DIY Faux Wood Beams…

Hope you had a great weekend! 

Last month I decided that I wanted to add more character to our house. I saw the faux beams while watching HGTV's Smart Home and I knew I wanted it to be my next project. Real beams are expensive so I looked at the DIY version. We decided to add them to our front room.

This is what the ceiling looked like before. 

To get started, we determined how many beams we wanted and measured/spaced them out evenly. We used chalk line to mark where each beam would go. We decided on four beams. 

Next, we bought our wood. Since we wanted four beams, we needed 8 1x6, and 4 1x 4. We bought the cheapest wood at Home Dept. I wanted a rustic look, so the more beat up the wood the better. 

After getting the wood home, we beat it up. I hit with a hammer, chain, and nails to give it a beat up look. Above is what it looked like after.

Once I got the look I wanted, we stained the wood. I chose the color Dark Walnut. I love how this color turned out.  

All stained!

While the stain was drying, my husband installed supports to help keep the beams secured to the ceiling. We purchased 4 2x4. He cut, nailed, and spaced them out across the joists in the ceiling.

After the stain dried, we built our faux beams. The two 1x6 boards were used on the outside and for the middle we used one 1x4. I wanted a little dimension, so we gave the beam a little bit of a lip. You can see how I spaced it above. 

After we put it together, we had to use clamps to keep the wood from moving. It made it much easier to nail. We nailed about every 5 inches along to beam. One side of the 1x6 was nailed to the 1x4. Then we nailed the other side to the 1x4.

After we constructed the beams, we had to stain the inside lip of each beam. 

Once the stain dried, we nailed each beam to the 2x4 supports.