How to DIY a Faux Wood Beam
I have been dreaming of adding a beam down the center of the middle of our house since we moved in back at the end of 2018. If you look closely you will see how our house comes to a 12' peak. The plan is to add a board down the middle of the peak and form a beam around that board. Being that the peak is 12' I wanted a nice size beam. You would't want something so big if you have shorter ceilings but the process on how we did it would be the same.
I love how the beam, wood hood, and the chairs all tie together.
We had to move the smoke detector over slightly, so that’s what the hubs is doing here.
The first step is to add a board down the middle of the roof line. We bought these 3/4"X12′ boards and we did no prep to them. Looking back now I wish we would have stained the sides of these boards because the ceiling is not level and once we had the beam assembled and on you could see this board at certain angles. Now I either have to go back with stain with a q-tip or fill in the gaps with caulk. I’m dreading this, haha. Learn from our mistake.
So we bought good quality pine boards 3/4"X12' to create the other three sides to form the beam. Of course everyones beams would be different sizes based on your space so I won't be sharing measurements. Just the process on how we did it.
Now, this is the most important part of the whole process. If you want your beam to look authentic then you need to miter the edges so you do not have a seam. If you look closely you will see that the blade is at a 45 degree angle. You only need to do this to one side for the boards that will be each side of the beam. You will need to do this for both sides for the bottom piece. This is so that it makes an actual box and they butt up really close to each other.
I stain the boards with dark walnut by minwax.
First side board going up. He is using a nail gun with 2″ nails to secure it to the sides of the board on the ceiling. No glue.
Because the beam was so long and so big he decided to add some support pieces inside the beam with scrape 2×4’s we had.
The seams do not match on the sides and the bottom. I will show you how we fix this. We learned in this process there was no filler or stain to hide the seams.
In order to hide the seams we used 3" wood and stained it with a black gel stain so they look like metal wraps. He did miter cuts to make a seamless wrap.
This worked perfect to make the wood look like metal wraps.
If you look at the wrap at the far end there was never a seam there but we added a wrap so that it matched the other end over the kitchen.
So the wood vent hood, chairs & beam are all dark walnut and tie together. This was not a complicated project but you defiantly need some muscle in order to get it hung. I think it brings so much character to the house. So glad we made this a chunky beam and not to small being that the ceiling is so high. When people come over they can't tell the wraps are made out of wood.
Would love hear your thoughts and or questions in the comments below.
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Absolutely amazzzing!! It's unbelievable that the straps are wood!! Very well done!!
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Nice job. Great idea using the wood to look like metal banding!
Frequently asked questions
Have a question about this project?
How did he attach the first 12’ to the crimping to ensure it is strong enough to hold the other boards?
So the previous owners of my home covered the woods beams that were initially installed,lowering the ceiling,so I’m trapped between tearing the ceiling apart,dealing with the mess n praying there in good shape or adding new beams..any suggestions?
should scrape be scraps and defiantly be definitely?