Traditional Flooring, Hardware & Lighting Makers Preserving Craftsmanship

A long-established specialist in wide-plank hardwood flooring, Carlisle designs, mills, and finishes each made-to-order floor, offering a curated palette of colors and custom hues. The New Hampshire–based company, which employs about 100 people across the country, produces both solid and engineered flooring. Its engineered boards feature a thick hardwood wear layer bonded to a stable, marine-grade birch core—making them nearly indistinguishable from solid planks once installed.

“Each board is hand-selected, measured, milled, textured, and finished with intention,” says President Chris Sy. “The result is a floor that doesn’t just perform flawlessly; it carries a visible and tactile authenticity mass-produced products can’t replicate.”‘

Celebrating its 60th anniversary, Carlisle maintains deep relationships with sawyers and timber providers, ensuring access to some of the most stable, beautifully grained hardwood in North America.

“In terms of stewardship, we’re as mindful of the forest as we are of the finished floor,” Sy notes. “By sourcing domestic hardwood through trusted networks, we support local economies, preserve forestry practices and offer clients a product whose origin is known, responsible and sustainable.”

For more than 35 years, Chestnut Specialists has supplied reclaimed antique lumber and flooring in white oak, chestnut, and pine for traditionally inspired residential and commercial projects. The third-generation family business, based in Plymouth, Connecticut, mills each order to client specifications.

Founded by a medical doctor with a passion for antiques, the company evolved from furniture-making to lumber production. President David Wasley joined after leaving aerospace engineering, and decades later, his son left finance to join him.

“I fell in love with the unique beauty of antique lumber, particularly chestnut,” says Wasley. “Chestnut is nearly extinct—so it exists only as a reclaimed product. We handle each board up to 12 times in our process. It’s a labor of love to watch the gorgeous grain emerge.”

Cochran’s Lumber and Millwork, a nearly 50-year-old family-owned mill in Berryville, Virginia, manufactures luxury flooring in a variety of species, including domestic live-sawn white oak, American new heart pine, reclaimed oak, walnut, and hickory. The company custom-stains its flooring using exclusive colors and offers an antique line milled from disassembled barns and fencing. It can also add circular-saw or bandsaw textures to new wood to evoke a vintage look.

“We are extremely picky about what is sent to our clients,” says Jordan Weller, lead sales representative and business development. “We buy high-quality lumber from within a 90-mile radius of our shop, and every plank is carefully inspected by all personnel.”

Cochran’s applies six to seven coats of prefinish—well above the industry norm—and uses commercial-grade UV finishes for longevity. The company also refined its microbevels to create a more seamless appearance.

“I believe in creating lasting beauty,” Weller says. “By milling flooring at this caliber, we support architects and designers who share our passion for custom, high-quality materials.”

Known as “The Cadillac of Colonial Hardware,” Acorn manufactures a full line of reproduction cast- and forged-iron hardware, produces custom historic reproductions, and designs new pieces. Its sister company, Tremont Nail—founded more than 200 years ago—is the only full-line manufacturer of square-cut nails in the world. Both companies manufacture their products in Mansfield, Massachusetts, and offer a lifetime guarantee.

A third-generation family-owned business, Acorn employs 18 people, many of whom have been with the company for decades. President Eric L. DeLong notes that investments in new equipment now allow Acorn to produce working hinges and handle sets in any metal and design.

Coastal Bronze specializes in solid, hand-cast bronze and brass hardware, with extensive offerings for  gates, shutters, doors, cabinets, barn doors, vents, and custom applications. Its designs draw on traditional British and old-world examples. The California-based company designs and assembles its hardware in-house and manufactures castings in its overseas sister foundry.

“All of our hardware is designed to be used outside, in the elements,” says President/CEO Tim Johnson, who founded the company in 1987 while remodeling a lake house in Big Bear, California. “Our parts use exterior-grade components—solid bronze foundations and color-matched protective coatings—to ensure long-term durability.”

Coastal Bronze regularly works with architects, designers, and preservation groups and has completed restoration work for historic churches, lighthouses, and preservation societies across the country.

Storybook Hardware, the newly launched sister brand of Notting Hill Decorative Hardware, produces high-end, historically accurate, highly detailed hardware. Founder and principal designer Daniel Baughman created the company to fill aesthetic gaps in the market—such as demand for equestrian-themed designs.

The Wisconsin-based family business has introduced its initial 12 designs, with 48 more forthcoming. Castings are made from proprietary durable metal alloys and are available in a range of plated finishes, including Heritage Brass, Legacy Copper, Archival Bronze, Vintage Silver, Heirloom 24K Gold, and Rustic Iron. Select limited-edition pieces feature .999 silver plating with 24-karat rose and yellow gold accents.

“Each piece is meticulously crafted one at a time by masters in this field,” Baughman says. “My foundries have produced millions of fine metal accessories under my direction.”

An award-winning handcrafter of the Scofield Lighting and Heritage Traditions Lighting lines, Heritage Metalworks has restored and produced fixtures for iconic American landmarks, including the U.S. Capitol and Winterthur. Using original tools, methods and finishes, artisans create and restore fixtures in the company’s tin shop, blacksmith shop, and foundry in Pennsylvania.

“We’re known for reproduction, restoration, preservation, and custom lighting,” says Founder Matt White, who co-owns the company with his wife, Kim. “All are crafted with exceptional attention to detail and timeless artistry.” Heritage Metalworks offers more than 200 designs in iron, brass, copper, and tin, all customizable.

White, who learned centuries-old techniques, says the company—now 25 years old—plans to expand in 2026 to meet growing demand. “The most rewarding part is seeing the joy in people’s eyes when they receive a perfectly replicated piece.”

Remains Lighting — remains.com

Remains Lighting designs and manufactures decorative fixtures rooted in traditional craftsmanship and also restores and sells antique lighting, using many of those pieces as the basis for custom replications. About half of its work is custom—either derived from architects’ renderings or modeled after historic fixtures.

“Our work is informed by close study of antique metalwork and decades of restoration experience,” says Founder David Calligeros. “We’ve learned what materials and methods create enduring works of beauty.”

Calligeros describes antique lighting as “sculptural metal compositions that change entirely once illuminated—interacting with the surrounding space.”

St. Louis Antique Lighting Co. — slalco.com

St. Louis Antique Lighting manufactures and restores antique fixtures and maintains an archive of roughly 3,000 designs it has reproduced over its long history, along with digitized copies of every historic lighting catalog in the Library of Congress.

Founded in 1973 by Gary Behm, the company produces its lighting—custom or catalog—in a 16,000-square-foot factory housed in a 1927 Art Deco building. Behm, a collector who began restoring antique fixtures in his own 1890 Victorian home, expanded the business from his basement into a full-scale manufacturing operation. He now serves as president emeritus, while his wife, Gloria, is CFO, and his daughter, Ann Marie Behm, is president.

“We are known for producing high-quality fixtures in our own factory—not for importing low-cost, mass-produced products,” Behm says. The company also specializes in collaborative “design/build-to-budget” projects. “The real joy,” he adds, “is making something people will appreciate far into the future.” TB