Faux Wood Workshop

Getting a Knotty Pine look on Faux Wood Beams

Thinking about getting the knots on your new Faux Wood Beams to stand out like real knotty pine wood? Follow these few easy steps to get your beams looking great! First you must pick the stain for your beam, in this example we used American Walnut by Minwax. You will need to apply the stain to the knot area of the beam using a small paint brush. When you have finished, you will need to remove any extra stain. you can blot it off using a rag. After the stain has fully dried, you will need to coat the beam with an overall stain.We used English Oak by Minwax. You can use a larger brush to stain the whole beam. Remember to remove any extra stain. Let the beam dry and your all set! Here are some beams that a customer had this process done to. Click to enlarge

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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.

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There is a ton of information and knowledge out there on how to retrofit a house properly to minimize damage caused by natural disasters such as earthquakes and hurricanes, especially in those areas right in the heart of the action like Southern California.

One consideration is a home’s ceiling beams. A real wooden beam that can weigh up to hundreds of pounds can be a somewhat ominous thing to have hanging over your head during an earthquake. Homeowners or builders may want to take their safety precautions a step further by choosing polyurethane wood for their ceiling beams rather than traditional wood. A typical faux wood beam weighs an average of 20 lbs, so if in the event of an earthquake or heavy winds strong enough to cause a beam to fall, the lightweight faux version would cause a lot less damage or chance of injury.

Tammy from Southern California sent in the photo of her beautifully finished kitchen and living rooms area with Timber faux wood beams and wrote, “The faux wood beams were the way to go for me. The first reason I looked into them was I live in So. Cal and I wasn’t sold on having a heavy wood beam on the ceiling and the chance of it not holding up in an earthquake…When the project was complete everyone complimented on how beautiful it was and no one even knew it was faux!”

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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.

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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.

 

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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.

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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.

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Question: Can I hang stuff on a faux beam? Like a swag lamp or planter, or even a ceiling fan?

Answer: Only if you attach it to a solid anchor inside the beam.

Polyurethane beams are tough and durable, but they don’t have the holding power and rigidity to carry additional weight on their own.

It’s tempting to think of attaching a ceiling hook to the bottom of the beam with a toggle bolt, just as you would to a drywall ceiling, and hanging a plant or swag fixture on it. Resist the temptation.

The right time to think about hanging things from a beam is when you’re installing the beam. Imagine where you might eventually want to hang that planter or swag, and provide solid backing inside the beam at that location.

First attach a mounting block to the ceiling, screwed into a ceiling joist if possible. Then cut a backer block that just fits inside the beam, and screw that block to the side of the mounting block. Don’t forget to write down its location for later reference (”24.5 inches from the west wall”). Then you’ll be able to screw your ceiling hook through the beam and directly into that solid backer block.

What about permanent light fixtures or ceiling fans? Since they require electrical boxes, you need to plan and install them at the same time you install the beam.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You’ll find complete instructions for mounting a chandelier or hanging light fixture on our website. For a ceiling fan, follow the same instructions, but make sure you attach the anchoring blocks directly to a wood joist and not just to the surface of the ceiling.

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