Lumber awaits to be processed in the lumberyard at Burl & Grain.

The new storefront for Burl & Grain, a Hillsboro custom furniture and salvaged wood showroom, was filled with a peppery aroma on Tuesday, March 7.

Sawyer Jason Poff was processing a piece of myrtle in a back room, which melded with the scent of recently cut English walnut and black walnut to create a pungent smell.

Last weekend, Burl & Grain opened its new retail space at 223 S.W. Wood St. — a fitting address for such a store, as it exists in the same industrial complex as other wood fabricators like McGee Salvage and B&L Wood Creations.

Right where downtown Hillsboro meets the Jackson Bottom Wetlands Preserve, the store offers custom furniture built on-site, as well as salvaged lumber from all over the Portland area.

The company has existed for years, but co-founder Matt Farrell said it’s taken him and his partners about five or six years to build up the inventory they needed to actually open this proper storefront. Then, they had to renovate the shop to make sure it would work for the many kinds of activities that go on there.

“We moved into this retail space a little over a year ago,” Farrell said. “But the move itself took probably six to eight months. Then building out and modifying the space so it was suitable took quite some time.”

Farrell, 42, got into woodworking about 10 years ago, when he was doing photography and graphic design work for a friend’s business. While on the site, he noticed them working on wood in a shop around back and said he “caught the bug.”

Since then, he’s learned about the complex and time-consuming process that goes into making wood furniture and other specialty projects.

Burl & Grain’s supply comes exclusively from urban salvage — different from reclaimed wood, which describes material that once served other manufactured uses but has since been turned into something else.

Instead, Farrell’s supply comes from private property owners who either cut down trees they want to get rid of, or who have salvage that they have specific projects in mind for and hire the company to produce or assist with.

There has been a particular surge in salvageable wood lately, Farrell said, because last month’s snowstorm knocked down a lot of trees and branches that people are trying to get rid of or turn into buildable material.

Farrell said most salvaged wood shops focus on particular types of wood that are most sought after, but he instead picks up all kinds of trees.

“We work with local arborists and take pretty much whatever is coming down — it can be softwoods or hardwoods,” Farrell said. “We’re trying to be a little more focused on reducing the waste … and a lot of the different species are great, people just don’t know about them because they aren’t offered (in furniture stores).”

It can take years for a single tree to be cut, milled, dried, heated in a kiln and then processed before it is actually ready to be turned into a bench, desk or table — hence why it’s taken several years for Burl & Grain to work up the inventory necessary for a retail space.

But Farrell has been involved in several local projects over the years. After the 2019 ice storm knocked down a bunch of trees at Oaks Amusement Park, he worked with the theme park to turn them into benches and other fixtures.

Burl & Grain also contributed the large wooden base on which the “friendly giant statue” will rest at Hillsboro’s forthcoming all-inclusive park at the Hidden Creek Community Center, as well as a decorative plaque at the city-owned center for when it opened in 2021.

A good portion of the store’s clientele are amateur or professional woodworkers themselves, which is why the store also offers services like milling and prepping wood for others to make something out of.

Many of the systems Burl & Grain uses are made from salvaged or repurposed materials, too.

The two outdoor kilns, for instance, are actually built into decommissioned refrigeration storage containers. Burl & Grain wired them with fans, heaters, sensors and more, so they work just the same as a fancy kiln room but for a fraction of the cost, Farrell said.

Farrell said he even learns new things from some newbies who are diving deep into tutorials online.

“It’s a fun way to get to communicate and get to learn from people in the community,” he said.

The store is open 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday. The owners plan to add Saturday hours soon.