Installing wood wall treatments can be easier, quicker, and in many cases, less costly than either painting or wallpaper.
Heading into fall, thoughts turn from outdoor entertaining to sprucing up the indoors for holiday gatherings. Or, maybe you simply want to add some warm touches to a bedroom or study for cozying up with a book and a mug of tea. No matter what your design desires for fall nesting and entertaining, wood is an economical and versatile choice.
Installing wood wall treatments is, in many cases, easier, quicker, and in many cases less costly than either painting or wallpaper. Best of all, it’s a remodeling job you can do yourself, on your timetable, rather than hiring and scheduling a contractor.
“We see a lot of customers who want to change up the style of a room with a decorative accent they can add over a weekend,” says Stacy Kovats, marketing director at Issaquah Cedar and Lumber. “Wood is a great do-it-yourself choice for accenting a kitchen wall with shelves, updating the fireplace mantel, or creating a new environment in a bathroom or bedroom with wood paneling.”
Here are some popular wood wall treatment trends for any room in your home.
Warm up your bedroom
One popular application for the bedroom is to accent the wall the bed is against with a softwood – natural or stained – such as cedar, pine or fir. Rustic or reclaimed hardwood, or barn wood, also creates a warm, natural environment.
“We’re seeing customers getting creative with an accent wall in the bedroom or family room, using different dimensions and pieces of wood,” says Kovats. “In a contemporary application, one of our customers took strips of varying widths and staggered the joints so the wall had not only a pattern but also texture. It’s like Jenga blocks, where some pieces stick out more than others.”
Make a splash in the bathroom
Cedar is great for an accent wall behind a bathroom vanity because it’s moisture resistant. Finger-jointed primed cedar, which uses the highest grade of small pieces of wood glued together and then primed over, is a great choice for a painted look in the bathroom. It’s highly water-resistant and has a smooth, fine grain of wood for easy painting. It’s also less expensive than buying solid pieces of wood.
Showcase your fireplace
The fireplace wall in a living room, rec room, or any gathering space is the perfect place to add a decorative touch. Cedar, fir, maple, walnut and exotic hardwoods such as parota and monkey pod are all great choices for floating shelves or a mantelpiece.
If you’re game for a bigger change, sliding wood doors made from knotty pine or reclaimed barn wood offer a dramatic way to open up an indoor living space onto the backyard patio.
“The great thing about wood is that it’s versatile and there are so many choices,” says Kovats. “You could give three people identical shiplap boards, for example, for an accent wall and their finish choices might result in three totally different styles. One might choose muted gray for a farmhouse look, another might stain it jet black for a very contemporary style, and the third might choose a bright color for a transitional modern feel.”
Issaquah Cedar and Lumber has been in business for over 115 years. We supply the Puget Sound area with the highest-quality Western red cedar products and materials, including decking, siding, beams, shakes, shingles and custom-milled cedar materials.