This is Brian's barn. It's over 100 years old. Brian's taking it down but, he's reclaiming all of the wood and he's selling some of it on Craig's List. I didn't take these first two photos, Brian did. That's his truck
This morning, I met Brian. I'm using part of his barn to build the cabinet for the top of the sideboard in my dining room.
Yep, I took the board with the electric outlet on it. Not sure whether it'll end up in the cabinet or not.
Don't you just LOVE old nails!? There are even some that are SQUARE! As I removed all of the nails, I couldn't help but think of all of the people who had pounded them in over the last century. The thought of it made me smile. It's fun when my furniture has a "history" even before I build it.
After I finished removing all of the nails, I scrubbed the wood with with a brush using soap and water with ammonia in it because, let's face it, sometimes "patina" is just "dirt". Then I sprayed it with a little bleach and stood it on my driveway to dry. The good news is that none of the character that draws me to old barn wood was lost. There's something about century old pine that makes my heart flutter. It could be that I'm a Midwest girl. It could be that I drove a combine in the farm fields of DeKalb county for two summers during college. It's there that I first came to know and love old farm houses and old barns.
Well, I'm off to sketch and taking some measurements. I hope that by tonight, I'll be able to build the cabinet but I'm still not sure what to do about this outlet...
xo,
S