The New Olde Mill

The Olde Mill

Nobody makes custom hollow ceiling beams and fireplace mantels like we do at The Olde Mill, a new wood shop working out of Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The Olde Mill offers hollow, lightweight alternatives to solid wooden ceiling beams and fireplace mantels, created with a custom technique unreplicated anywhere else.

the mantel stained

the mantel raw

Our fireplace mantel is lightweight (one person can lift one up alone, and install one by themselves in five minutes), but ease of installation isn't the only benefit. Our whole crafting process is done by hand with a meticulous attention to detail. Most hollow beams and mantels are made with two mistakes:

1) they leave an unsightly seem where the sides meet, and

2) they don't use real end caps to make the two end sides.

Most hollow beams just use the same grain as the long sides, and so you end up with a product that looks fake. Our beam sides are miter locked together in order to craft seamless edges, and our end caps are cut right off of the same logs we cut the sides of your beam or mantel from.  As far as we know, nobody in the country makes and sells hollow mantels with real end grain end caps or hollow ceiling beams made out of real antique wood with no seems.

And because our beams and mantels are lightweight, they are ideal for retrofitting. If you want to add ceiling beams to any room in your house, you can do so without having to do major reconstruction to support the weight of solid beams.

our beams and mantel in action

These pictures are from one of our first completed orders; they recently finished their new renovation, which turned out great. We are going to go to their house for more photos soon.