Building or Renovating? Start With the Old Things.

One of the most common mistakes we see is waiting until a home is well into design or construction before looking for antique and reclaimed materials.

It should often happen the other way around.

If you know you want an antique door, reclaimed mantel, old stone floor or hand-hewn beams in your home, find those pieces early. Unlike new building materials, old things are rarely made to accommodate a drawing. The drawing should accommodate them.

Design Around What Cannot Be Reordered

A new door can be ordered to fit an opening. An antique door already has its dimensions.

The same is true of a limestone mantel, reclaimed flooring, antique tile or a centuries-old beam. These materials come with constraints, and those constraints can become some of the most interesting parts of a home.

Finding them early gives the architect, designer and builder the opportunity to properly incorporate them rather than trying to make them fit after decisions have already been made.

An antique door may influence the width and height of an opening. A mantel can determine the proportions of an entire fireplace wall. Reclaimed stone may affect the thickness of a floor assembly. Old beams can influence ceiling heights, framing and lighting locations.

These are not necessarily complications. They are design inputs.

Old Materials Have Different Requirements

Antique architectural materials were not produced around today's standardized construction methods.

Doors may be unusually narrow, tall or thick. Stone and tile can vary in thickness from piece to piece. Reclaimed flooring may require a different substrate or installation method. Mantels may need additional blocking or modifications to the surrounding wall. Heavy stone pieces can affect structural and logistical planning.

None of this is particularly difficult when it is considered early.

It becomes difficult when the walls are framed, the floors are set and everyone discovers that the piece you fell in love with needs another two inches.

Start Sourcing During Design

For a new home or major renovation, we recommend beginning the search for important antique and reclaimed materials while the project is still being designed.

You do not need to select every object in the house.

Start with the pieces that interact with the architecture:

Doors. Mantels. Flooring. Stone. Beams. Tile. Architectural elements.

These are the pieces most likely to affect dimensions, assemblies and layouts. Decorative objects, furniture and smaller accessories can come later.

The earlier the important pieces are identified, the more naturally they can become part of the architecture.

Let the Material Lead

There is also a less practical reason to start with the old things.

They make a house more interesting.

An old limestone floor does not have perfectly consistent edges. An antique door may have proportions you would never have drawn from scratch. A beam may carry marks left by the people who shaped it generations ago.

Those irregularities force small design decisions that would not otherwise happen.

Instead of selecting everything from a catalog after the house has been designed, you allow a few exceptional materials to influence the house itself.

The result feels less specified and more collected.

Bring Us Into the Project Early

At Green Pirogue, we want to be a resource during the design process, not simply somewhere you visit when construction is nearly finished.

If you are building or renovating, bring us your plans, elevations, inspiration images or even an unfinished idea. We can help identify antique and reclaimed materials that might work, discuss dimensions and installation considerations, and source pieces around the needs of the project.

The best time to find an old door is before someone draws the opening.

Build around the things worth keeping.