Where to get good stuff for renovation and log homes
Before I lose track of them, I’m posting sources of specialized products that I’ve bought or plan to buy for the house.
Sunlan Lighting: their website is not working now but you can email kay@lightlady.com. Every sort of light bulb imaginable seems to be in that store. Kay is sending me bulbs for an odd fixture I picked up.
Farbo Marmoleum Dual tile: colors currently available in easy-to-install real linoleum tiles. It’s pronounced “do-AL”. Some of their colors are available year after year but others come and go. I missed out on a lovely mint color, Cool Green, because it was a 2008 color only. If only I could get even one box of Cool Green 13-inch tiles! If you see a color you like, don’t procrastinate on buying it. A representative, Rachael Miller from Denver, visited our house and gave us some advice and a box of Dual tile samples. She can be reached at 888-628-4551, 303-596-6948, or by email at RachaelMillerForbo@comcast.net. Brochures and other information are available at Forbo’s residential website. If you find the website too sterile, just call Rachael. She’s very nice.
This Old House article, “Working With Linoleum Floors”
Jamestown Distributors: boatbuilding specialists who kindly directed me to Epifanes gloss clear varnish. According to Fine Woodworking magazine June 2009, this is by far the best clear outdoor finish available.
Winks Hardware: delightful old-fashioned hardware store in Portland, Oregon that will take orders by phone or email. Sells nickel-plated oval head wood screws.
Blacksmith Bolt: another source of hard-to-find screws and bolts.
McMaster-Carr: yet another source of screws and other fasteners.
Do It Ur Self Plumbing: Denver’s best source of vintage and vintage-style tubs and sinks, refinishing service, good advice.
Architectural Salvage: wonderful old house parts, in Denver. Some items are on their website.
Mod Livin’ in Denver is probably too modern for our house but if you’re doing mid-century modern you should check it out. And who could resist the Alessi Mr. Cold soap dispenser:
Built-in ironing boards, available without a door so you can construct one that suits your house.
Black Bear Forge for hand-forged items such as closet hinges, hasps, and an oversized matchbox to insert into the chimney chase. I’ve got a vested interest here: my husband John is the blacksmith when he’s not working on the house or at his firefighter job.
Old Wood in Las Vegas, New Mexico. Several styles of Douglas fir flooring and woodblock countertop materials.
Peerless Premier gas ranges, in case the old Roper stove (from a friend’s remodel) turns out to have problems. It’s hard to find 36 inch-wide stoves, particularly in white enamel. For an off-grid installation there’s a pilot light model.
Period tiles in many sizes and shapes, and in colors listed by the years in which they were popular, are available from American Restoration Tile. Their tile color choices are exceptional. Made in the USA in a historic tile factory, the tiles themselves are thick with an antique-looking crisp edge. Very expensive.
Period-appropriate home furnishings: Sundance Catalog.
New York Metal has T-nosings (edge banding) and snap-on edging for countertops as well as cove molding for the corner where countertop and backsplash meet.
Retro style aluminum kitchen countertop edgings and mouldings from Eagle Mouldings.
Fine Paints of Europe because I don’t want to spend the rest of my life repainting.
Farrow & Ball Paints: another fine paint company.
Frogtape: green no-bleed masking tape
Retrofit an old toilet to dual flush capability: Brondell Perfect Flush
Perma-Chink for chinking, wood stains, log finishes, and generous advice. They’ll send you free samples of most things. (Postage-free, too!) You can get a better color match with their stains than you can with the stains from building supply stores.
Jeff Pedersen, our logsmith, introduced us to Star Drive screws. These don’t strip out under a power screw driver and can be backed out without damage to the wood. They can also be re-used. John swears by them.
Lifetime Wood Treatment is what we used to darken our redwood porch decking to a natural gray. It came from Schroeder Log Home Supply in Montana.
Bioshield clay paints and other natural products for the home. We used these paints in our straw-bale home and will used them on our mud-plastered interior walls in the log house.
There are some things that I don’t know how to find:
Formica or other laminate counter surfacing in 1930s or 1940s-looking styles. Certainly I don’t want the wearisome “granite” that currently monopolizes the market. Formica does sell VirrVarr in white/gray and in light blue/gray as well as Boomerang in bright colors like coral and aqua. These are really 1950s patterns, although the white/gray VirrVarr is neutral enough to work in other periods. I’d appreciate any suggestions on what the countertops in a 1930s ranger station would have been like. Linoleum, maybe? Is that a viable choice today? Tile? I’m not sure I’d like such a lumpy surface in the kitchen. Edit: Forbo, maker of Marmoleum linoleum, does endorse the use of their product for countertops.
UPDATE APRIL 2011: FORMICA CORP. HAS DISCONTINUED VIRR VARR AS WELL AS ALL COLORS OF BOOMERANG EXCEPT CHARCOAL GRAY. If you want any of these patterns/colors try to obtain them now before warehouse stocks are gone. Wilsonart, another laminate company, makes a boomerang-type pattern called Retro as part of their custom Indie line. You might have to look in the “designers” section of their website.
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