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Spencer Morten III, chairman and CEO of Turning House Furniture and Bassett Mirror Co., talks about a chair and desk that are part of a new collection of furniture made by Turning House. The pieces were displayed in the company’s showroom in High Point, N.C. (Bulletin photo) |
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
By AMANDA BUCK - Bulletin Staff Writer
A company based in Bassett is turning the mills, factories and tobacco warehouses of decades past into furniture for the 21st century.
Turning House Furniture, a freestanding brand that is part of Bassett Mirror Co., debuted three collections recently at the High Point furniture market. All are made from 15 wood species reclaimed from buildings that once were part of the fabric of life in the Appalachian region.
By transforming the walls, floors and ceilings of abandoned buildings into home furnishings, Turning House is helping preserve a part of history and prevent wood that often is unattainable now from heading to a landfill, said Spencer Morten III, chairman and CEO of Turning House Furniture and Bassett Mirror.
“The wood is the hero,” Morten said. “We reclaim it, renew it, and it’s reborn as fashion to go to the American home.”
Turning House Furniture’s sister company, Landis, N.C.-based Turning House Millworks, deconstructs the buildings from the top down, said Amy Miller, who does public relations for the companies. Turning House first makes sure that the buildings do not have historical value in their own right, she said.
“If it has historic significance, we would rather see it renovated,” she said.
Miller estimated that there are 14,000 old buildings owned by municipalities in the South that contain historic wood but have no historical significance of their own.
“We go after those,” she said.
Turning House Millworks personnel gut the insides of the buildings and take them down piece by piece, starting with the roof. According to a news release, the process recycles 98 percent of the structures.
Reclaiming the wood from one building, the release said, can save 19,000 trees.
As a building is deconstructed, crews tag each piece of lumber individually so they can keep track of where the wood came from. After the beams are denailed, resawed and turned into furniture, “authentication packets” that trace the wood’s history are included with each piece.
“We’re not only reclaiming the wood; we’re reclaiming the history,” Morten said. “We’re letting the homemaker know the history of the area where the wood came from.”
All of the buildings Turning House recovers are located “in the shadows of the Blue Ridge Mountains,” Morten said. That area includes New York, Maryland, Virginia, the Carolinas, Georgia, northern Alabama, Tennessee and Kentucky, he said.
Among the wood species used include American chestnut, oak, maple, Southern long leaf pine and American walnut (also known as black walnut).
When Turning House Furniture debuted its collections last week in High Point, everything in the showroom, from the chests and tables to the vintage-looking hardwood floor, was for sale, Morten said.
Turning House Millworks also produces hardwood flooring.
As Morten took visitors through the showroom, he described the three portfolios, or collections of furniture, on display. They were Summer House, which has a light, beach house look; Fresh Heritage, which is designed to be traditional and elegant with bronze or antiqued brass hardware; and Belgian Modern, which uses reclaimed industrial materials such as iron, steel and thick glass.
Among the Belgian Modern pieces — which Morten described as “post-industrial chic” — was a factory cart table made from a wooden and metal cart once used to move goods inside factories. A large wheel at the table’s center is welded to keep the cart from tottering, and the piece is covered in a sealer coat to make it smooth.
“It’s an urban loft look,” Morten said.
A desk in the Fresh Heritage collection has an antique look but includes hidden outlets where laptops or cell phones can be charged. Another piece in that collection could be used as a china cabinet or bookshelf and includes filing cabinet drawers beneath, because “who doesn’t work at their dining room table anymore?” Morten asked.
Those features separate the furniture from antiques and add function, he said.
Several pieces in the collection were made as limited editions with only 10 pieces available, Morten said. Those items include several chests, a writing desk and a table.
Turning House has a cut, saw and distribution facility in Landis, and will make the furniture wherever it is most efficient, whether in this country or overseas, Morten said. Mirrors will be made in Bassett, he added.
The furniture is being sold by Neiman Marcus on its Web site and will go into its catalog this summer, Morten said.
Turning House was well-received at the market, Morten said, adding that it really is the wood that makes the company stand out.
“It’s all unique,” he said. “No two (pieces) are alike.” |
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