Good morning & Happy Monday, my friends. I always forget how nice it is to have a weekend with no plans. I check off quite a bit of the items off my to do list that have recently just been getting continued over including finishing our reclaimed wood wall. A few months ago, DG and I headed east to my grandparent’s farm and took wood from the old shop. Today, I am going to share how to install a reclaimed wood wall and provide you a bit more family history about why this wood is so important.
These are the before pictures of the chalkboard wall and standard light fixture that came with the house.
Step One: Acquire Supplies
Most of my childhood memories involve being on my grandparent’s farm, and this barn was where I generally could find my grandfather. After he passed away, the barn wasn’t used, and it started falling apart in places. When DG & I started talking about what to cover the chalkboard wall with in our new house, we kept thinking how great it would be to salvage some of the wood from the barn for the wall. We headed east one Sunday afternoon and my parents helped us take down some of the wood. A few weeks later, there was really high wind and it collapsed what was left of the barn, so we are really grateful we were able to truly salvage it.
Step Two: Prep
DG used a planer to strip off a layer of the wood on each side to freshen up the wood. He also cut the pieces in various sizes to create options for attaching the wood to the wall. He removed the baseboard and window sills to make it easier to attach the wood. The chalkboard wall also came in handy for when he found the studs in the wall and marked them off.
Step Three: Attach Wood
We used liquid nails to help attach the wood, and then nailed in the pieces with this. We attached the major pieces first, and then cut small pieces for around the windows. It was relatively easy to attach since the pieces were even on the ends and edges. The most time consuming part was to make the cuts for around the windows and the window sill. After finishing the wood, DG added a natural baseboard and will eventually add a natural crown molding piece.
Step Four: Wipe Down with Oil
We decided not to add any sort of clear coat over the wood because we did not want to risk having any sort of color change. My best buddy KP recommended using boiled linseed oil to seal, so that’s what we did.
Step Five: Decorate
We really lucked out with our furniture from our first house to this house. When we bought our first house, DG bought me this dining room table and chairs set. It worked really well in our new dining room which was lucky for us. We also bought a buffet from the flea market in our first house, and we used it in the dining room.
I luckily snagged the antique China that was my great-grandmother’s about two years ago and I love to keep it out. I like having the candles on the table for some light in that area each night. Styling the buffet was fun because DG & I incorporated a couple of pieces of our family history into the decor. We both love dogwood blooms, so we added those. There is a serving piece from my great-grandmother’s China, a glass Buffalo tray as a nod to DG’s hometown, and a MacKenzie-Childs colander with a cotton bole. MacKenzie-Childs is created in upstate New York and the cotton is what my grandfather farmed.
The last thing I need to do to finish the room is to find a mirror to hang above the buffet. I’m thinking something like this.
Materials
- Reclaimed Wood Planks (retail option here)
- Liquid Nails
- Ryobi Airgun
- baseboard
- trim
- Sherwin Williams Repose Gray
- Pottery Barn Serve Bowl
- Lanterns (old, similar here)
- Battery Operated Candles
- Wayfair Chandelier
- Buffet (antique, love this one) | Painted in Annie Sloan French Linen
- Runner (old, burlap option here and linen option here)
- Safavieh Rug
- Dining Room Table & Chairs (similar here)
- Hearth & Hand Glass Jug
- Hearth & Hand Dogwood Stems
- MacKenzie-Childs Colander
- Dishware (antique, gorgeous option here)
- Hobnail Glassware
- Tobacco Basket (antique, replica here)
- Cotton Wreath
- Fiddle Leaf Fig (lacking a green thumb? Here’s a great faux option)
- Galvanized Metal Pot
- boiled linseed oil
Shop the Post
Did you see how we built a mudroom bench here? Here are some of my favorite indoor plant options as well.
Don’t forget to link up with Biana and me today for weekending! I hope y’all have a great week!
