Stacked barn board, Historic Lumber, Acton, Ont. 'Anybody could buy some barn board, set up a store and say ‘This is authentic barn board,’ Allan Bousfield says. ‘But the beauty of most of what we have here is that I’ve been doing this for so long I know the places most of it came from. So the story is accurate to the point of saying ‘It was a farm, it was dated 1855, we found the date in the house, this was the barn.’ (Dave LeBlanc For The Globe and Mail)
Kitchen cabinets destined for a Muskoka cottage. John Bousfield’s sculptural creations are showcased on the main floor of the family home: “live edge” tables, big wardrobes dressed in milk paint, dining tables and hewn-beam mantles. (Dave LeBlanc For The Globe and Mail)
Kitchen island with hammered copper sink. (Dave LeBlanc For The Globe and Mail)
Bowtie joinery. (Dave LeBlanc For The Globe and Mail)
A live edge table in the shop’s showroom. (Dave LeBlanc For The Globe and Mail)
Drawers full of heritage treasure. (Dave LeBlanc For The Globe and Mail)
Salvaged door from the Wasaga Beach area. 'We were recycling long before it even became something that was even thought about,’ says Mr. Bousfield. 'At that time you were thought of as ‘you can’t afford real stuff?’ it was pretty bad, actually.’ (Dave LeBlanc)
Salvaged fireplace surround. (Dave LeBlanc For The Globe and Mail)
Sign at entry. (Dave LeBlanc For The Globe and Mail)
Stacks of houses. Scanning piles of inventory outside, Mr. Bousfield lists: “These are stone remnants from windowsills, doorsills, and lintels,” he says, then points to the next pile over. “Brick houses, so, the deep red brick is from 1900; there’s brick on the top, it’s 1897—handmade brick—the buff brick is from the Woodstock area and it’s 1880; the brick on the bottom, which has an orange tinge to it, that’s around 1860s or 1850s.” (Dave LeBlanc For The Globe and Mail)
Table in progress. Alan Bousfield say his customers “come in with ideas all the time” about what to do with his heritage wood. (Dave LeBlanc For The Globe and Mail)
A workshop at Historic Lumber. (Dave LeBlanc For The Globe and Mail)
to get it and come back to see the ad in front of this gallery.
