Sold 10/28/2018 to Josh in Annadale, VA
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This mantel may be little, but she’s got a special, beautiful look to her. This wonderful variation of color is what real, reclaimed wood is all about. White oak starts out as this wheatish tan, but the outside quarter inch or so darkens into these warm, saddle and coffee browns over time. This trait is most pronounced in white oak. As we work through the darken patina layer, we expose the lighter wood again. With the right stick of wood and doing the work just right, we can reveal a piece like this. Wonderful. Absolutely wonderful.

This piece was a floor joist in a barn. On its edge, it supported the enormous weight of hay stacked to the ceiling. It was covered in whitewash because it also sat in the milking parlor in the floor below. They covered all of the wood in a lime mixture to keep sanitary conditions. It’s pretty amazing to see a before and after picture. (something like the very last pictures in the set). And to think, a decade ago when we started, most people just called this junk.

The original beam came from an old barn in Southwest Wisconsin. It probably dated back to the late 1800s or early 1900s. We purchased this wood from an Amish gentleman who lives out in the rolling hills of the area. That area is still dotted with small farms where the cows and other livestock wander out in the corrals. It’s not like the modern farms that we see by our place in Minnesota with hundreds of cows stuffed in a tin building. It is great to see agriculture the way that I remember it as a kid.

This mantel is 54 inches long and is priced at $85/LF which normally runs $380. This piece is on sale for $325. Shipping will run $75 via FedEx Gnd.

About the tag – Fly to Chicago on Northwest Orient Airlines. This newspaper advertisement is from the 1950s, maybe late 1940s. It sports a drawing of a DC-3 – the plane that revolutionized consumer air travel. Gotta love the phone number PARKER 6621. Imagine just 5 digits for the whole of Minneapolis.