New Jersey Mill Gives Old Barns New Life As Furniture (VIDEOS)

ESSEX COUNTY, NJ — What’s the secret to turning antique barn wood reclaimed from America's heartland into an amazing array of furniture? A healthy respect for history and family, according to the staff of Real Antique Wood.

The Irvington-based, full-service mill specializes in a quirky-but-heartwarming niche: taking old barn wood and breathing new life into it. An old barn beam? That can be transformed into a fireplace mantel. Discarded siding? Now it’s an interior accent wall for a home.

Even a simple slab of wood can be given a new beginning, with the right set of eyes.

According to owner Gary Horvath, since founding Real Antique Wood in 2011, the company has amassed a staggering inventory of a million board feet of reclaimed barn wood, most taken from antique barns in Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York and New Jersey.

Each barn that Horvath and his crew take down is meticulously deconstructed on-site, carefully packed up and trucked back to the mill in Irvington. Once they get the reclaimed wood back to the mill, they begin the grueling process of removing all the nails and kiln-drying the material.

And that’s where the magic really begins.

But despite the creative satisfaction that the finished products give their makers, the ultimate reward is knowing that the history of those old barns has been preserved in some way, according to co-founder Lisa Horvath.

“What makes our wood unique is that we took down the barns ourselves,” Horvath said. “We know where this wood came from, we know the families that cherished these barns for generations and we know the stories that were passed to us along with the wood. We get the chance to save this incredible material from the landfill and give it a new purpose.”

BUT DON’T TAKE THEIR WORD FOR IT…

Want to get a look at the mill in action?

On Saturday, Oct. 21, Gary Horvath will lead tours of the family-owned sawmill at 31 Cordier Street in Irvington from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. Safety goggles and ear protection will be provided for the mill tour, and blacksmith Lisa Lofdahl from LL Metalworks will be set up onsite with her portable blacksmith forge. Refreshments will be served and fireplace mantels will be on sale up to 25% off.

According to Horvath, 10% of the total sales for the day will be donated to St. Hubert's Animal Welfare Center in Madison to assist their dogs, including those affected by the recent hurricanes.

"Demonstration Day is something we've wanted to do for a long time,” Real Antique Wood General Manager Anthony Saraceno said. "It gives us a chance to invite the community inside our mill to see some of the cool stuff we've been constructing.”

Learn more at the company’s website.

Send local news tips, photos and press releases to eric.kiefer@patch.com

Photos/Videos: Real Antique Wood