Art over a barrel

PROSSER, Wash. — A continuous stream of water flows down three tiers of halved oak wine barrels stacked like steps, creating a tranquil gurgling in Bud and Shirley Mendenhall’s small back yard.

The soothing fountain is just one way the Mendenhalls are recycling an used wine barrels into household items through their Prosser business, Northwest Barrel Art.

Last year, the couple turned nearly 5,000 used wine barrels into planters, fountains, serving trays and other custom items, even using the rotund blond barrels as canvas for original artwork.

“I just drove by a winery one day, saw the barrels for sale, bought a few and started cleaning them up,” said Bud Mendenhall, a retired landscaper who moved to Prosser three years ago to be closer to family. The state’s booming wine-making business ensures an ample supply of the barrels.

At first Mendenhall just cleaned the barrels and cut them into planters, but the more he looked at the wood, the more inspired he became.

“I got a couple of really nice barrels that showed the oak grain and started doing some research on how to maintain and preserve the barrels,” he said. “I thought it was a waste to cut them in half and throw some plants into something made out of oak.”

He discovered that linseed oil would bring out the grain and preserve the color, while protective coatings on the market would give it a permanent shine.

But he still wanted to do more.

He went searching for an old wood burning kit he had tucked away years ago. When he couldn’t find it, he bought a new one and went to work etching landscape, frontier and animal scenes around the belly and across the head of the barrels.

“Then when I was in Montana selling the barrels, I ran into someone who was better than me,” Mendenhall said.

That’s when he started having other artists create original art on the sides of the barrels, which he wholesales to exclusive shops in Montana and Sun Valley, Idaho. Each “art” barrel is signed and numbered and sells for $800 to $1,200.

Mendenhall’s backyard workshop has barrels engraved with elk, mountain men, trains and salmon. He’s currently working on a Lewis and Clark barrel, with a map of the famous pair’s journey on the barrel top and a depiction of their adventure circling the barrel.

“It’s going to take awhile,” he said.

Mendenhall said the most popular item the couple makes is a flat-sided wall hanger that can be used for plants and flowers. It takes him about two hours to turn one barrel into four wall hangers, he said.

He also uses the wine barrel’s top, or head, to make serving trays and wants to turn them into lazy Susans, or rotating trays great for large picnic tables and group gatherings.

And he’s hoping to come up with up to a dozen more products to make out of wine barrels this year. It’s a process that keeps him up at night.

“I wake up with an idea and I’ll stay up thinking about it until I have it all worked out in my head,” he said.

“Then the next morning, I’ll get up and start making it.”

He said he wants to expand into barrel lamps, end tables, ice chests, and anything “unique and original.”

“I have a lot of different products to pursue,” he said. “I’d love to do a barbecue, if I can figure it out.”