All of the wood used in the shelves and trim in this four-walled, floor-to-ceiling library were milled from a single standing dead ash tree. (The emerald ash borer has killed most ash trees in southeast Michigan, making ash a kind of “recycled” wood.) Pieces with interesting grain, knots, holes, or borer-marks were saved for the more visible parts of the shelves.

The reinforcing beams were salvaged from an old barn – and, somewhat miraculously, fit right in place without needing to be cut.

The floor is maple that had been reclaimed from a shoe factory.  Certain pieces had darkened from the oil of machines placed nearby, and other pieces were partially painted or worn from traffic. Instead of sanding it all down and refinishing it, we patterned all of the light and dark pieces together.

The wood door to the side porch (as well as two other doors in the house) came from a school in Terre Haute, Indiana.

The sliding step-stool still has an index card taped to its inside that says, appropriately, “Chicago Public Library.”

Furniture and fixtures: salvaged / Skylights: secondhand / Windows: new, low-E, Energy-Star / Building materials: 40% salvaged

This room was originally separated from the dining room by a wall. We removed that wall and moved another to make enough space to wrap the counter around under the East window and to open the kitchen up to the dining room towards the West, creating a corridor with large windows at either end and a skylight-well in the center of each room.

With the exception of the refrigerator, all of the appliances in this kitchen came secondhand from Craigslist. (Everything and the kitchen sink!)

The backsplash that expands into a custom mosaic over the cooktop consists of a pairing of one-of-a-kind saltillo-like tiles that were being discarded from a ceramic artist with everyday, machine-made brown quarry tile remnants.

The custom potrack was made with leftover walnut pieces from the window trim. Screwed into the studs above, it can support the weight of even the heaviest cast-iron pans.

Cabinet doors: local recycled ash, stained and sealed with Danish oil / Floor: concrete, hand-troweled / Counters: concrete, cast off-site to custom dimensions / Window trim: reclaimed urban walnut / Furniture and fixtures: salvaged, secondhand / Windows: new / Baseboards: recycled ash wood / Building materials: 50% salvaged