Faux Wood Workshop

We write a lot here about solid, three-dimensional faux wood beams and accessories, but let’s not forget about the flatter side of life: faux wood panels. You can find these at our sister site FauxPanels.com, and they come in styles that coordinate with some of our most popular beams and accessories.

Two of the newest panels at FauxPanels.com are Woodland and Raised Grain, and they’re each part of a larger family of faux products. The Woodland family includes custom beams, corbels and mantels. The Raised Grain family includes beams, corbels and scrolled-end beams.

When you combine solid beams and accessories with flat panels in a single project, you can get really amazing results. The photo below shows what one of our customers did with Raised Grain beams and panels to transform a high ceiling into an architectural feature that defines the entire room.

 

 

 

 

 

So today’s tip is simple: When you’re thinking about using faux beams for your project, think beyond the beam. Think about the flat stuff as well.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The following are a few steps in order to help you to get thoes tricky angles cut just right when installing faux beams. All that’s required is some Cardboard, a box cutter, and a saw of choice. 1.Cut a piece of cardboard to about 1 foot long and as high as your beam. 2. Hold the cardboard piece to the ceiling. 3. Fold cardboard back to get the desired angle that you want the beam to be. Make adjustments as needed. 4. Cut off folded section of the cardboard 5. Hold the cardboard up to the ceiling again to confirm the appropriate cut was made. Make any slight adjustments, if necessary.  6. Place cardboard template near the end of the beam and trace down the angle of the cardboard. 7. Cut along the line marked by the pencil, removing this side of the beam. 8. Repeat steps 5 and 6 for the opposite side of the beam. 9. After both sides of the beam have beam cut, place it on the wall and make any adjustments as needed. You can also caulk or place straps on the end of the beam as desired.

A beam stretching tool? Yes, there is such a thing. It is called a strap! Our straps can add on some extra length if need, as well as adding a stylish look to your beams. Take a look at the way this customer used three straps to make the ridge beam of a truss system that was 20 foot long fit a room that is roughly 21 feet long.
	The ridge beam of the truss project was cut in half. One strap put at either gable ends of the wall and one in the middle.
The straps only need to overlap the beam an inch or so.
	Like magic, it gives the impression that the beam runs the full length of the room. What will the guests see? Just beautiful beams that radiate warmth and character, pure eye candy! Only you will know that it’s faux!

Need some new ideas? some tips? The Installation section of our website has many guides that are full of tips and ideas that you may have never thought about. You may find some inspiration for a new project or even some tips and pointers for upcoming installations. Head over to our faux beams installation section of our site, or check out a few of these pick’s that you might find useful:
	Installing Faux Beams As a Truss: Installing a truss system can be a difficult project,we made this guide to help take you through all the steps of preparing your beams and ceiling to construct that perfect truss system that you always wanted.
Scribing a beam: Rough, distressed beams can be a bit difficult to butt up against each other, unlike smooth flat beams. Here is a helpful step by step guide that will get those rough textured beams butted up against each other perfectly!
			How to make beams look like knotty pine: Have you ever wanted to get the knots on your faux beams to look like the ones authentic knotty pine wood? Check out this guide to learn how to stain your beams to achieve the knotty pine look.
Mounting a Chandelier or Hanging Light Fixture: Thinking of how great it would be to have a Chandelier or other light fixture hanging from your faux beam? It can done in a few simple steps!

When you butt one beam into the side of another one, you want the joint to be so tight that it’s invisible.

With smooth beams, you can just cut the butting beam square, and it should fit against the main beam without a problem. It’s a different story with rough, distressed beams.

Sure, you can cut the beam square, butt it to the main beam, and fill the gap with caulk. But you’re likely to have a lot of gap to fill, and the result can look messy and unprofessional.

To do it right, you should scribe the end of the butting beam to match the contours of the main beam. All you need is a simple circle-drawing compass and a jigsaw or coping saw.

1. Lay the beams together as shown in the photo, at the exact position where they’ll meet.

2. Spread the compass an inch or so. Hold it flat and slide it up along the beams as shown, so the point follows the surface of the main beam while the pencil draws a line on the butting beam. Do this all the way around the top and the other side.

3. Tilt the jigsaw shoe to an angle of 10-15 degrees, so that you’ll cut away more material toward the center of the beam and make a sharper outer edge. Carefully cut along the scribed line on all three sides of the beam. You can also use a coping saw.

4. Test fit the beam, and remove any high spots with a coarse file until you have a perfect fit.

5. Stain the cut end of the beam to prevent any possibility of raw polyurethane showing through a crack in the joint.

Now you’re ready to install the beams and have the satisfaction of seeing a perfectly invisible joint.

Corbels are beautiful architectural features that add class, flair and realism to your project. A corbel visually anchors the end of a beam so it looks solid and well supported.

But how do you know what size corbel to use? The answer depends on the kind of beam you’re using.

Suppose your beams have well-defined edges that are square and straight or just slightly rounded. These include our Raised Grain, Woodland and Sandblasted beams. In this case, choose corbels that are the same width as the beams or just slightly narrower.

The first photo shows a corbel slightly narrower than the beam it supports. An equal-width corbel would also look great with this beam.

On the other hand, suppose your beams have irregular edges that are distressed and significantly rounded. Our Timber beams are like this. In this case, choose corbels that are at least a couple of inches narrower than the beams. This lets the corbel rest against the flat part of the beam and avoid overlapping the rounded edges.

