My brothers friend’s family runs the architectural salvage company Aurora Mills.  The business is run out of an old mill in Aurora just like the name says.  Duh!  Super cool place.  One of those things where you pretty much just have to go there yourself to feel what its really like.

I love the nature of this old mill- how its been pieced together and added on to through the years.  It has the feel of some of the buildings in the Miyazaki animations.  The owners son, Seth Burns gave a few of us a super top secret insider tour.  Here he is with my friend Emily Steen of Built-Studios.

Seth showed me some casting molds hidden in storage.  These are molds made out of wood to make metal parts.  Simply amazing.  I never even knew these things existed.  Mold makers were the finest craftsmen of the era. No lasers or CNCs back then.

Besides the really cool antique parts theyve salvaged, they also have loads of salvaged lumber.  BIG beams from old barns and such.

If youve never been here and live in Oregon, its well worth a trip out there to check it out.  I got so many furniture ideas and inspiration from seeing the history there.  I will save them for some other day!

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