Hasta La Ideas

A family business turns New England’s deteriorating barns into incredible custom furniture and more

After The Barn is a father-and-son team in upstate New York that scours the rolling country of the Hudson Valley and Catskills Mountains for barns that are no longer sound. The woodworkers painstakingly dismantle what are often 200-year-old barns, and rework them into furniture, custom cabinetry, birdhouses and customized designs. Their desire is that no barn goes to waste. For our holiday pop up shop we did with the Gap in 2010, the team behind ByKenyan worked with After The Barn to create one-off paneling and shelves, bringing the barn ambiance to midtown Manhattan.

After The Barn is based in the small town of Campbell Hall in rural Orange County, NY where they remain connected with the farming community and can help dismantle barns that are on the verge of collapse. Founder Bob Staab explains, “We believe it is better to recycle the wood from old structures, transforming and redefining their role and enhancing their value rather than to relegating the old beams, walls and floors to a landfill.”

As preservationists who care about the region’s disappearing colonial Dutch heritage, the Staabs are committed to creating compelling pieces that really show off the wood’s raw beauty. A constantly updated stocklist shows gorgeous hardwood tables crafted from mahogany and chestnut as well as cabinetry from reclaimed lumber that has hardened over the years.

After The Barn has two showrooms that house some of their latest works. To see more of what they do, check out their website.