The second photo shows corbels narrow enough to rest against only the flat part of a heavily distresssed and rounded beam.

 

To wrap up our series of tips on coffered ceilings (see part 1  and part 2), let’s consider the elegant look of smooth-surface beams such as the ones in our Regal  and Regal 2 lines. When you use these pre-primed beams for a coffered ceiling, you’re looking for flawless joints that don’t show under the final coat of paint.

Here’s how you do it.

1. Follow the steps in part 1  for installing the beams using double-mitered joints. As you do — no matter how careful you are — you’ll find that not all your joints are perfect. Some joints will have small cracks. Some will be uneven, with one beam a little lower or higher than the others. These imperfections don’t show with rough, distressed beams, but they do with smooth beams.

2. Fill those inevitable cracks and irregularities with auto body filler. Apply it with a flexible putty knife, making each joint as smooth as you can. Then carefully sand the filler so each joint is silky smooth. Be careful not to sand down the surfaces of the beams themselves.

3. Prime the filled areas with the primer recommended by the manufacturer of your finish paint.

4. Apply the finish paint to all the beams.

5. Admire.

6. (Optional) Show off.

Last week’s tip was about coffered ceilings with four-way mitered joints. But mitering isn’t the only approach, and sometimes it won’t work. You just can’t form a nice, neat mitered joint between beams that are irregular, rounded and heavily distressed.

 

To make a coffered ceiling with irregular beams such as our Timber or Rustic styles, use the butt-joint method shown in the photos.

1. Choose the beam style you like, and order it in two different sizes. Order the larger beams to run along the entire length of the room, and the smaller beams to bridge the short spaces between the larger beams.

2. Install the large, long beams in the usual way, following the standard installation instructions . Be sure to use adhesive along the top edges.

3. Let the adhesive set for a day, so the large beams are fully stable before you start squeezing the smaller beam pieces between them.

4. Cut pieces of the smaller beams slightly oversize, to fit snugly between the larger beams, and install them following these tips:

• Usually you can install a single support block at the midpoint of each piece. Use more supports if the piece is longer than 5 feet or the ceiling isn’t quite flat.

• Do use adhesive along the top edges of each beam piece.

• Don’t apply adhesive to the ends of the small beam piece, because it will smear all over the large beam when you squeeze the small piece into place. The snug fit will keep the joint tight.

5. If needed, fill any gaps with matching caulk or filler.

Next week we’ll have one more look at coffered ceilings, with tips for using smooth, elegant, painted beams.

No one can claim that making a coffered ceiling is quick and easy. Faux beams make the job a lot easier, but there’s an art to making each joint look good and stay tight. Here’s the best way to create perfect four-way mitered joints.

1. Carefully plan, measure and lay out the grid pattern of the coffers. Snap a chalk line on the ceiling along the center line of each beam to make a checkerboard with perfect right angles.

 

 

2. For each intersection on the checkerboard, make a crossed mounting block from two pieces of 2-by lumber. Rip each piece to the exact width of the inside of the beam, and make its length about three times its width. Screw and glue the two pieces together at right angles. Then anchor each crossed block to the ceiling aligned with the chalk marks.

 

3. Take time and care cutting and dry-fitting each beam. At each four-way intersection, miter each beam in a V using a precision miter saw.

4. Stain the mitered edges to match the finished beam. This helps hide any imperfections in the joinery.

5. Mount the beams to the blocks. To lock everything together as a single unit, use adhesive on every mating surface: the mitered edges, the inside of the beam where it slips over the mounting block, and the edges of the beam that touch the ceiling. Apply a light bead, slightly back from exposed edges to avoid squeeze-out. Screw through the sides of each beam into the mounting blocks as usual.

 

6. Carefully wipe away any excess adhesive that squeezes out.

 

7. Step back and admire the perfect joints that will stay that way for a long, long time.

It goes without saying that faux beams add a warm woody glow to your room. But they can also help add the glow of real light.

The hollow part of the beam is a great place to hide electric wires and route them to light fixtures mounted inside or on top. The three photos show three different ways of lighting up your beams.

Hiding uplights inside the hollow of the beam

The first photo shows suspended beams (attached only at their ends) with lights inside the hollow part, casting indirect light up at the ceiling. These could be fluorescent strips, rope lights, track lights — whatever gives the effect you want.

These beams are short and hefty, so they’re able to bear the weight of the light fixtures without additional support.

Mounting tracklights along the beam top

The second photo shows exposed tracklights along the top of a suspended beam. This is a much longer suspended beam than in the first photo, and it’s supported by doubled 2x6s inside the beam. (Our website explains how to install a long suspended beam.)

The tracklights, then, mount to the 2x6s — not to the beam itself. Because of this, you don’t need to worry about the weight or size of the fixtures.

Installing recessed lights in the beam bottom

The third photo shows recessed lights in the bottom of attached beams. You install them just as you would in a plaster or drywall ceiling. Our website gives detailed instructions for installing recessed lights .

Of course, you have to choose fixtures small enough to fit in the hollow part of the beam. And they must be rated “IC” for direct contact with insulation.

In this case the beam itself carries the weight of the fixtures, so it’s important to attach the beam securely to the ceiling. Be sure to use construction adhesive along the top edges — which also prevents stray light from escaping at the beam/ceiling joint.