o.o.c.

RECYCLING OLD BUILDING MATERIALS

AKD that "post title" is for you.  O.O.C. = "out of control" is how I feel about these things I’m about to tell you about.  They are soooo out of control good I can’t hardly think straight!

Chance and I ate at the new PFChangs last night. (dad, they don’t have pot-stickers on the menu here) Chance almost had to scold me for being as absurd as I was being.  I took my new issue of Blueprint in (Cam, mine came yesterday)… I couldn’t put it down at the dinner table, and then I almost fell out of the booth when I realized Amy Butler and her husband were featured.  She is a designer, who has such fabulous fabrics {at reasonable prices} and she also does "patterns" if you are crafty- you’ll love them.  {Jan, she designed your guest bedroom drapery fabric!}  You know, I am so all over the board in what "styles" I like… I like them all.  I can appreciate "stark modern" and I can appreciate "extravagant froo-froo passementries" – but there is one design element that totally makes me weak in the knees… recycling old building materials. 

Back to Amy & David Butler (below) aren’t they cool!?  David (husband is a graphic designer) & Amy (fabric and interior designer) both have design studios within the home.  I would move in tonight if they’d let me!

- their floors are reclaimed from an old barn

(below: those are reclaimed old elevator doors bolted together and hung on barn door hardware… yum)

See this blog for more photos: Mid Century Modernist (seriously, follow the link- you won’t be disappointed).

A few of Amy’s fabrics that I absolutely LOVE (why, because they are enough "glam" and enough "vintage" and enough "chic" to make you want to drool and her combination of colors is bold, unusual, and sooooo intriguing):

OKAY bear with me today.  I’m passionate about this stuff… back to the recycling house parts.  I get it honest: my father – in the heart below – bought this old school house for $1 and had it moved 4 blocks.  It was built in the 1940 and was used as the one room school house for many years.  It now sits on my parents farm property and I’m so proud of my dad (and my designer mom who probably wanted to strangle him during the restoration process).  The little town where our farm is had recently used the building as their "ruritan club meeting place".  They (the ruritan club) were going to burn it and put up a metal pole barn <yikes>, so good job dad… I love you.  If you were at my wedding – you were in this building for the rehearsal dinner.

My new office hosts a plethora of recycled items.  Most visible being the stainless steel galley style kitchen (old cabinets out of a hospital) and the pair of 4′-0" x 9′-0" ladder back doors that I found in an architectural salvage yard in Birmingham.  Photos were taken while we were still "building"… I’ll try and take some more recent ones later.

I love it when clients don’t think I’ve lost my mind (in other words – they trust me).  I have a couple from Atlanta that are in the process of building down here at the beach.  They got excited when I mentioned using some reclaimed beams in their home.  Matt & Jim (brothers) have a flooring and cabinetry business in Albany, GA – and their wives use their scrap building materials to make frames.  They also dabble in real estate (restoring old houses and flipping or renting).  What happens when you combine the two?  They have recently bought a huge cotton mill – solely for the purpose of disassembling for the materials.  I sent my clients thru Albany on their way back to Atlanta yesterday and they loved it.  How awesome to see your future beams in their original form.  Their great room beams will be the crunchy white (huge – photo doesn’t do them justice they are about 16"x24") used in the cotton mill as beams to support the floor joists.  While it’s sad to see the cotton mill go, how awesome that the materials will live on.  If you need bricks or beams or wood floors and like the idea of recycling, let me know and I’ll put you in touch with these guys. 

Here are some photos from their visit:

Relevant reading material on my Amazon wish list:

The Butler’s book Found Style, Elements of Style & Moving Rooms