by My featured image is the undeniable proof as to why you salvage old wood. The top piece is a side view of a piece I cut from a shelf that was in the original upstairs closet; I’m using it for the headboard shelves. Look at how tight those rings are. The tree that produced that was probably 75+ years old. That’s quality slow growth pine. Conversely the piece at the bottom is a modern pine 2 x 6 that was probably injected with steroids to speed its growth and cut before hitting the legal age of 21. Kendall took another piece of scrap from my shelve and used a bookend cut it to create this awesome cool pattern. He’s making heirloom quality wood boxes and can incorporate it into the lid. More proof for salvaging old lumber. Look at the natural chevron pattern the rings created.
I turned my focus onto my headboard this week. I think having the table and headboard completed by Valentine’s Day is a pipe dream given I can’t work on it full-time. The table alone would be ambitious. The headboard, given the back is already complete is doable, so I started building the boxes this week with Kendall’s assistance at the Manufactory. Boxes are simple and in my mind I had all the steps laid out, but Kendall had me slow my roll, which was a good thing. He’s a numbers to paper guy, I’m a image in my mind gal. Images waste wood and that is something I can’t afford to do when it comes to the reclaimed wood I’m using on this project. It can’t be replicated if I run out or mess it up.
Scotti from the Wood Shop gave me the idea to add the side boxes when I told him how I wanted to modify the design I had purchased from Jen Woodhouse. I don’t like a lot of furniture, so I wanted to add a shelf above the headboard. Since that shelf would push the bed from the wall, creating dead space, he suggested filling it with side shelves also. Here is a sketch he did to help me visualize what he was talking about. Love it, but it meant buying more wood.
I could have purchased birch plywood sheet for the shelve boxes, but I didn’t have a way to haul a full sheet. Instead I went to Menards and bought, pre-cut Aspen boards in 4′ and 6′ lengths and 12″ and 16″ widths to reduce cuts. Slightly more expensive, but time savings was worth it. I took the four pine floor joist I had been given to the Manufactory to get them planed down because I decided I wanted my headboard to be primarily reclaimed wood. If you remember from my post “From Toilet Surround to Headboard” I had bought oak boards for this project. The look of the pine aligned with the vision I had for the project, unlike the oak. I wish my blog had smellavision, so you could enjoy the aroma of pine I smelled as we ran the boards through the planer.
At the end of that same post I made this statement “So what to do. Use the oak I purchased or create a fully salvaged headboard and use the pine. You’ll have to keep checking my blog to see how this project is going to end. Anyone want to lay bets?” Betting window is now closed. It’s going to be the Paxton oak. Those pine boards are too beautiful to waste on my headboard. They are true 2x12s and I would need to plane almost half the board to get it to the width I need. It would break my heart to waste such beauty, so they will sit until I think of another project for them.
Kendall worked with me to build the first box and left me on my own accord to build the second. I tweaked Scotti’s idea a bit further by adding a pull-out shelf at a height equivalent to a night stand. There was half of a dutch door that separated the kitchen from the hall in my house when I bought it. I held onto not knowing what it could be used for. Now I know, the pull out shelves. The boxes are just screwed together, my dry run, to make sure everything functions. I’ll take them home, take them apart, and stain them. I’m feeling like the headboard will be complete by next weekend.
That Chevron pattern on the salvaged wood is incredible!
Beauty out of scraps. Potential is in everything if are open to seeing it.