Judy Longbrook's Amazing Reclaimed Subfloor Wood Walls

I am enthralled by the talented designer Judy Longbrook's Oregon home in the latest issue of Portrait of Portland magazine.

{Judy Longbrook's home office in West Hills, Portland, Oregon}

The most amazing room? Her home office, with walls of reclaimed wood. When the foundation of the 1940's home was raised and rebuilt as part of an extensive remodeling, Judy saw the boards of vintage subflooring that were going to be thrown away and snagged them. As her home renovation proceeded, she grabbed all the subfloor boards she could and incorporated them into her home office design.

In the days before plywood, builders created a subfloor by using wide wood boards of lower-quality wood  laid at a 45 degree angle over the floor joists to create a level base to lay the down the finished floor of finer-quality wood boards.

The aged character-filled vintage subfloor boards lend a rustic presence to the dramatically angled walls. What a wonderful space to work in!

{the "grand" entrance to the home office - custom wallpaper!}

Here is a view looking into the office. Judy enlarged the entrance and had her son shoot photographs of grand double door entryways in France. From his photographs, she choose a photograph of the entrance to the library at the back of the Lourve and had it enlarged to paper the wall leading to her office.

{reclaimed floor boards - warmth and patina}

The floor boards in the home are salvaged antique reclaimed oak flooring from Los Angeles's Exquisite Surfaces. The re-use of old wood in this home grounds this home in earthy beauty. The warmth, patina and history of reclaimed wood add such a wonderful touch.

{vintage reclaimed subflooring on the angled walls}

I'm ending this post with this beautiful image - a close-up of the office walls of reclaimed subfloor boards. Notice all the nail holes? Because the subfloor wood boards were originally nailed down AND then had flooring nailed over them, the boards have lots of imperfections, and tons of character and style.

Lauren Liess of Pure Style Home summed up imperfect materials recently in a post on her kitchen island: ."..what I love about most natural things, life changes it and makes an impression on it. I don't get why unchanging and perfection should equal beauty"

 Thank you Judy, for recycling and reclaiming wood and claiming beauty in your home. For more on Judy Longbrook's work see her website at www.jsdesign.com

Loretta

p.s. Don't forget to enter my chocolates and jewelry GIVEAWAY. The winner will be drawn on February 16!