Reclaimed Wood Art in My Country Dining Room

This project - to the right - has been in the works for months and months.  I'm so glad I finally did it!  

I was inspired by something I saw in the Pottery Barn catalog (for $399) - to the left.  I ripped the picture out of the catalog and carried it around with me every day - Pinterest, oldschool.

I knew I wanted to try to make it, but I was stumped (no pun intended!) by where to get wood that might work.  My first idea was pallets, but they're huge and won't fit in my car.  Plus, when I was researching pallets, I found some information that pallets can possibly have toxic chemicals.  I considered buying new wood and distressing it, but that seemed like a lot of effort. 

Then one day I was driving back to work after a meeting and saw a sign at side of the road, "WE SELL RECLAIMED LUMBER."  There was then a screech of tires and some dangerous lane-changing, but I survived and found the absolute perfect wood, at only $1 per foot.  This time I was able to fit the wood in my car, and I transported it to my country house, where I have a table saw, more space to work on projects, and a shed to store things.

  

I used a 24"x24" piece of particle board to draw out a rough design.  Then I started cutting.  It was sort of like putting together a puzzle.  A few hours later, this is what I had.

I tried to alternate vertical and horizontal pieces, mostly 2" wide but some thicker and some thinner.  Some pieces had screws sticking out or holes from nails, adding interest.  I sanded the cut edges to match the softness of the original edges of the pieces of wood.

The Pottery Barn inspiration piece appears to be painted, but I wanted something more natural-looking, so I decided to use stain.  I also didn't want the crayon box range of colors used in my inspiration piece, so I opted for a few natural hues.  I used black, "cabernet" (burgundy), "sun-washed" (grey - more like a paint wash than a stain), and natural.  I took one color at a time and, using a paper towel, blotted on the stain, aiming for a balanced look.  Then came the boring part of gluing the pieces to a piece of plywood (the particle board that I used to arrange the pieces was way too heavy), adding decorative nails (after drilling pilot holes to make things easier), and framing it with some of the same wood.  And then the exciting part of hanging it on the wall.

Oh yeah, I guess I should mention this:  My total cost was around $35.00.  That makes me very, very happy.



FEBRUARY 27, 2013 UPDATE:  

I just submitted this project to the Young House Love Pinterest Challenge.  You can check it out over there - looks like I'm number 84 - as well as see all of the other amazing entries!  Also, here are links to the projects completed by the hosts of the challenge:  Megan (The Remodeled Life), Katie (Bower Power), Sherry (Young House Love) and Michelle (Decor and the Dog).

So that I'm official, here are the links to the inspiration for my project on Pinterest and to the original at Pottery Barn.