All sorts of architectural salvage pieces can look great in your home – and depending on how you use them, many things can look great in any home, whether your décor is modern to dedicated antiquarian. The key things to remember are that you are not limited by a piece’s original use – you are only limited by your imagination – and just remember to check with the laws of physics records before you start! Here we’ll present for you a condensed version of the parliamentary session on laws of physics for architectural salvage: in ordinary terms, we’re going to do “Replacing Bits of Your House 101”!

It’s much easier to get your inspiration from a great, unique piece, than it is to think up a concept and then actually find something that matches the picture in your head. Browse through architectural salvage websites, especially – you can get a much better idea of what is out there, for zero kilometers traveled! Think outside the box when it comes to placement – why does a fence need to stay outside, for example? Use it as a divided between the kitchen and loungeroom, to keep kids out from under your feet when you’re cooking. And do doorknobs really have to stay on doors? They can be used as coat hooks in the entry, towel holders in the bathroom, and can keep your clothes off the floor in the bedroom.

If you have the tools and the inclination, you can also modify existing things into other things – for example, parts of wardrobes or intricately carved wood can become mirror frames or serving platters. You may have seen our blog post on the Seattle bar where the counter is made of 22 doors … lateral thinking at its best!If you would like to replace your regular door with an antique door, or your old sink with an antique one, here are a couple of points to think about. Firstly, where are you putting it – will anybody see it? Will the positioning make it difficult to maintain properly? If you place an old sink hard up against your stove or counter, the sides may get grotty and then be impossible to clean without compromising the finish, for example. When you are placing your antiques, think about both cleaning them (unpleasant as that process is!), polishing them if necessary, and also how you might like to move furniture around within the room in the future – the permanency and flexibility of the piece you’re adding.

If you are super-organised and have found a bunch of great things to incorporate into a home that you are building, let your builder or architect know early on in the process the dimensions and materials of what you want to add. This would apply to things like mantelpieces, door frames and doors, counters, and chandeliers. Basically anything that needs to be structurally sound, and affixed to something strong in the house. For these things, either let your builder know about them early, or consult a builder about putting them in to your existing house. This way you get to enjoy the piece without the stress of installing it, also!

When telling your builder, the more information you have the merrier he will be! They’ll need the height, depth and width of any piece, and also to know an approximate weight of things like doors, to choose different strength hinges and stronger materials for door frames.

If you are adding some gorgeous pieces to the house you have already, ask the dealer you buy the piece from whether they are able to modify it to suit your place, or whether they have a preferred partner for doing this. Not all carpenters are used to working with either the types of materials people used centuries ago (very much different from today!), or simply with materials that have seen ten times as many winters as they have… An amateur job can have really disappointing consequences, if your piece is ruined either structurally or aesthetically.

Your basic guidelines will be imagination and caution – start small, and let your passion and knowledge build from there!

Photo credits: Architectural salvage warehouse by Artsy_T ; Old bathtub by Erinroserad

          

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