The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimates that 136 million tons of construction and demolition waste was generated in 1996—the last time these figures were made available—and those numbers have most likely risen in the 15 years since. And less than 30 percent of that waste was salvaged for recycling.

Today, architectural salvage, which refers to the reclamation or reuse of architectural materials, is gaining popularity in our more environmentally conscious society.

“The advantage of this is that it’s generally better quality, a better price and has a lot more character than something newer,” said Stuart Grannen, owner of Architectural Artifacts Inc., an architectural salvage company in Chicago. “Our focus has always been on pieces of intrigue, objects of a lost world, the aesthetic and the beautiful. It’s a lot more fun and you can always feel good about the green part of it all.”

Designers have known about this decorating secret for decades, but it has more recently come into fashion in the past 20 years or so.

Materials come from salvaged elements from buildings slated for demolition, including homes, churches and commercial properties. The items found include kitchen cabinets, antique bathtubs, aged barn wood flooring, furniture, doors, marble fireplaces, ornate radiators and handcrafted decorative hardware.

“The salvage and reuse of building materials helps to preserve historic and antique fixtures, furniture, and building materials, prevents more waste from entering landfills, and reduces the consumption of new resources,” said Steve Feldman, president and founder of Green Demolitions, which recycles luxury kitchens, bathrooms, appliances and more in three stores in New Jersey, Connecticut and Pennsylvania.

The items don’t need to be used for what they were designed for, either. Many of the ornate or unique things are often used as standing art or for some other purpose.

“I have an 18th century door from Saudi Arabia that’s around 260 years old with innate carvings, and it’s never going to be a door again, but it’s a beautiful object for the home,” Grannen said. “I have a gate from Argentina, that’s totally useless as a gate, but it can be used to make a fabulous headboard.”

Someone looking for the perfect reclaimed item for their home is probably not going to just walk into one of these businesses and walk out five minutes later with exactly what they were looking for. The key is persistence.

“In today’s economic topsy-turvy environment, one of the huge advantages of what we do is price,” Feldman said. “We recently had a quarter million dollar kitchen for sale and a homeowner picked it up for $50,000, picking up $250,000 equity in cabinetry.”

One can create a beautiful bathroom by choosing items from one of the companies’ showrooms that will be much more unique for a price that is around 75 percent less than if they were to go the new route.

In addition to the financial savings, the real beneficiary from all these projects is the environment.

For additional home design trends, contact our office today.