Chocolate stained River Recovered Cypress flooring to match croc skin ceiling upholstry

I met Jon about ten years ago on a job we worked on in New Orleans (Jon’s first Flavored job), and we immediately bonded on a shared design aesthetic.  Over the past ten years we have met up several times where both of our products were used in common environments.  I have even used Flavor Paper in my own house and so it seemed fitting Jon used The Cornerstone Floor Group’s Floors in his.

Since Flavor Paper started in New Orleans, Jon and Skylab were working with many materials that captured the feel of the jazz capital.  They wanted a wood that was both beautiful and tied to Louisiana.  We of course had the perfect match… our River Recovered Cypress.  This particular batch was floated up by our expert recoverer Jimmy.  We pulled these sinkers from tributaries on the Louisiana side of the Mississippi River.  Many of these sunken treasures were over one thousand years old at the time they fell prey to natural shearing winds, lightning storms, old age, or axed men.  Just the right amount of Creole to cover the living areas of Jon’s master suite of the Flavor factory.

And here are a few extra photos of the rest of the building.  Cabinets made with our River Recovered Cypress by Made Studio Portland Oregon.  Carpet supplied by my father’s company The Floor Group.

BE ON THE LOOKOUT…  THE CORNERSTONE FLOOR GROUP’S LINE OF FLAVOR PAPER WALLPAPER…..  NOVEMBER FOOD AND WINE MAGAZINE ARTICLE TO REVEAL MY LIVING QUARTERS ….

Thanks for reading.  Posted by Doug Booher

For the floors we started with milk painted barn siding.

We then used a soy based stripper to remove the top layer of paint in order to leave the white wash pigment and the original surface of the wood.  All of the 3500 ft of flooring in this home was stripped and scraped by hand.

The stripper was then neutralized and the material was kiln dried, milled and installed.Since we kept as much of the original character of the floor as possible, there was a natural uneven element we wanted to soften, so instead of sanding any of the floor we hand scraped any sharp edges prior to finishing.

We then finished the floors with  a combination of lye, oil, and gray pigment.  And here are our results…

All of the beam work in the house was landfill diverted white oak.  To finish we used a combination of wood bleach, gray pigment, and oil.

The above link was just released in Garden and Gun Magazine this week.  Though it does not mention our company, we enjoyed working on this project for the Bechers and are proud of the final product.

We reclaimed the White Pine wall material from joists removed from buildings in St. Louis, and the old Johnson City train depot (TN) that came down in 2008.  We denailed the original two inch thick joists then split them into one inch thick sections. The widths of the material is random.  We then lightly sanded the original side to clean the material prior to shipping.

The Barn nearing completion.

The Flooring came from several buildings and barn structures from Ohio, as well as from the Johnson City train depot.  It was joist material as well.  We re-sawed this material, kept the original surface, and added a tongue and groove.  The material was then installed, the high sections were handscraped, lightly sanded, and finished with a special mixed tung oil.

The Floors Were mixed Widths, so sorting and mixing required materials to be out to pick from.

The beams were mostly supplied through a barn located by Meyer, Greeson, Paulin, and Benson architects headquartered in Charlotte North Carolina http://www.mgpba.com/, and installed by Carolina Timberworks http://www.carolinatimberworks.com/.  Carolina Timberworks did an amazing job with the material.  But when two 60 foot beams could not be found to complete the structure, we stepped in to procure that material.  After we rejected several beams due to rot or mortise pockets, we finally found two perfect 12×12 inch beams 60 foot long in Montana.  These completed the timberframing and were the two jewels of support in the main room.

We supplied the two top beams next to the ceiling.  These babies were beautiful.  No mortise pockets or rot!

More pics and updates to come.

We recently completed work in midtowns culinary hot stop.  Floors, walls, paneling, tables,  and shelving were all milled and manufactured exclusively for Empire State South.  Located at 999 Peachtree at the corner of Peachtree and 10th, The Cornerstone Floor Group worked with designers Lisa Fiscus (www.thehawthornehouseinc.com) and Susan Hable (www.hableconstruction.com).

FROM DULUTH TO PEACHTREE

The Oldest House and First Church of Duluth, Georgia. ca 1850

When Chef Hugh Acheson and designer Lisa Fiscus and Susan Hable  approached The Cornerstone Floor Group about their concept to build and finish Empire State South using only local materials and artisans, we had the perfect structure to salvage for their project, the oldest house in Duluth.

Flocked Wallpaper covered most interior walls.  Carefully salvaged, block prints on the back identified the paper was manufactured on Sea Island, Georgia.

Just before The Cornerstone Floor Group’s involvement with Lisa and Hugh, we gained the rights to salvage the house in Duluth.  We were excited to be able to use all the material from this one source to construct Empire State South with such an amazing local treasure. The Duluth house was built during the 1850’s by Singleton Howell as a private residence.  In 1871 he allowed the Duluth Methodists to start church meetings there (thus being the 1st church of Duluth).  Two years later he donated another plot of land for them to build their church where it still exists today. In the early 1900’s relative John Christian bought the house and used it as a clinic and office for his medical practice until Katherine Willis, the great great niece of Singleton Howell, gained ownership.

Hand Planed Boards on the Ceiling.

When construction costs to restore the house was prohibitive,  The Cornerstone Floor Group salvaged the structure in 2010. We deconstructed the house over the course of one month.  The material was de-nailed, kiln dried, then re-milled into floors, paneling, beams and tables.  All the surfaces in the restaurant made of heart pine came from this Duluth house.  The remaining cypress materials were recovered from the Altamaha River near Darien Georgia.

BOARD AND BATTEN

Exterior Board and Batten of The Duluth house

Board and Batten material in the private dining room of ESS.

The Board and Batten used in the private dining room were reclaimed from the exterior of the oldest house in Duluth.  The old paint was removed and the interior face of the boards were hand sanded before milk paint was hand rubbed into the grain of the wood.

THE FLOORS

Original hand planed wall paneling

The bar area floors

The Floors throughout the ESS bar and entry were reclaimed from the interior wall boards of the Duluth house.  The walls were originally toungue and groove 12 inch wide material that ran the lengths of the original rooms.  When this material was originally installed, carpenters hand planed the paneling in place to smooth any uneven surfaces.  The private dining floor was the original floor and the main dining floor was made from other interior wall boards found throughout the house.

THE PANELING AND SHELVES

A typical swamp area of the Altamaha river

Re-milled pecky cypress

The bar shelves, columns, and pecky paneling in the bar area were constructed from sunken cypress logs we reclaimed from the Altamaha river near Darien Georgia.  The material was reclaimed by floating the logs to the surface one by one.  These cypress trees easily attained ages of 1500 years prior to their natural fall or axed men in the 1800’s.  The color variation is due to different exposure and uptake of minerals where they sunk. The pecky cypress is caused by a naturally occuring fungus.

river recovered cypress shelving