wood gives such great character. definite WIN WIN!
I just completed these projects using 100% reclaimed materials.
more salvaged projects on my site at http://www.ecustomfinishes.com