The Regrainery started like a lot of companies do—from a garage, and from a big dream.

In 2015, I (Aaron) was between jobs. My employment background was a little too varied to land me anywhere specific, so with dozens of resumes out in the ether, and with no responses, I decided to swallow my anxiety about mounting debt and explore hobbies like leather work, book-binding, writing, reading, bicycle repair, and of course, woodworking—at least, until I could land a “real” job.

That year I was also getting married, and I had been wanting to build something special for our ceremony. Eventually, an idea surfaced. I decided to build a backdrop for us to stand before while taking our vows. Easy enough, right?

Not exactly sure where to start, I hopped on Craigslist and found a cheap saw, and the next day I visited a local salvage store and found a wonderfully filthy bundle of 1x6 sub-flooring, likely pried up from a recently deconstructed home.

The backdrop project was a success. After it was taken down and stored, something inside me wanted to keep going. So, still between jobs, I did. I started building small pieces of furniture for friends and family. I really had no business charging anything for what I made yet, but whatever money I did make, I tried to save to buy tools.

For several years, I moonlit as a woodworker and furniture maker, and I was finding my infantile pursuit was starting to become a solid side hustle. I did eventually find employment, but I always found myself daydreaming about woodworking and furniture-making.

So I kept going.

I tried selling items at local street fairs, festivals, and online. While it never provided much to live on, or garner some great following, it sure felt like a good way to live my life.

Over those years I began dreaming about running my own small business. I wondered if I had what it took to build furniture full-time, and to scale it and nurture it like a business owner.

But something else happened around the same time. I started hearing all kinds of stories about “bad contractors”. I wasn’t a homeowner, and I wasn’t a contractor, but had friends who were, and I couldn’t believe some of the horror stories.

Coming from about a decade’s worth of service industry work, I was shocked to learn that, seemingly, an entire industry could be so poor at serving their customers while still being at their beck and call. I didn’t want to become a residential contractor, but I did see an interesting tear in the fabric of the building trades. And it seemed simple enough: treat clients with respect by charging fairly, building well, and communicating excellently.

The name “The Regrainery” came to me after I’d spent years salvaging unwanted and discarded materials, mostly true-dimension Douglas Fir framing. The idea was that I was giving a second (or third) life to this material by sanding and planing away it’s tired exteriors, and crafting it again as furniture.

Eventually, as “reclaimed" design trends faded, and fewer stores seemed to carry quality reclaimed lumber, I started sourcing salvaged hardwoods and FSC certified hardwoods.

While not a reclaimed woodworking company any longer, The Regrainery as a name for our company has evolved to embody our desire to work with, and really listen to, the materials we are sourcing. The idea now has more to do with working with an organic material that has been mindfully sourced from its forest home, and doing our best to breathe new life into it as fine furniture.

Today, The Regrainery is a small team of like-minded furniture makers and craftspeople who get to come in to work every day and build really fun and intriguing furniture for some of the best clients in the Portland metro area.

We’re not wizards (yet!?); we’ve learned from our fair share of mistakes. But we’re steadily getting better with each delivery.

Safe to say we’re always excited to see what’s coming next.

-Aaron Green

Owner/Operator
and forever woodworker.