Surface Blog

Design Tips fromMonica MacKenzie Designs and This Old House on Historic Home Renovations

• Posted by
• Shanon Sterrett

This Old House magazine and television series has always been a great source for home renovation and resoration advice when it comes to old homes. 

Recently Monica MacKenzie, interior designer and general contractor from Hingham, MA was featured on This Old House, for her work at the historic Benjamin King House.  She called to share the good exciting news that among other amazing architectural details, Carlisle Wide Plank Long Leaf Heart Pine Floors were chosen for the new kitchen addition! 

Open the video and click on can watch the entire video but you will find the Monica MacKenzie series if you click on "Segment 4".  Gather some great ideas for your historic home renovation. (photo from http://www.thisoldhouse.com/toh/tv/video/0,,20552167,00.html)

Posted on Apr 09, 2012 AT 12:46 PM in Accessories • Beams • By Room • Kitchens • By State • Massachusetts • Carlisle Customers • Builder • Designer • Eyes On Carlisle • News & Events • Floors meant for Families • Home Building & Contracting • Home Styles • Restoration • Install & Finish: Stories/Information • Pine Flooring • Eastern White Pine • Reclaimed Flooring • Reclaimed Heart Pine • Residential • Restoration Projects • Showrooms • Stoddard, NH • Video Library • Wide Plank Specialists • Lynne Rafuse • (0) Comments

The Farm Table Restaurant - great food and great floors!

• Posted by
• Shanon Sterrett

The Farm Table Restaurant at Kringle Candle recently underwent some beautiful renovations, but not at the expense of maintaining the historical accuracy of the 200-year old Colonial home in Bernardston, MA where it lives. It supports a farm-to-table lifestyle, reverence for history, “honest nourishment for the body and elegant respite for the soul.”

Posted on Feb 13, 2012 AT 08:41 AM in Accessories • Beams • By State • Massachusetts • Commercial Projects • Eyes On Carlisle • Pine Flooring • Eastern White Pine • Hit or Miss • Restoration Projects • (0) Comments

Heart Pine floors help turn ‘condemned’ building into theatre in Bay St. Louis, MS

• Posted by
• Jane Eklund

In 1966, the building that stands at 398 Blaize Street in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, was selected as the setting for a film called “This Property is Condemned.” In 2011, after major renovations, the building is the new home of the Bay St. Louis Little Theatre. Founded in the living room of John and Mary Bell in 1946, the theatre soon moved to a building made from two war-surplus barracks. Fifty-seven years later, the theatre’s home was destroyed in Hurricane Katrina. That’s when the troupe, with the help of fundraising and grants from the Mississippi Arts Commission and the Mississippi Department of Archives and History, purchased and renovated the Blaize Street building.

Here at Carlisle, we’re delighted that our floors — Heart Pine to be exact — were part of the project. They now grace the second floor hallway of the building, which houses office, rehearsal, and performance space for the theatre. Unabridged Architecture worked on the design, and J.O. Collins, Contractor, did the construction work. Carlisle Sales and Design Rep Peter Switzer of our Stoddard, N.H. headquarters coordinated the floors from our end.

Take a look at before and after photos! And if you’re in the neighborhood, stop by the Bay St. Louis Little Theatre for a performance of “Driving Miss Daisy.”

The theatre’s exterior: before, left, and after, right.

The second-floor hallway, before renovations.

The second-floor hallway, after renovations — complete with Carlisle Heart Pine floor.

Posted on Sep 14, 2011 AT 02:09 AM in Restoration Projects • (3) Comments

Hamilton Grange, Renovated Manhattan landmark, includes Carlisle floors

• Posted by
• Jane Eklund

Two hundred and nine years ago, Upper Manhattan was a rural neighborhood. Alexander Hamilton, the very first U.S. Secretary of the Treasury and the man whose face looks out at us from the $10 bill, built his country house there. In the years since, the house was moved from 143rd Street to Convent Ave (that was in 1899), transferred to the National Park Service (1962), and moved a block down the road, in 2008, to a corner of the 23-acre St. Nicholas Park that faces West 141st Street. Over the last three years, the Hamilton Grange, as it is called, has been undergoing an $8.4 million renovation to return it to the look and feel it had when Hamilton lived there. The new site is an appropriate one, as it was originally part of Hamilton’s estate.

Here at Carlisle, we love to be part of history, and part of historic renovations. So we’re really thrilled that our 5” Heirloom Grade Reclaimed Heart Pine, which is made from antique wood taken from buildings scheduled for demolition, can be found in the newly renovated Hamilton Grange.

We’re also happy to report that the contractors working on the Grange were dazzled with the floorboards. The project coordinator at Lumus Construction sent this note to Carlisle Sales and Design Rep Glen Ranagan:

“I wanted to take this opportunity to thank you for the quality flooring you sent us to the Hamilton Grange Project. Our superintendent on site stated to me that he was thoroughly impressed with the quality and craftsmanship. The floor looks amazing and I want to thank you and your staff personally for a job well done.”

The Hamilton Grange is scheduled to open to the public on September 17, 2011. We hope you’ll have a chance to visit!

Click here for the Park Service’s Hamilton Grange web page

Click here to read a New York Times story about the project.

Click here to see a slide show of the building’s 2008 move.

Posted on Sep 01, 2011 AT 10:43 PM in Restoration Projects • News & Events • (0) Comments

Providence building with Carlisle Heart Pine floors wins preservation award

• Posted by
• Jane Eklund

Congratulations are in order! The Congdon & Carpenter building at 3 Steeple Street, Providence, Rhode Island, received a 2010 Historic Restoration Award from the Providence Preservation Society.

Deslandes Construction of Warwick, Rhode Island, worked with Carlisle’s Shanon Sterrett to select Old Growth Heart Pine prefinished with Copper Mine stain for the restoration.

Kudos to everyone involved in the project! Click here for more information on the Preservation Society Awards, and for photos of all the winners.

Posted on Aug 24, 2011 AT 12:11 AM in Restoration Projects • (2) Comments