Kitchen Project {Part Two}

Now that we’d knocked out the wall, it was time to start working on the faux beams. Kelly was able to find a few boards of roughly milled red oak up at the farm. This wood had actually been logged from his great-grandmother’s property when his grandpa was just a boy, back when horses were used for logging.  

The planks were very rough, so we used a planer that allowed us to even out the thickness of the board while leaving it with a semi-smooth surface. Although the boards looked much better after being run through a couple of times, they still needed to be sanded.

We started by using a belt sander with 50 grit sandpaper, which helped to remove all of the black marks caused by the planer. We then switched to a finishing sander first with 80, then 220 grit to smooth down the whole board.  

We were left with these beautiful red-tinted oak boards, which prompted a debate on whether we should stain them dark or leave them in their original color. In the end, we decided to go dark. We used Minwax Oil-Based Ebony Stain, which soaks into the wood and turns it a rich, dark brown. The two wide pieces only needed two coats of stain, while the thinner piece will need a third coat.

Next step- hanging these puppies!