Author: adriana

One of our more recent projects was a gorgeous waterfront home in Fort Myers, Florida.  The owners started designing this home in early 2016. It took months of working with their designer before finally deciding to build a soft, contemporary style home that suited their needs. Located on a corner lot overlooking the Deep Lagoon, this 10,000 square foot home boasts modern, high-end living to its core and is surrounded by Green Oxen’s Epulum Modern Railing.

3,500 linear feet of our Modern Railing is the fundamental finishing touch that every waterfront home needs. This horizontal aluminum railing provides an unobstructed barrier around the deck. The curved railing was a custom project we did specifically for this home. Just as you walk onto the deck, you come upon this incredible, one-of-a-kind, serene pool that resembles one of a high-end luxury hotel.  It is a feature of the home that includes palm trees and a walkway that floats across the pool to the Jacuzzi area.

Two other focus points of the home are on the inside. First, the 222 bottle wine cellar is a show stopper. It is equipped with its own compressor to keep the temperature at whatever degree necessary for the wine. A total dream come true!

The second, a collection of fine glass they have collected over the years from traveling to France, Italy, and China. The inside of the home truly looks like a fine art gallery.

The view from the inside looking out is unimpeded by our modern aluminum railing. It serves as the final touch that compliments the fine elements of this high-end, modern home.

Ron Kopko, is the designer who found Green Oxen and designed the railing with our team of engineers.  After speaking to the owner of the home, we asked her, “what was an important aspect of working with us”? Her reply was, “Green Oxen offers a green product and is Eco-friendly.” It was a pleasure being part of this gorgeous project and adding to its beauty and property value.

You might be thinking, “modern horizontal railings don’t fit in with my property aesthetic”. Let’s break the stigma of “modern” real quick. We use “modern” to describe what the Epulum Railing looks like on its own. When it’s placed into a project, the railing transforms. It’s pretty amazing to see actually. Our railing does not limit the project, it compliments and elevates it. We’ve seen the railing fit perfectly into different style homes including farmhouse, coastal, craftsman, colonial, Mediterranean, ranch-style, and more. That’s quite the versatile railing!

Sometimes railing is an afterthought to a remodel or new build, let’s be honest. It’s true, railings tend to be a part of the final thought process, which is unfortunate because they make such a wonderful statement and should be highlighted. Green Oxen railing adds property value with high-quality, carefully-crafted, aluminum railing. No longer are homeowners stuck with the cheap option that is offered over and over again and need to be replaced shortly after installation. We designed the Epulum Railing because a modular system with a modern aesthetic that lasts simply did not exist.

Railings are a major design element on any project and our goal was to offer something just beyond ubiquitous. We wanted to frame the intended architecture in something both timeless and modern, and we wanted to do it in an easy-to-install and sustainable way. Epulum Railing can also enhance LEED projects as its recycled content is high and has unmatched recyclability.

We are here to offer our customers a premium, unique, and memorable solution to their railing needs. Our engineers are available to guide you through the process of selecting and specifying a system to suit your structure. Give us a call or write us an email and let us answer your questions.

Every successful company begins with a great story. Green Oxen has no shortage of adventures, but before we get into those, let’s start at the beginning. We get asked questions like these all the time: “What does Green Oxen mean”? “Why did you start this company?” “What makes you different?” You probably find yourself asking them too. So, let’s get into it.

How Green Oxen Got Started.

The company was started by two brothers, Alex and Jamie Schlinkmann, who own and operate Automatic Manufacturing Systems. For the last 25 years, they have been designing machinery that some of the top companies in the world use today. These machines are used to make everything from aircraft structures to power-generation equipment and much much more in between. These same machines produce components for Green Oxen’s products. Needless to say, they are very detail-oriented engineers.

When the brothers were building their homes in South Florida, they were searching for modern, sustainable, and robust items that were unique, innovative, and impactful. They were met with a major gap in products for modern homes. They found a decent selection of normal products like railings, but if you wanted a modern look, that usually fell into “custom”. Custom-made metal architectural elements were normally architect-designed and they found them to be expensive and hard-to-source So the two sat down and set out to invent their own elements by embracing their entrepreneurial spirit once again.

It seemed that people just couldn’t get enough of the duo’s designs and quickly became inundated with requests for these items in both residential and commercial properties. Now all they had to do was come up with a name and build the foundation of the business. Sounds easy, right?

How Did You Come Up With The Name Green Oxen?

Paying homage to their background and upbringing, the brothers were reminiscent of a High School German class when they were asked to come up with an idea for a business and to name it. The boys went home and spoke to their dad about it and came up with the name Green Oxen for this fantasy business they would one day create together. Since that day, and even more so, since their father passed, they were determined to use that name somehow and honor their father’s memory. The opportunity finally came to fruition with this new passion project and Green Oxen was born.

What Top 3 Things Did They Learn Through The Process And Do Better?

1. Most metal architectural products are fabricated using rough, dirty fabrication equipment and then finished by manual processing to the desired result.
2. Quality control is done by inspection and rework and a lot of individual judgment is utilized.
3. Manufacturing these components in high volume to tight tolerances is key to providing modern highly aesthetic products worthy of their place in high-value spaces.

Picture this: 4 years ago you started planning to custom-build a new house. Since then, you’ve hired an architect and interior designer to make your visions come to life. Just as your lifelong project is finalizing, you look outside of the bay window out to your waterfront view and realize, you have no railings! You talk to a few contractors and railing companies and they all offer you a cheap solution that just doesn’t host the same synergy of the immaculate home you took the time to perfect. You take your search to Google and land on a Modern Railing page called Epulum Railing by Green Oxen. You do some reading to find out that not only are they sleek, easy-to-install, and sturdy, but they are also eco-friendly, modern and weather resistant. It’s a slam dunk! So, your next move is to fill out a form and request a quote to which you receive an immediate response from one of Green Oxen’s sales engineers who helps walk you through the options and ensures you get the very best for your home.

Sounds familiar, right? Well, we come across that situation often. We get inundated with calls and emails from people who want a robust railing and not this rinky-dink railing that you can buy at a major mass-market home store for SUPER cheap which will have to be replaced sooner than the tires on your car!

One of our newest customers, Gabriela, had a similar situation. She had been planning and designing her new home in Brick, New Jersey for 4 years. She wanted everything to be perfect. She hired a local architect, Richard Tokarski, who had a visionary eye and impeccable taste for a rich aesthetic as well as practicality. They landed on Green Oxen Silver Epulum Railings which once installed, brought her property to life while raising her property value and keeping her waterfront view unobstructed. After speaking to her, we found out that a big draw to the railings, other than their appearance and durability, is that they are eco-friendly and made in the USA. Everyone is a winner! She ended up surrounding her home with our railing and the final product is truly amazing. See for yourself!

Do you have questions about how our railings will fit into your project? Get in touch today and we can help get you our best pricing available.