Owner, Preston Browning with sister, Rachel Browning
My first summer job was in Virginia denailing reclaimed beams and over the years have worked in antique restoration, cabinetmaking and finish carpentry. I first started making furniture from salvage in 1995 while restoring houses in NE Portland. Seeing all of the beautiful house parts go into the dumpster was too hard to watch, plus I didn’t have the money to buy new materials. I’ve been deconstructing, salvaging, reclaiming and dumpster diving ever since.
Starting in 1999 I worked at the Rebuilding Center on their first deconstruction crew, and then went on to start Refind Furniture, department of the Rebuilding Center . I designed and built furniture there for 3 years. Since then I worked with Mercy Corps in New Orleans after hurricane Katrina advocating for deconstruction as an alternative to demolition as well as training contractors and non profits in deconstruction techniques. Most recently I worked with the City of Portland in the Green Building Program and with Lovett Deconstruction, helping to find a home for all of the beautiful materials reclaimed from their projects.
Over the years I’ve also been restoring houses with salvaged materials whenever humanly possible and occasionally when not so).
My sister, Rachel Browning, an organizational and marketing whiz, has helped get the place up and running and to get the word out. Plus, she gets to clean hardware and reglaze windows.