Why Reclaimed Wood in Restaurants is More Popular Than Ever

If you’ve spent any time at all at new restaurants or bars, you’ve likely noticed a resurgence in the use of reclaimed materials in their interiors. This trend really started to take off several years ago, and it doesn’t seem to be going anywhere anytime soon. Restaurant designers seem to be using materials like reclaimed wood more than ever on walls, as flooring, for tables and chairs, and even for lighting and other decorative accessories.

With that said, designers aren’t only choosing to use reclaimed wood for decorative purposes. While beautiful in their own right, the reasons behind utilizing salvaged materials go far beyond visual aesthetics and serve as a nod toward other practical uses as well. From fulfilling a commitment to sustainability to simply adhering to brand standards, here are just a few of the reasons designers are using reclaimed wood in restaurant interiors:

Reclaimed Wood is Visually Versatile

As we mentioned, one fairly straightforward reason restaurant designers choose to use reclaimed wood in their projects is to capture a rustic look and feel within the space they’re designing. But while many people think “farmhouse chic” when they think of salvaged lumber, it’s an incredibly versatile material that can produce a wide range of finished looks. In other words, just because a space utilizes reclaimed wood, it doesn’t necessarily mean that space has to look like the set of a spaghetti western.

Whether you’re going for a vintage, rustic, chic, or hip ambiance, the age of the wood doesn’t matter as much as the appearance of the type of reclaimed lumber you select. For example, the wood will look much more worn if it’s been reclaimed from a barn than if it were reclaimed from the inside of a house. Different species of tree produce different woods with different characteristics. It all depends on what you want the end result to be.

Reclaimed Wood Helps Eco-Friendly Restaurants Stay On-Brand

Health and eco-conscious restaurants are everywhere, especially in trendy neighborhoods where the clientele tends to be a little more on the discerning side. If you’re running a restaurant that boasts using all-natural, all-organic, responsibly-obtained ingredients, you’d better be sure those practices carry over into the physical space you occupy.

While it may not be feasible (or attractive to some) to adorn a restaurant from top to bottom in reclaimed wood, implementing the material in table tops or using it in one interesting accent wall will help create cohesion between the all-natural food and the design of the interior.

Using Reclaimed Wood Is Just a Good Thing to Do

While it’s a brand-savvy practice for eco-conscious brands to utilize reclaimed wood in their restaurant interiors, doing so is good practice for everyone. Restaurant interiors tend to be rather large spaces and equipping those spaces with decorative accents, interior finishes like walls and floors, and even bringing in the basics like tables, chairs, or bar tops uses a ton of building materials.

In actuality, processing reclaimed wood uses 13 times less energy than processing virgin wood. Add that to the fact that one billion feet of perfectly usable lumber is recovered from dismantled buildings each year, and you really have a no-brainer on your hands. Why use virgin lumber when you can reuse something that’s already abundantly available?

Looking for reclaimed lumber for your restaurant interiors?

Antique Lumber Company is located in Gainesville, Texas. We take great care in gently reclaiming the finest antique longleaf pine we can find, and we source all our materials from century-old structures like homes, barns, and warehouses throughout the North Texas region. The lumber, doors, windows, and hardware we salvage find new life in retail spaces, restaurant interiors, homes, and much more.

We’re proud to contribute to the reforestation of longleaf pine forests by keeping this incredible lumber out of the landfills.

Please visit us at our warehouse or read more about us here to read why we believe longleaf pine is exceptional as a building and design material above all others.