This owner had visited England several times and loved timeless feel of houses built two and three hundred year ago. His goal was to give visitors the same feeling of age and timelessness in his home, and he asked us to provide the materials, techniques and finishes to authentically create this effect. We used old, original pine flooring from old boarding houses and barn lofts. It looks like 150-year-old flooring because it’s already served as flooring for 150 years, elsewhere. We used old barn beams with period joinery – all wood, no bolts and metal plates – and limestone reclaimed from old mansions in France. Our plasterer is a true artist. He’s Italian and his ancestors were plasterers. He said “I’ve seen old plastering and experimented and I can give new plaster the same patina.” We made samples and the owner loved it. The curved staircase is a great example of how we can achieve homeowners’ desires for something special. The shape was drawn on the plans, but that doesn’t mean it was figured out. How do you find the right 150 year-old wood, cut it to shape, and assemble it to create a new 150-year-old curved staircase? Well, our trim carpenter made cardboard templates that let us engineer the staircase in place, and find old wood of the necessary nature and dimensions. Our whole team contributes to figuring out things like this, and making them happen.