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 no responses, I decided to swallow my anxiety about mounting debt and explore hobbies like leather work, book-binding, writing, reading, bicycling, and of course, woodworking—at least, until I could land a job.

That year I was also getting married, and I had been wanting to build something special for the ceremony. Eventually, a goal surfaced. I decided to build a backdrop for us to stand before while taking our vows. 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 beautifully filthy bundle of 1x6 sub-flooring, likely pried up from a recently deconstructed home.

The project was a success and, after it was taken down and stored back home in my apartment (see above), something inside me wanted to keep going. So, still being between jobs, I did. I started tinkering more and more, and before I knew it, friends and family started asking me to make them things, big and small. I really had no business charging anything for what I made yet, but whatever money I did make I saved to buy a new tool later.

For several years, I moonlit as a woodworker and furniture maker. This infantile pursuit was starting to become a solid side hustle. I did eventually find employment, but I knew something was different about woodworking because of how often I found myself daydreaming about it.

Here and there, I’d get neat opportunities. A set of end tables one month, a floating shelf a few months later. I tried selling items at street fairs, festivals, and online. The side hustle never provided much money to live on. It didn’t garner me some great following on social media. But it sure felt like a good way to live my life.

Over those moonlit years I’d begun dreaming about running my own small business. I would wonder 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 yet, 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 customer experience and still be at their client’s 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: treat clients with respect by charging fairly, building products well, and communicating excellently.

The name “The Regrainery” actually came to me after I’d spent months upon months salvaging unwanted and discarded materials, mostly ancient Douglas Fir framing. The idea was that I was giving a second (or third) life to this building material but sanding away it’s tired exteriors, and crafting it again as furniture. Eventually, as the “reclaimed" design trends faded and minimalism came into vogue, I started sourcing salvaged hardwoods and then 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 sourced from its forest home, and doing our best to breathe new life into it as fine furniture. We’re not wizards, and we’re not always able to work with every piece of wood we buy, but we do try to work with it as responsibly as we know how.

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 our area.

We’re not perfect, and 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.