Brent Rourke turns century-old barn into modern woodworking studio
On a picturesque stretch of Route 121, between Hampton and Sussex, a large red barn stands.
A pumpkin yellow farmhouse is located next to the barn, which has stood there since 1901,
This barn no longer houses cows and hay. Instead, it is filled with wood and handcrafted wooden objects.
For the past eight years, The Barn at Bloomfield has been Brent Rourke’s professional woodworking studio and gallery.
He moved his business here after a basement shop in Hampton proved too cramped to contain his booming business — selling oval Shaker wooden boxes around the world.
“That business started to grow quickly,” Rourke says.
“At our first wholesale show we signed up six new stores. We were just ecstatic. We couldn't believe six other stores wanted to carry our product. Then after that it was sort of 16 or 20 and then we have a network of 200 stores all over North America.”
Rourke and his wife, who works as a teacher in nearby Hampton, bought the four-hectare property and immediately renovated the barn.
His vision was a retail and gallery space where clients could watch the woodworking process. He wanted to create a destination for tourists and art lovers alike.
After clearing out the cluttered barn and adding in-floor heating the Barn in Bloomfield opened in a small area of the barn.
The retail space and gallery now take up one third of the space, showcasing other local artisans: potters, textile artists and fellow woodworkers.
Visitors can watch Rourke build his oval Shaker boxes through large windows in an interior wall. His workshop is meticulously clean and organized, but the scent of sawdust lingers.
The boxes come in all sizes, from tiny ones small enough to hold mementos and jewelry to larger ones for tea, knitting and sewing supplies.
The process to build each box is intricate. First cherry or birdseye maple is selected.
It is cut into thin exact sized strips, soaked in water, bent into an oval shape and hand fitted. Instead of making one at a time and carrying inventory, Rourke and his five-person crew have parts ready to assemble when large orders come in.
International sales
Trudy Melvin is Rourke's sister-in-law and manages the retail and wholesale side of the operation.
She also helps assemble the boxes. She says the business recently shipped hundreds of Shaker boxes to Japan.
“Over the past year we have shipped, I think, it’s six or seven pallet-fulls of shaker oval boxes to Japan, so we're quite excited about that,” she says.
Melvin says the business has been busy branching out making cutting boards and other kitchen tools, too.
She says it’s necessary to expand the line not just for sales but to stay creative.
Rourke says he never imagined a business started in his basement workshop, would end up like this.
He says his biggest accomplishment has been saving a century-old barn and adding another 100 years to its life.
