Andy Tullis / The BulletinJamie McCall, owner of Revelations Sustainable Furnishings, stands in his Bend workshop. Two of his employees and some of the reclaimed wood can be seen in the background.

Jamie McCall segued out of a career in the construction industry during the Great Recession to found his own business tearing down old structures, usually barns, and turning them into something else.

That usually meant milling barn doors and lofts into home flooring, wall paneling, box beams and interior trim packages. That business, Barnwood Innovations, spawned another business, Revelations Sustainable Furnishings, in Bend, that turns old wood into anything from end tables to armoires.

“We wanted to get away from what we were doing with Barnwood Innovations, more or less, and just get into selling furniture pieces,” McCall said. “We saw a niche missing out there in the furniture industry, as far as reclaim goes.”

He said production starts with a dilapidated structure somewhere in Washington, Idaho, Oregon or Northern California. It’s either too costly or too troublesome for the owner to simply tear down or burn. The call goes out to McCall, who, by payment or trading services, deconstructs the building.

Making furniture from McCall’s own designs became a way of adding more value to the reclaimed wood — and more profit — than simply turning it into paneling or molding, he said. It also gave him an outlet for his own creativity.

“When we first started out, it was just being creative and trying to be innovative and do things that nobody else was really doing out there,” he said. “Pretty soon, we were trying to launch different collections and put a catalog together.”

McCall narrowed the selection to just three top-selling collections. A coffee table can cost $900, a dining room table and benches $4,500.

“It’s high-end all the way through as far as quality and craftsmanship,” he said. He also customizes furniture for clients by getting to know the home where the furniture is headed. He visits the house and designs from the inspiration he finds there, he said.

McCall’s creations received rave reviews from one builder.

“It’s exemplary. It’s phenomenal stuff,” said Chris Christianson, owner of Redmond custom homebuilder Sunrise Construction of Oregon. McCall has made furniture for more than 20 homes by Sunrise, many at Brasada Ranch. “He’s a highly skilled craftsman,” Christianson said.

McCall said sustainable isn’t just part of the business name. The materials and techniques of the past are worth preserving, not just for the sake of recycling, but because of their quality. The wood he reclaims comes primarily from structures built from the late 1800s through 1940, he said. Circular saws did most of that cutting, as opposed to band saws of later years, he said, so the cut pattern is distinctive, for example.

“Why not reuse what our forefathers took down and do something cool with it?” McCall said. “Steel is not what steel used to be. Wood is not what wood used to be. Things are not at all what they used to be.”

— Reporter: 541-617-7815, jditzler@bendbulletin.com

Q: Where do you see the business in five years?

A: Jamie McCall: One of the things we’re trying to find (is) some sort of investment capital, at this point, to grow our business. One of the things we’d really like to do is start a Revelations Sustainable Furnishings store someplace in downtown Bend.

Q: What is your inspiration in designing furniture?

A: I guess just my background. I want each one of our pieces to have a bold statement: archaic, masculine, kind of heavy. All of our stuff is heavy, basically, something that you’re going to pass down through the generations. That’s how tough our furniture is.