Some time ago, we found this old piece of barn wood:
And it made our hearts sing.
The aged grey tone. The weathered and worn grain. But most of all, the realization that this piece of wood is completely one of a kind. Nowhere on this planet is there another piece of wood that’s exactly like this one. Not even this other piece of barn wood we found to go with it:
Each piece is a unique thumbprint.
They’re so different, but close enough in look and feel that we were inspired to make a set of nightstands for our guest bedroom.
Here’s a rough mockup Bradley did on the back of a piece of MDF while working on another project:
The nightstand will be a basic white box, no back, sitting on four little legs, with one drawer set into it. The drawer will be made from the raw piece of barn wood. The rough sketch above shows a handle, but we’ve decided not to have hardware. Instead, we’ll make a little cutout in the face so you can pull out the drawer with a finger. That will help keep the focus on the gorgeous wood face with no distracting hardware.
The juxtaposition between clean white cabinet and raw, grungy drawer face will — there’s really no other way to say this — look mad hot. We love the way clean elements look when contrasted with raw elements. It’s a look we’re trying to carry throughout the house with our brick walls and rafters butted right up to our textureless walls and trimless windows. We think the nightstands will fit right in.
That’s our plan, man. What do you think? We’ll share the step-by-step instructions for DIYing a set of nightstands in a couple of weeks. We can’t wait. We’ve been stashing all of our bedside stuff in trays on the floor…for the past year.
It’s getting old fast.
Looks fabulous!
Wow~ Can’t wait to see what you do with it. I have two bedside tables that don’t match and it drives me a little nuts. I have a plan in my head for new ones, but I’m affraid to get started in case it’s a big bust. Maybe your project will inspire me to get mine started – hope so
It’s going to look fantastic. The contrast will be super nice. Can’t wait to see it!
Where are you finding this amazing wood? Is that the kind of thing that’s easy to find in Pennsylvania?
One part of Bradley’s job is to find & source interesting materials. There’s definitely no shortage of lumber in Pennsylvania — most North American hardwoods grow here. The reason we seem to find these crazy pieces (for free!) is because they’re the leftover / garbage pieces that suppliers set aside to throw away. We ask if we can take some and they’re usually thrilled just to get it off their property. This kind of lumber can be found anywhere though. It’s just some siding from an old barn. Someone put up new siding, and we snagged the old stuff. It also helps to have a big garage to stash things in until inspiration strikes
this looks incredible!
What a great idea! Can’t wait to see the finished nightstands. You’ve inspired me – I have a piece of wood similar to these that I’ve been hanging on to for years. It’s a plank from my Granddad’s old back porch. I’d love to do something cool with it…keep us informed with pix
Love it and totally love the floors/stairs project. Awesome!
beautiful timber piece