Faux Reclaimed Wood

It seems that the new big thing in home decor is reclaimed wood furniture, and I have to say, I am in  LOVE. The look of old wood turned new is gorgeous, and what Portlander doesn't appreciate recycling. I have had a headboard reclaimed wood project in mind for a while now, and still fully intend on doing it, but I needed a smaller first project to start. I decided to start with picture frames. The finished frames will come in a later post. This post is all about making faux reclaimed wood. I originally got the idea and many of the techniques from one of my favorite blogs. You can find it here.

I know what you are thinking, and yes I did just contradict myself. What is the point of making new wood look "reclaimed"? Why would you buy new wood just to beat it up? My dad is probably saying that as he reads this right now. I understand that it seems a little weird, but it looks pretty dad :) , and there are a few problems with actually using old wood. For one, it is very difficult to find usable old wood. Most weathered wood is at least partially rotted, or has too much nail/screw damage to make it reusable. And, depending on the size of the project you may not be able to find enough usable wood for what you need. For these reasons, I chose to use newer wood and beat the crap out of the surface. Plus, it is always fun to release some pent up frustration by beating up a plank of wood. But enough talking typing. The deets are below.

The wood that I used was cedar (I think). We got it at a local re-build it store, so it is technically "reclaimed", but the wood is actually really nice. We got a great deal. It came with the weird groove right in the middle of one side. I think that it was originally used for railings?

Anyway, to distress the wood, I used a number of different tools we already had. Firstly, if the wood that you are using is brand new, you will probably need to sand down the edges to make them a little more round. This makes it look more worn. The planks that I had were already rounded on the corners, so I just started right in on beating it up. Below are the tools and a tutorial of what I did, and below the first picture is how the wood looked after.

Bag of screws: Put a handful of screws in a bag and start swinging. This was the easiest and I think the most efficient. I did this one the whole length of the wood, not just in spots.

A huge screw: I used this to drag across the plank. Simply scrape the wood a few times with the teeth of the screw. Cedar is a hard wood, so it was a little more difficult than it would have been with pine.

The trusty hammer: Swing away and make a bunch of dents. I kinda used the corner of the hammer so it wasn't a perfect circle when it hit the wood. A circle may look like it was hit on purpose, and not through years of wear and tear.

Chisel: Use the edge of the tool, and just start scraping away.

Little nails: Place one on the board, and smack it with the hammer.

There are many other techniques that that you can use. I've heard of people using chains and bricks, but we just had what was on hand. So how do you get from the damaged new wood to the after? First, make sure to sand it down again. Just enough so that the surface is smooth. You don't want to give a passerby a gaping splinter wound. Next, you will need a dark stain. We used ebony because I wanted to see a bigger contrast. There are a few different techniques. You can see from the picture below that the board on the left is darker than the right.

For the board on the left, I put the stain right on the board using a crappy $1 foam brush. Right after, I wiped the stain off with a paper towel. This allows the stain to get in all the little cracks but gets taken off the surface. For the board on the right, I did the same thing, but I first put on a layer of water with a second brush. Make sure to use a different brush for the water and the stain because the stain is oil based so one brush will not pick up both. Using the water does the same thing but allows less stain to soak into the wood. It is a little lighter, and I think that it is a little more real looking. You can see the dry product below:

Pretty cool huh? Tune in soon for the finished product. Until next time...