Beautiful wood from wine barrels and old barns is finding new life in the hands of contemporary furniture
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\nmakers. The result is familiar and fresh, a new rustic style.<\/p>\n
“We are just north of the wine country here in California, and over the years, a long time ago now, (we) have seen a lot of barrels being disposed of,” says Whit McLeod, whose acclaimed furniture draws from the Arts and Crafts tradition.<\/p>\n
“Obviously, it’s good quality wood,” he says. “It’s kind of a challenge to figure out what to do with it other than cutting it into a half-barrel planter.”
\nMcLeod found a unique way to use the barrels, in a signature folding chair whose oak staves express the smooth wooden curves of their origins.<\/p>\n
“About 99 percent of people sit down and say it’s more comfortable than it looks,” he says.<\/p>\n
Barrel of crafts
\n From there, he’s produced dining suites, tables, benches, comfy indoor chairs and even toilet seats, complete with the brands of the original wine barrel’s manufacturer.<\/p>\n
“We have pretty dwindling resources,” says McLeod, who used to be a wildlife biologist. “So it feels good to make something useful out of something that’s being discarded.”<\/p>\n
Some of the wood comes from tanks a century old and from torn-down industrial buildings whose salvaged Douglas fir makes substantial furniture.<\/p>\n
“The older wood came from a time when it’s just better quality lumber,” McLeod says. “And then in making tanks, they always used very high-quality wood.”<\/p>\n
The grain and cut of the boards are admirable, and the wood is well seasoned, he says. He retains its old marks and hence its character.<\/p>\n
Marks of character
\n Such marks are visible on furniture in Lauren Falabella’s Florida shop, Village TradeWinds, which opened in December. She carries pieces made from wine barrels by 2-Day Designs of Georgia.<\/p>\n
“I decided to carry it just because I thought it was something unique looking,” Falabella says. “It’s not something you see every day in homes. I just like the fact it’s actually the recycled wine barrels.”<\/p>\n
Among the pieces is a dining set with a round table – complete with barrel in the middle – and four leather-topped stools for about $1,700.<\/p>\n
There are also bookcases, a coffee table and accessories that reflect the barrels’ curves, as well as a distinctive canoe wine center for $998. In the shape of a boat, it has shelves, a wine rack and a cabinet on the bottom.<\/p>\n
“People who entertain will like this kind of furniture if they like that look,” Falabella says.<\/p>\n
Apparently, a lot of people do.<\/p>\n
Retailers such as the NapaStyle catalog have fed an appetite for furniture in which rustic wood meets contemporary styling – and not all of it comes from wine barrels.<\/p>\n
NapaStyle carries a kitchen island that incorporates old barn wood and even corrugated metal from roofs. The metal becomes a wine rack. Another kitchen island features barrel staves.<\/p>\n
The catalog also sells stools and a barn wood bed, made by Frank X. Casavant’s Moonlight Barnwood in Heidenheimer, Texas.<\/p>\n
“We go out and we look for barns and work out deals with the farmers, where we can reclaim what we can from them,<\/p>\n
because a lot of times they’ll wait until they’re falling down before they’ll actually do anything,” he says.<\/p>\n
Casavant gets a kick out of thinking about where old Texas barns end up as he fills lots of NapaStyle orders.<\/p>\n
“All the stuff that we make, it winds up in like thousands of homes all across the United States, just from one barn.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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