Some people haunt yard sales and thrift shops out of necessity, as a way of stretching the furnishings budget. Others reuse old things because they spark the imagination. Doug Rowan finds new uses for things, not because he has to, but because he can, always with beautiful, and sometimes surprising results.

At the entrance to his and his wife Jane’s 25-acre property in central Caledon stand two curving fieldstone gate walls topped by lamps. Doug designed them and used his bulldozer to provide most of the materials. “This was such an exciting project,” he says. “I had all this stone on the property.” He reveals, however, that “It was hard to find big stones with one flat face.”

Finding right-angled stones suitable for cornerstones for the six large posts of the walls was so difficult that he ended up reusing some from the foundations of an old barn. Only the flat capstones on top of each post were new.

The result is an impressive, stately entrance to a long driveway that curves past a row of mature sugar maples, transplanted as seedlings from elsewhere on the property. A stretch of lawn on the other side of the drive is punctuated by a couple of dwarf conifer beds edged by boulders and massive chunks of black and pink granite found on the property.

Bordering this lawn at the edge of a spruce wood is a long, wide drystone wall about three feet high that Doug helped to build. Each stone was individually positioned and fitted into place as if it were a jigsaw puzzle. The wall is superbly built without mortar. It tapers slightly at the top, so that gravity and the weight of each stone hold it steadily together. This is no mere line of rocks dumped in place. This is a carefully hand constructed stackwall that could last for centuries. Doug supplied all the stones for it from the property.

More digging was needed to find sets of three perfect stones to form Doug’s idea for a no-maintenance outdoor bench. A level slab of granite sits snugly on two stone “feet.” While the design is beautifully (and deceptively) simple, Doug confides “It was hard to find supporting stones with channels to hold the slab.” He persevered, however, and has at least two stone benches of this design in the garden.

Stone is not his only material of choice. He may be even more creative with old wood. The most spectacular example is the white pergola. The central covered seating area is flanked on each side by a decorative wing supporting bittersweet vines. The central portion used to be a mansard portico at the front door of an old house, and the side railings were fretwork from a porch railing from another house.

“This project was great fun,” says Doug. “The nice part about old things is the provenance.” In combination, these salvaged architectural features form a dramatic structure seen to great effect from the large windows of the Rowans’ house.

There are other outdoor features that were positioned for viewing from the house. A tall flagpole, painted white, was a cedar pole that Doug brought from up north. A rustic windmill was salvaged from another property. “It was in pieces,” says Doug. “I had to resurrect it. For me, it’s decorative. It’s pleasant to look out and see the flap flapping and the windmill turning. It adds some interest to the property.”

Doug also seems to have an interest in reclaimed newel posts. Two old ones have places of pride inside the house. A beautiful square cherry post displays a cherished commission of a great horned owl in crystal, etched by renowned local artist Mark Raynes Roberts of Orangeville.

Doug and Jane had been searching for a way to display this art properly. When Doug saw the salvaged newel post at a friend’s place, he knew it was the solution. “It elevates the piece to the right height for viewing,” he explains. He refinished the post to a beautiful shine, and today a small spotlight directly above it lights up the amazing detail of the carving inside the glass.

The second newel post is a Phoenix-like revival. Several years ago, Doug found a shapely cherry newel post that had been nearly consumed by fire. From its large size, Doug guesses it had been in a large old house or an inn. Doug cleaned it up but kept the scorch marks, and used it as the newel post for the back stairs, installing it so the burned side faces out. The marks reveal that the fire had burned above the post and at an angle. Three sides of the post are not scorched, and the burn marks are lighter at the bottom. Perhaps a ceiling beam had been on fire and had fallen against the post.

“The scorching adds character,” Doug adds. “You notice the blackened side.”

Doug also enjoys restoring and refinishing old furniture. He even created a narrow sofa table entirely out of reclaimed wood, including old spindles for the legs.

His ideas for reuse can be amusing and charming. He has collected broken wooden hockey sticks for much of his life, and now several of them form the railing on the upper storey in his barn, which has a timber frame structure that came from an old barn. Doug has, of course, kept the original markings and letters on the hockey sticks.

Hockey being another of Doug’s passions, the shed near the outdoor rink features a door handle made from the blade of an old hockey skate, separated from the boot and screwed onto the door.

Interesting elements do not go to waste in the Rowan house. A deacon’s bench that Doug refinished for the foyer had an original back that was too high to fit, so he took off the upper section of the back and saved its four carved panels. They are now fitted onto the doors of his workshop cupboards, bringing old hand-carved beauty to a utilitarian area.

Despite Doug’s habit of collecting old things without always knowing what he’ll use them for, he declares that he’s “absolutely not a hoarder of junk.” He adds “I like a clean property,” and he will occasionally clear out stuff he no longer wants. He claims he doesn’t make mistakes by bringing home pieces that eventually become garbage.
    
“The mistakes I make are thinking about a piece and not getting it right away. And going back to get it but it’s not there.”

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Gloria Hildebrandt writes for magazines and organizations out of Orchard House. She can be reached through gloria@ohouse.ca.