Faux Wood Workshop

Jenny, a Brit living in America for 30 years, is very particular about her home. That’s why she chose our faux wooden planks to help restore it.

“There’s no such thing as a ‘Tudor home’ in America,” says Jenny Raymond, whose British accent is still crisp and clear even after 30-years of living in Princeton, New Jersey.

Chester High Street, in the UK, is lined with authentic Tudor buildings. Jenny used our faux wood planks to recreate that look.

“Tudor homes were houses built in the Tudor period – when Henry VIII or Elizabeth I were on the throne. Everything that came after that is ‘mock Tudor’ or ‘Tudorbethan’. That includes every so-called ‘Tudor’ home in America.”

Jenny is very definite about that point – possibly because she’s a history teacher at a local prep school. Nevertheless, even while she argues that they’re not ‘authentic’, she still admits that she loves the look of ‘mock’ Tudor homes; and is passionate about the small Tudor style townhouse she shares with her husband in the center of Princeton.

“I love the Tudor style because it reminds me of home,” she explains. “I used to live in a town called Chester and the High Street was lined with beautiful Tudor buildings that dated back centuries.”

Just blocks from Jenny's house, on Nassau Street in Princeton, buildings mimic the Tudor style.

Her home in America isn’t quite so venerable; being built at around the turn of the 20^th century and only later updated with wooden planking and ledgers for a Tudor style. “It still looks great.”

Recently, Jenny and her husband noticed some of the wooden planks were rotting – and they reached out to FauxWoodBeams.com to help.

“As far as we can tell, all the wooden planking on the home is original,” she explains, “which probably means it’s at least fifty or sixty years old. Just last Autumn, we noticed that some of the planks on the front of the house were peeling off the wall and crumbling.”

Jenny considered all the different alternatives to repair the damage; and eventually settled on our faux wood planks.

“Our first instinct was to stick with real wood,” she explains, “but when we asked for a sample from FauxWoodBeams.com I realized that the faux timber really did look just as good as the real thing.”

In fact, our products are a popular choice for making Tudor style homes.

Perhaps this is because our planks are even cheaper and a more durable than the real thing. Made from molded polyurethane, our faux wooden planks, beams and other products are 100% waterproof and weatherproof – which make them a great replacement for actual wood.

Jenny found that out for when they install the replacements they’d bought from fauxpanels.com.

While Jenny just repaired her home, other customers have built entire Tudor-style mansions using our faux wood beams and planks.

“My husband installed the replacement planks himself,” Jenny explained. “He first removed the rotten wood and the nails that had been used to install it. Then he cut the replacement planks to shape with a wood saw, painted them and installed them with regular construction glue and nails.”

The fit was great; but did present Jenny with one final challenge.

“Our home was decorated in the Tudor revival style pioneered the late 1800s,” Jenny explains.

The front of Jenny's mock Tudor home was detailed with authentic wood. Once painted and installed, the faux wood replacements were indistinguishable.

“That meant the original wooden planking was painted gloss black. We did the same thing with the faux wood products we bought, but that made them stand out against the faded black paint of the rest of the house!”

To complete the project, Jenny’s husband hit the stepladder once again and gave all the Tudor style planking on the front of the house a new coat of shiny black paint.

“It looks beautiful,” Jenny beams. “And, more importantly, the faux wood planks are indistinguishable from the rest of the wooden detailing.” Following a coat of paint to match the rest of the wood, Jenny’s faux wood planks now look identical to the original.

“We’re converts to the brand now,” Jenny proudly admits. “When we next have to start replacing the wooden planks, we’ll definitely be using your product.”

To see other Tudor-style homes that use our planks, check out our online sawn planks gallery – and if you’ve used our products to create your own mock-Tudor masterpiece, we’d love to share pictures with other customers. Email them to info@fauxwoodbeams.com.

We’ve shown you some truly stunning home remodeling ideas using dozens of our faux wood beams – but here’s one that’s impressive for an entirely different reason. Caroline Collin-Jacques, from Quebec, sent us pictures of how she’d used just a single ceiling beam to totally transform her dining area.

AFTER: Caroline's dining design was transformed with just a few, careful details in place; like our faux wood ceiling beam

“Less is more” is a lesson we get taught from childhood – but not many of us take it on board. There’s perhaps no better example of how true that mantra is, however, than this example of minimalism. A dining room design project that uses just a single one of our artificial timber beams to deliver a stunning transformation.

In Caroline’s beautiful home, there is a beautifully arranged serving counter separating one side of the room from the dining area. This was the focus of her redesign effort; and it paid off.

