Wood Barn

I was excited to make a real difference in our kitchen/dining/living room. When we moved in, the space was ‘clean’. Some might call it clinical. We really needed to soften the room so, in the living area, we decided to clad the wall with reclaimed antique pine boards. I searched online for the right wood to give the look I was after. Eventually I found just the thing. The boards were in Leeds and, after a nail-biting wait, they arrived a few weeks later. I now realise anything with the tag ‘reclaimed’ generates a large premium price wise.

When my friend had been here, we’d worked out where the studs were in the wall and discovered they were unusually metal not the normal wood. We marked them out so I’d know where to drill to fix the boards up.

Although I wanted the boards to appear random on the wall, I laid them out on the driveway outside just to check they looked random enough! After the usual pontificating and pencil sucking, there was nothing to delay me any further. With a deep sigh, I brought number one board in and screwed it to the wall.

The only complications I had to deal with on the whole job was the angled wall (to the right in the pic), the hole required for the power socket and the TV. I worked out the angle for the wall which was easy to cut on my mitre saw. I used a multi tool for the socket and after some thought, left the TV bracket on the wall and clad around it.

I left a 2mm gap between each board so painted the white wall with black paint so the gaps didn’t show up. In the space of a few hours, the wall was up. To say we’re chuffed with the difference it’s made is an understatement. We’ve created a whole new feel to this end of the large room and we use it more than any other area in the house. The contemporary gas fire adds to the cosiness in the winter and the combination of old/new matches in well.

The pine wasn’t cheap and cost £700 quite expensive for a wall covering but such is its effect, it was well worth the investment.