Old Cedar Fence Planks into Furniture
This gorgeous piece of furniture came into our salvage yard the other day and I've been churning over a plan in my head ever since. I need some new furniture for our room and the perfect piece just hasn’t shown up. This old cedar barn wood smelled so good and looked so awesome and rustic and I couldn’t help but hope some would come into the yard.
The problem is that 1x6 aged cedar like this doesn’t show up that often and when it does you’ve gotta be on it or someone else will eye it and swipe the deal! So for a week I bided my time. I started thinking about using some 1x4 cedar fence posts that we had in the yard but they just didn’t seem right. And then today I got asked to cover Abel in donations. And who should drive up? A nice woman with a truck bed full of 1x6 aged cedar planks.
We chatted for a bit about traveling and living out of a van because her and her husband were interested in doing it and I told her about how my own one year journey went. By the time we finished unloading there was a giant pallet full of gorgeous old lumber waiting to be reclaimed. And I happened to claim it!
Now for the interesting part. I’m starting to plan out what exactly I want to build with this nice new ReSource score. I need to fill 2 spaces.
Okay so our room is pretty drab right now because we are still waiting to paint but the corner where those pictures are is begging for a piece of furniture (a bookshelf/apothacary station).
The next spot is right beside our shared desk. We want something that goes to the ceiling here and can hide our obnoxiously bright computer towers.
I took a look at how the piece that inspired me was built.
And then drew up some designs for how each piece might look. Along with taking measurements of course. This is what I came up with:
Bookcase 1:
And Bookcase 2 (which goes to the ceiling and will hold up our desk on one side):
Obviously the drawings are super rough but you get the idea. Right?
You might also notice that the doors on the cabinets have cute little antique handle plates… that’s because I also bought some of those at ReSource just the other day!
Check out how cool these are:
So what do you think? Will my craftsman skills turn the drawings into reality?
I’m gonna get working on it, Thursday which is my next day off. I’ll take pictures and let you know how it all turns out ( :
If you have any suggestions, send them my way!
As always, so glad to be on STEEM!
Hi , I am a furniture /designer maker and I have had my own business for 19 years . It looks like a great project and if you need any pointers just let me know.
Old timber has its charm but it always amazes me how a good plane up or sand brings it back to it's former glory. And the older the wood the better ( depending where it came from originally) as old trees grew naturally and slowly hence better quality. These days commercial timber is forced to grow quickly. Enjoy the process and my top tip is to let the design evolve organically. Great project
Just checked out some of your work! WOW! Thanks so much for putting yourself up for pointers. I hope you mean it because I'll be posting about my work on it today. Tried sanding and coating them and also learned how to use a biscuit jointer. Which I love! I'll let you know when I post that.
Thanks . Yep I am totally here if you need advice. Good job getting stuck in. Biscuits are great . Make sure you use a good glue and give it time to cure. Big subject. Definitely let me know when you post.
I made a star as my first little project to try out the biscuits but I couldn't figure out how to clamp the darn thing since all the edges are at angles. Any tips on that?
So I am assuming you have biscuited Triangles together to form a star shape?
If so you can place the pieces without glue on a flat board then screw blocks around the edges to hold everything in position. when you do add the glue and place it within the blocks you can pinch the blocks with a clamp or two to squeeze it up a bit. Or you could do the same process but with a couple of pieces at a time . Or you could use a strap around the outside and weigh It down to keep it flat.
If it is something else or that doesn't make sense let me know
You have it right for the most part diamond shapes instead of triangles but I ended up gluing them without clamping. Since it's just a wall hanging it doesn't need to be strong and held together fine. If I decide to make a good amount of them then all probably do like you said and make the blocks to fit it within ( : Thanks for the tip!
No problem. Anytime
Great deal!! Can't wait to see how your shelves will turn out!
Me either... but I'm starting to realize it's a bigger project than I expected!
Aren't all projects that way? :) At least mine are.
Yeah, you're right about that ( ;
Such beautiful timber. So nice to reclaim and re-use. It will come up a treat I'm sure. I look forward to seeing the end results.
Me too... gonna take longer than I expected to make though! I'm still waiting for the wood to dry out from the rain storm this week!
Ed's excited to see how it turns out. I want to make a simple book shelf above our bed from old boards.
I'll try to do some good documenting
fantastic! hey by the way we have a channel on steemit.chat https://steemit.chat/group/rocky-mountain-steemit
Nice! I'll check it out
It looks like you have a good project in the works with those supplies.
Just have to wait for the wood to dry first. Sounds like the Jeopardy song is playing as I wait.
We've done something similar with old oak pallets. Great work!