Tips For Choosing Your Lumber For A Wooden Accent Wall

In residential uses, lumber is often out of sight — hidden behind walls, under flooring, and in many other parts of your home. This doesn't have to always be the case, though. If you're someone who enjoys the look of wood and you possess a combination of aptitude and creativity, you may want to use some lumber to build a wooden accent wall in one room of your home. Placing pieces of lumber length-wise on a wall can add warmth and coziness to the space and provide visual interest. Here are some tips for choosing the lumber that you'll use for this project.

Select Different Types

Your local lumber store has a wide range of types of lumber available to its customers, and you'll want to select a variety of these types when you're buying the materials for your wooden accent wall. Different types of wood have different grain appearances and colors, which can add a lot of visual interest to the finished project. Maple, for example, can often have a flame-style quality, while pine often contains a series of knots. Browse what's available and select some pieces that catch your eye.

Use Different Widths

Lumber is available in many different widths, so it's ideal if you can choose a variety of widths when you're buying the lumber for your wooden accent wall. If you buy all of your lumber in one standard size — for example, 1x3 — you can still produce a nice wooden accent wall, but it may lack some degree of visual intrigue. Adding various widths of lumber can give your design more of a rustic quality, however, which may appeal to you. You'll need to do a lot of figuring, of course, to ensure that you place the individual pieces of lumber correctly so that you have straight edges.

Employ Different Finishes

You'll definitely want to use a variety of finishes to coat your lumber, as this will further cause each individual piece to stand out from those positioned around it. Some woods take well to dark stains, while others look good with reddish stains. You may want to choose light or clear stains for pieces of lumber that have pronounced grains or knots, rather than hiding these design features with a dark coat of stain. Instead of buying a large number of jars of stain, consider seeing if friends and family have partially empty jars that you can use for this job.

To learn more about your options, contact a lumber supplier.


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