Barnwood Shelves

This project was thought up by a client who is also a real estate agent. She has a good take on what appeals to buyers. Over the holiday break she sent me a picture of some shelves that were made for a friend of hers:

The concept was pretty simple. Because she has an accent wall that is tiled, she wanted some shelves that would hang from the ceiling rather than attach to the wall. The hangers were steel plumbing parts, and the planks were antiqued wood.

After some discussion about the wood she wanted, as well as the layout, I sought after material to use for the shelves. At first I looked at using some rough-cut cedar planks, battering them and staining them–just to give them an aged look.

I was fighting this internally because I see a lot of antiqued looks out there that fall short of actually looking antiqued. However, I discovered a great little antique store in the area that has a part of its business in reclaiming barn wood. I went down and found the perfect planks for shelving.

The look and feel of the wood was exactly what she wanted and when the shelves went up (or down, I guess), they looked stunning. Where the wood wasn’t the right length, I used a hand saw to make the cuts look a little more rough. The rusty nail-holes, the splits in the wood, the breaks on some ends. All of that goes into making just the right look that only time exposes.

The most difficult part of this project was to get the right look, with the right wood. Once that was discovered, the end product was wonderful.