RALEIGH, N.C. (WTVD) — North Carolina has a long history of furniture making. And one company is continuing that tradition right here in the Triangle.
The sounds of sanding and sawing fill a 70,000 square-foot facility in Raleigh.
“We’re doing something that’s good for the Earth, but we’re also creating something meaningful,” said Melody Ray.
For Ray and Billy Keck, furniture-making wasn’t even in their wheelhouse. Ray is a lawyer, and Keck is a former engineer for the state.
“I did notice there were a lot of old structures that were just getting bulldozed most of the time into a hole and burned,” said Keck. “And I really wanted to do something with the aging lumber because it looked so cool.”
Keck slowly taught himself how to make furniture, and Raleigh Reclaimed was born. In 2017, Ray saw an opportunity to expand the business.
“I became more and more interested in expanding the role of the business, really focusing on these trees that were going to go to the waste stream and so allowing us to make more modern furnishings and repurpose them,” Ray said.
They now take old trees and turn them into custom, heirloom furniture pieces.
“We’re using products that are waste-stream products that are really amazing things that would normally rot in a debris landfill,” Keck said.
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But it’s more than just the materials that are reclaimed.
“Our machines are reclaimed. We’re finding things that used to be in furniture factories in middle North Carolina years ago that we rehab and put modern safety features on and put into place,” Ray said. “We’re reclaiming the idea of making things by hand. We don’t make things on a computer and screw and slam parts together. And so, it’s reclamation in a lot of ways here.
“And so for us, there’s this story behind the tree,” she added. “We’re giving this tree a second life, so there’s a continuation of that story. And we’re going to have something that folks pass down to their children and grandchildren.”
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