FLOORED

Reclaimed Designworks provides old wood for new floors

BY ENID SPITZ

“Prepare to be floored,” warns Reclaimed DesignWorks (RDW), the company responsible for the wall-to-wall walnut in what might be downtown Charleston’s most expensive hotel room. The company is serious. With a showroom in downtown Charleston and clients all the way up to Canada, RDW offers the ideal combination of personalized service and international clout.

“We take on any size project,” says RDW’s co-founder and owner, Scott Peckham. “We have done a 10,000-squarefoot beach house on Kiawah Island, but we also sell material for smaller projects, including individual fireplace mantels and bundles of barnwood for accent walls.”

Inside the Planters Inn’s St. Philip Suite, a sprawling 1,400-square-foot sanctuary that rents for over $2,000 a night, RDW provided an elegant hitskip walnut floor—the perfect “foundation” for a memorable getaway. Dark walnut contrasts with the airy views of St. Philip’s steeple and complements the suite’s exposed brick walls.

RDW offers a range of wood products, including reclaimed barnwood for accent walls, stand-alone shelves for airy kitchens, hand-hewn fireplace mantels, old railway boxcar planks for countertops and more. The company provided barnwood paneling for Crust Wood Fired Pizza on Maybank Highway, built an outdoor mural for the gift shop at Seven Falls in Colorado Springs, and sourced beautifully weathered beams for that aforementioned home on Kiawah. Plus, RDW’s products can survive the elements: A mobile “tiny house,” covered with a multicolored reclaimed roof, weathered snow, piercing sun and Northwestern rains on a journey from Texas to Washington state.

RDW also produces wall tiles made from reclaimed and recycled wood with chevron or herringbone patterns that are sleek accents in any room. The varied hues of reclaimed whiskey and wine barrels, for example, can transform a wine cellar into a tasteful experience, even before the uncorking.

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Wide plank hardwood flooring is RDW’s bread and butter. The planks are kiln dried, precision milled, fumigated and tested for lead—something many other companies overlook. In addition to oneof- a-kind reclaimed flooring, RDW offers new flooring from sustainably harvested full-grown trees, including European white oak for a contemporary look.

In Charleston, people can admire RDW’s products without staying at the Planters Inn. Both Prohibition and The Ordinary restaurants on King Street relied on RDW to help them achieve their signature styles. And at the renovated Cigar Factory, RDW flooring achieves a “factory-warehouse feel,” Peckham says. “It’s that timeless, beautiful look that can’t be replicated with new wood. It’s also the right thing to do from an environmental perspective.”

From testing reclaimed wood for safety to working with homeowners for a cohesive final look, the company doesn’t stop at selling and shipping hardwood flooring planks. “Several years ago, we partnered with John Griffiths Hardwood Flooring to offer our customers a one-stop solution for all of their flooring needs. Customers can now purchase the best flooring available in the Southeast from our showroom and also enjoy the best installation, sanding and finishing business. It’s a winning partnership that provides a lot of value to our clients,” Peckham says.

If you haven’t considered reclaimed wood as a design element, RDW’s gallery will easily open your mind to new ideas. Imagine, for example, roughsawn beams that fit perfectly in a contemporary dining room—a room that includes crystal chandeliers finished with chrome, frameless mirrors and abstract art. Or consider how dark walnut floorboards could contrast with the white marble counters of a massive kitchen island. The examples go on and on.

Of course, the most expensive hotel room in Charleston might be beyond your reach. But RDW can bring similar touches to your own home in the form of a hand-hewn wood fireplace mantel, boxcar shelving, barnwood accent walls or a European oak floor. “For floors or even for something small, like countertops or a mantelpiece, we’re here to talk to,” says Peckham.

Enid Spitz is a writer and yoga instructor based in Charleston. Visit espitz.wordpress.com.

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