THE STORY OF STONE CURATORS:
How I Fell in Love with Stone
A Maine Stone Barn Inspires
The way that I got into the stone business was through reclaimed stone.
My mom had moved to northern Maine and wanted to convert an old Maine barn into a house. I went to the site to help her as she tried to figure it out.
The whole farmstead—everything—had burned down except for the barn. What was left was all these old foundation stones and landings.
As I checked out the old foundation of the barn, I discovered that the stones were a really beautiful material.
That was a moment of inspiration. There were these old stones, incredibly interesting, with a great backstory, and they were just kind of abandoned. I knew that there was a growing interest in rustic design and I thought that there’s gotta be a market down here, in and around Boston.
I knew there was a market for patina-ed materials. I had been pulling on that thread for a bit. I had been developing a business idea to sell clamshells for driveways and walkways to homeowners in places like Nantucket, Cape Cod, Cape Ann, and the New Hampshire and Maine coastal towns. But there were some challenges that I didn’t foresee with that business direction.
But as one door closes, another opens. As I got to understand the outdoor architecture and landscape design space. the idea of reclaimed stone, it was this beautiful product that you had to hunt for, acquire, and then figure out how to get the right stone in front of these visionaries looking to get the right stones for their projects.
That’s where we developed the curation process — Our Foundational Process — finding these amazing stones and connecting with designers and architects who wanted something better than what they could find in their local stone yards.
It’s the best part of this job, whether it’s finding a trove of historical stone from New England or Europe that is basically being abandoned or building a relationship with a family-run quarry in Italy, Portugal, or Brazil. I really love being the source for the perfect stone to fulfill someone’s creative vision.
