Turning House launches new line of green furniture
New company reclaims unusual woods from old buildings
Angela Heck -- Furniture Today, January 14, 2009
LANDIS, N.C. — Defying harsh economic conditions and the pressure to play it safe, a new star has been born in furnitureland. And the star glows green.Turning House Furniture and its equally eco-conscious sister company Turning House Millworks held its official launch here at the former Corriher Mill this week.
The two companies are the brainchild of Spencer Morten III, great grandson of Bassett founder J.D. Bassett. A few years ago, he heard a Virginia company was salvaging materials from an old building and sending them to Europe for restoring buildings. Morten then had the opportunity to see furniture made from reclaimed wood while visiting the United Kingdom and an idea began to form.
Morten said that he soon "envisioned beautiful solid-wood furniture, accessories, flooring and home fixtures with the distinct character, integrity and spirit of vintage woods transformed into a new showcase of products."
 The maple flooring of Corriher Mill presents a treasure trove for Turning House’s deconstructionists. Even the support beams and sub-flooring are expected to yield rare finds. |
Turning House ‘deconstructs' old and unused buildings that have no historical value, such as the cotton mill here in Landis. They often uncover buried treasure, of a sort. For example, Corriher Mill chose to use ¾- inch solid maple as its flooring. Many of the planks exhibit either bird's eye or fiddleback patterning.
"An industrial plant would never think of using maple as its flooring material now," said Amy Miller, the company's wood specialist and environmental expert.
She went on to explain that fiddleback maple, with its lovely tiger stripped pattern, is used in the construction of musical instruments, as the name suggests.
It is exceedingly unusual to discover fresh-cut fiddleback maple since the pattern is only found in mature trees that have been rotated back and forth by the wind. Now, trees are usually harvested when they reach a serviceable size and are not allowed the time it takes to develop this special characteristic.
In addition to the maple flooring, the company expects to discover rare Southern Longleaf Pine in the joists and sub-flooring. That species is all but extinct and is usually found in protected national forests where wood can only be harvested when a tree has died of natural causes.
Wormy Chestnut, Black Walnut, and many other uncommon woods have also been found in the buildings deconstructed by Turning House. Besides the Corriher Mill, which was built in 1909, other buildings currently in the deconstruction process include a tobacco warehouse, a yarn mill and a distillery.
Miller said that the deconstruction of Corriher Mill's three floors alone will save 19,000 trees from the saw.
Unlike the ‘crush and haul' method of the past that salvaged very little before passing the rest off to a landfill, Turning House will repurpose 98% of the entire building-from the concrete, to the brick, to the nails.
The company is seeking the U.S. Building Council's LEED certification to verify their operations and maintenance programs as environmental friendly.
But more than that, Miller pointed out that as the green movement gains momentum more and more contractors are building LEED-certified buildings. Using Turning House's materials in a building project will help accrue certification points in two ways: using reclaimed materials and using local materials.
The most modern section of the Corriher Mill, which is structurally separate from the portions containing the rare materials, will be used as the Millwork's center of operations. Landis, N.C., was chosen for the company's base because of its central location in the industrial South and its wealth of old cotton mills, distilleries and tobacco warehouses.
 These boards have been sorted by species and are carefully marked with a source code. |
This centrality also allows East coast building owners seeking certification to claim extra points for using locally sourced materials.
Turning House estimates that there are 1,300 buildings on the eastern seaboard that fit its criteria of being built before 1941 and having no historical significance. So there are a wealth of resources in reserve to keep up with demand for its building materials and furniture.
The Turning House Furniture Collection is set to debut at April's High Point Market in a new 6,000-square-foot showroom in the International Home Furnishings Center's Green wing, space 1A, and in space 101 of the Interhall area. The new line will consist of three portfolios with approximately 100 pieces, designed by industry veterans Caroline Hipple and Dixon Bartlett of HB2.
All furniture will boast a hangtag that gives a short description of the history surrounding the building where the wood for that particular piece was harvested. It then directs customers to its Web site for a more detailed historical snapshot.
The company carefully tracks all the wood from the point of re-harvest to the finished product to keep it correctly identified.
 Turning House workers going through the laborious process of “denailing” and removing all scrap metal. |
When the wood reaches the Millworks in Landis, it is stacked in a group and marked with its source. The wood is then de-nailed, a process that can take two workers up to an hour-and-a-half per plank. Workers then "skim" about a third of an inch off one side so its species can be identified.
It then goes to be sawn into smaller planks. The special equipment cuts the wood in such a way that only the sawdust and the "skimmings" go unused. Plant Manager Stuart Shoun said that officials are talking with a company that may be able to use these thin pieces for refacing cabinets.
After being graded, the wood is sent off to be kiln dried so it is suitable for use in furniture. Morten said that heart wood from the Southern Longleaf Pine will be the backbone of the furniture line and that nail holes and natural distressing will be preserved for character.
 This special saw has a “turn around” function, a belt system that brings each board back around to the saw to be cut again. It can be set to cut several different widths and experts calculate how best to cut each beam so there is little or no waste. |
The company has settled on three manufacturing plants to make the furniture and is looking into a fourth. At this point, one plant is domestic and the others overseas. Each plant has a different specialization, which enables the brand to have several distinct styles.
"We seek to be good stewards of the Earth," said Morten. "We are resurrecting forgotten and abandoned buildings in the form of beautifully made furniture and reviving the stories of these once proud buildings and companies."
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