I have gotten a lot of questions and compliments on the barn wood accents around my house so I thought I would share the story behind them.

There are several DIY tutorials that use pallets for these types of projects but I chose to find a source for actual barn wood.  I stumbled upon a young couple that makes furniture out of barn wood at a craft show in Lowell a few years back.  They get hired to take down old falling down barns and in return they get to keep all the wood.  When they told me they do custom work the wheels started turning.  I emailed them to ask if they could make me the frame for an old mirror that I already had.  I sent them this picture as inspiration which I found from a post on the Young House Love blog.

As you can see, they made an exact replica (only smaller).  The best part is they charged me just $70 to build the frame.  It even had a nice groove built into it so all I had to do was slide the mirror down the back.  It was such a great price to pay for a one of a kind (or I guess two of a kind?) piece for my house.

Around this time James and I had been looking high and low for a new dining room table but we just couldn’t find anything we could agree on.  I had the idea to send my new BFFs this inspiration picture to see what they would charge for building one out of barn wood.

A few days later I got my quote.  $500 for the table and two benches to go with it, if we wanted them.  WHAT!  Be still my heart.  I hadn’t yet decided what chairs I wanted, so I thought the benches were a great idea.  This way we could actually sit down and eat at our new table while I could take time finding chairs I loved.  Three weeks and a few different stain selections later, we had our custom made barn wood table.

A few months after we got the table I found these chairs at World Market on sale.  With my sister’s discount I scored them for $40 each.  I am trying really hard to not buy everything “brown” but it was such a great deal I couldn’t refuse.  They are a nice neutral chair and with a little color added from the table runners I think it works out just fine.

By this time I was so in love with my table and mirror (and the barn wood people) I got the idea to cover one wall in my walk in closet that had always been really tricky to decorate.  Prior to being a bedroom/closet it was the old entrance from the front hall and also a doorway to the bathroom so it had these “fake doors”.

I tried everything to make them seem “on purpose”.  Chalkboard paint, shallow shelves, and a wall of fabric all tried and failed to make this room look cute.  Enter the lovely horizontal barn siding:

I gave them a measurement of the wall from top to bottom and they took different widths of planks and trimmed them level and cut them to my exact wall size.  All I had to do was nail them up from top to bottom.  It was really easy knowing that no matter what order I went in that they would fit perfectly.  It took my husband about 20 minutes to hang them up with a nail gun.  This project was a little pricier at $140 for the wood trimmed to size but considering how much time, energy, and money I spent trying other methods of dealing with the fake doors I can say it has been totally worth it.  Adding that texture and custom look to my home is one of those things I don’t mind forking over a little extra cash for.

One thing you may have noticed is the space between a few of the pieces.  The gapping was not there when we first hung them but because they are inside now vs. outside the wood has shrunk a bit.  If I was a perfectionist this would drive me nuts (luckily I am not) so unless the problem gets a lot worse I am totally fine with it.

If you want to get some barn wood for a project please contact me via email jennymikrut@gmail.com and I can put you in touch with my barn wood dealer.  (yeah that’s right.  It’s addictive!)