Today's project was putting together the first of what will eventually be 11 different box beams (faux beams). This is a popular design element right now. There are many ways you can make them, including buying pre-made fake wood beams that are made of composite or even Styrofoam. Those are about $50-60 per linear foot and up. There are also custom made reclaimed look box beams made from real wood in different textures like hand hewn or resawn looks. Those are about $100-150 per linear foot. Since I have a total of 160 linear feet of beam, that would be.... are you ready for it...... $16,000-$24,000 just for the fabricated beams. Lol okay whatever. I've seen some crazy stuff in my life but $24,000 for fake beams might just take the cake.
So of course I'm going to build them all myself. It's a super simple process. You just build a 3- sided box (U-shape) with two mitered corners, and the fourth side is used to affix the box to the ceiling. If you're putting the beam in a corner where the wall and ceiling meet you just build two sides and the third and fourth are used to attach.
The biggest challenge is finding wood that looks somewhat distressed, and in my case being able to get about 600 linear feet of it. Most are 1x6" but I also need some 1x8 and 1x10.
I made some calls and found a local lumber yard that cuts down 2x6 and 2x8 douglas fir into 1x6 and 1x8 so it's resawn on one side. This gives a nice rough look. Oh and it's cheap. 1x6 10ft are $8.22 per board and most are book-match so if i need to string them together (as I do for the 19' lengths) it makes for a relatively decent blend). That's also the downside, that I have to string them together.
Today I got one beam put together because I only bought enough lumber for one today. Wanted to make sure it came out as I wanted before buying $400 worth of lumber.
This one is 20' long and finished size is 5.5x4. At the seam I attached a 1x4 backer board to hold the seam because brads weren't doing the job.
Cost was $66 for the lumber and it'll be about $3 worth of stain and $1 in screws so $70 all in. Not bad compared to $2,000 for a comparable texture pre-made beam.
I think since I'm going to be making 10 more of these, I'll buy a couple of saw horses with rollers to make the long rips easier. I don't exactly have a carpentry shop in my back yard.
Forgot to snap a picture of the finished beam. Will do that tomorrow.