She already had one design cue to work from – a beautiful bare brick wall running up one side of the counter space. In order to keep to that timeless aesthetic, Caroline invested in a gorgeous black granite counter top to replace the white Formica and that alone revamped the entire cabinet and counter arrangement.

BEFORE: Drab white counter space and a bare ceiling made this a practical, but unexciting use of the dining arrangement.

But it was a faux timber ceiling beam that really sealed the deal. Caroline installed it running parallel to the serving counter; making it appear as if the beam was just as structural a feature as the exposed brick wall. Then, to take her design to the next level, Caroline actually bored holes in the beam to install recessed lighting.

That’s just one of the many advantages to faux wood beams over the real thing. The beam Caroline used is molded from tough and durable polyurethane; and can easily be trimmed to size with a regular wood saw. A simple attachment to a regular power drill was all Caroline needed to make the holes for the light.

The faux ceiling beam is also hollow; making it ideal for seamlessly running wiring inside. Once again, that’s an advantage faux wood has that the real stuff doesn’t.

The result was truly stunning – and something that wouldn’t have easily been achieved with a real wooden beam. It just goes to show that the old mantra is correct – less is more, as long as you use it right. One of our customer service reps even quipped: “With faux wood beams, great design doesn’t need to cost an arm and a log.”

If you have a minimalist project that you think rivals Caroline’s, we’d love to hear about it. Send your details and some pictures to info@fauxwoodbeams.com

From medieval castles to colonial homesteads, our faux wood beams have been used to bring dozens of timeless design aesthetics to life. Now, those options have been broadened even further; with the exciting introduction of our new vinyl log cabin siding.

This close up shows the intricate detailing of our vinyl log cabin siding panels.

Pairing perfectly with our faux wood products, these beautiful siding panels are insulated and easy to install, and are available rendered in one of four real-wood hues – Cypress, Vermont Maple, Spice and Smoke.

Impeccably capturing the appearance of classic log beams, they make it effortless to start recreating the look of a log home even on a building made from board or brick.

The trick to complete the log cabin aesthetic is to then pair your new siding with products from our range of artificial wood beams, vigas and rafter tails.

Our faux wood viga tails could pair perfectly with our vinyl log siding.

Our viga tails, for example, can be used to give appearance of supporting roof beams poking through the log walls. Similarly our unfinished Colorado Log Faux Ceiling Beams are versatile enough to be used on corners and as headers on your home exterior; and can be stained to match your faux log panels.  In combination, these projects can easily turn a great renovation into nothing short of a design inspiration.

For a full list of the accessories you’ll need for installation, click on the Accessories tab on the Vinyl Log Cabin Siding page. If you need instructions on how to install this siding, check out our installation guide on our sister site, FauxPanels.com.

If you’re one of the first customers to use our vinyl log cabin siding, we’d love to see the results – especially if you pair the siding with our faux wood beams or other products. Snap some pictures and send them off with a few details of your project to info@fauxwoodbeams.com. We might even feature them here!

The Log Cabin look can be achieved easily and affordably with our vinyl log cabin siding.

Our synthetic log siding instantly delivers a rustic look, even on modern or brick homes.

Faux wood beams and a beautiful sculptured t-rex welcome kids to Astro Kids

FAO Schwarz in NYC, perhaps the most famous toyshop in the world, got a startling new addition this December – a new store-within-a-store brought beautifully to life using our faux wood beams.

Astro Kids is the brainchild of gemstone and mineral experts Dennis and Marc Tanjeloff, and offers “anything related to minerals,” according to Dennis. That includes replica dinosaur and shark teeth, fossils and geodes and a host of exciting scientific kits to introduce curious kids to the exciting science of geology.

The Astro Kids store is just under 400 square foot, and features a gigantic skeletal dinosaur rearing out of a solid rock wall – designed by New York native Judy Richardson. The rest of the incredible décor was supplied by Barron Designs; using our vividly realistic faux wood beams, and a variety of our rock veneer panels.

A store-within-a-store in New York's famous FAO Schwarz, faux wood beams and faux panels bring the displays to life

Astro Kids is one of more high profile example of the ways in which stores have used our products to add life and energy to their shelf displays; and serves as a brilliant demonstration of the versatility of our faux wood and faux rock products.

We’re especially proud of the way in which our beams have been used to create a stunning faux wood truss above the store; indistinguishable from real wood; but easy to install and a fraction of the price.

Literally millions of visitors from all over the world come to visit FAO Schwarz NYC every year; so we’re incredibly excited to be part of one of the most exciting and innovative new additions to this venerable store. We’ve already had incredible compliments from people who’ve seen the store and recognize our products.

Have you had a chance to check out Astro Kids yet? If you’re visiting New York, we’d love to hear what you think. Email us at info@fauxwoodbeams.com