Faux Wood Workshop

Our faux beams are popular because they offer an easy and affordable way to add period character to even modern homes. But Mary and Adam, from New England, gave our timber beams the ultimate thumbs up when they used them in their beautiful historic home.

Faux wood planks on the wall perfectly mimic colonial building techniques

“We’ve spent 14 years restoring a small, 230 year old house in New England,” write Mary and Adam Spencer, enclosing pictures of their stunning property. “I’m proud to say our restoration has even been featured in national magazines and books.”

“We’re fortunate enough to have the original hand hewn beams exposed in two of the rooms. We love the warm look of them, and really wanted some elsewhere in our home. Unfortunately cost and structural issues made getting solid wooden beams installed impractical.”

Mary and Adam found the answer on FauxWoodBeams.com.

“We recently ordered 3 of your long faux timber beams for the room, as well as some of the timber faux wood planks and corbels.”

“We used the corbels up against our real wood beams in the 4 corners of our bedroom, and installed the faux wood planks diagonally on the walls. The corbels exactly matched our original beams, and the timber planks instantly created the early, timber-framed cottage look we wanted!”

“In the dining room, we followed your installation instructions, and putting up the faux beams and timbers was easy. We are so thrilled with the results.”

Faux wood beams and faux wood corbels blend seamlessly with the existing, historic wood

What’s so impressive aren’t just the results – which you can see from these before and after pictures. It’s the fact that faux wood blended so seamlessly with the real thing; even in a house as historically significant as this one.

That’s an observation Mary and Adam have made, too. “We have a bed dated 1686, and you will see in our ‘after’ photos that it looks now as if it is in an original room of the period.”

“We are very picky about what we do in the house, and choose all our products with care. We’re ” The greatest vote of confidence they could give us? “We’ve ordered more timber planks for the walls in the living room – and we have three friends we’ve told about your company, and they plan to order as well!”

When Michel White, from British Columbia, decided to embark on his new home construction, he knew right from the beginning that it would require the use of faux wood ceiling beams.

Built overlooking the Sunshine Coast, Michel’s home is nothing short of a contradiction – built using the latest materials and techniques, but designed to resemble more traditional homes built decades – or even centuries – earlier.

Period fixtures compliment the Faux Ceiling Beams

That theme is most evident inside – where hardwood floors and enormous windows combine to give a real “country manor” air to the property. It’s an ambiance matched by period-style furniture and medieval collectables hanging from the wall.

Very clear is that a home like this would look completely out of place without the solidity of wooden beams hanging from the ceiling. This is presumably why Michel ordered them before the first bricks had even been laid.

“The beams arrived on time for our new house construction,” Michel wrote, when he sent us pictures of his faux Timber Ceiling Beams after they were mounted. “They were installed in one day and the effect is stunning.”

We don’t disagree – and think that Michel’s done an equally stunning job making sure that these brand-new beams look like they’ve hung from the ceiling for a century or more.

That authenticity is what Michel admits he was going for. He seems to take a lot of pride in admitting: “None of our friends believe that they are not real wood.” You can’t blame his friends, either. His Timber Ceiling Beams are intricately molded from authentic, hand-hewn timbers – and Michel went a step further by perfectly staining them to match the décor. It’s this extra touch which makes the beams so difficult to pick out as “not the real thing.”

Although built recently, faux wood beams make Michael's property appear much older and more venerable.

Just like with every other aspect of his homemaking, Michel completed the faux wood illusion with a little accessorizing. If you examine the photographs, you’ll see that one of the reasons these Timber Ceiling Beams look so authentic is that they’re all accessorized with a pair of color-matched Timber Corbels.

That look mimics how older buildings would have had similar beam supports sticking out of the wall; poking through the plaster that traditionally covered timber framed interior walls.

Michel’s use of our faux wood products is incredibly impressive because it shows real vision on his part. Even before his stunning new home construction was completed, he’d worked out how to use modern design components to mimic traditional construction techniques. The result is brand new home that looks absolutely traditional and original.

Kevin and Cyndi loved their two-story cabin from the moment they bought it – with its stunning view of unspoiled national forestland and tall peaked ceiling. But despite the stunning location and architecture, Kevin thought there was room for improvement.

Kevin's ceiling was a towering 22ft tall. This is why faux beams, often weighing less than 20lbs, are so practical to install.

“The family room has a 22ft peaked ceiling,” Kevin explained, “so my goal was to fill in this dead-space, as well as continue the wood and rock theme that we used throughout the cabin.”

Kevin’s solution was to build a wood truss, which would fill in the dead space and add some character and shape to the peaked ceiling. The sheer scale of the project, however, immediately presented challenges.

“The biggest issue was the height of the ceiling,” Kevin explains. “At 22 ft, it was almost impossible to even take measurements up there. Plus the walls are made of drywall, which is attached to studs.”

Given the awkward positioning, and the way the ceiling was designed, using real wood beams to build the truss seemed impossible.

But Kevin proved that impossibility is a limit we often set ourselves – and so he still managed to get exactly the look he wanted by scoping out the use of faux beams instead.

Installing recessed lights in faux wood beams is easy and practical.

“I spoke with Jeff at www.FauxWoodBeams.com and he was able to discern exactly what I wanted to do very quickly with some sketches. Using those, he was able to efficiently reduce the cost of my project.”

In addition to the dramatically reduced cost and increased practicality of using faux beams rather than real timber, Kevin quickly realized another advantage in using faux wood over the real thing.

“I was also in desperate need to add more light sources to the room since there were no ceiling lights installed and the room was dark, even with floor lamps on.” The u-shape of hollow faux wood beams meant they’re perfect for running wire invisibly through, and Kevin was able to install recessed lighting to bring a little brightness to the family room.

“I drilled 4 holes in each beam to attach the recessed lights. They simply clipped in – although it was handy to have access from the top when they didn’t seat perfectly. I wired all of these together with twist caps and attached and checked the wiring.”

Only one thing went wrong. “One wrong set of bulbs sent me back to Home Depot,” Kevin admits, “where they by now knew me on a first name basis!”

The end results of Kevin's wood truss design were nothing short of spectacular.

What was especially impressive about this project was that Kevin managed to do the entire thing practically by himself (although he admits “my lovely wife was a trooper and held up beams while I drilled – the dog barking and my little daughter wandering around below us, oblivious to the imminent danger above!)

He also illustrated the amazing potential of faux ceiling beams in his truss design project. They look stunning used as roof beams, but can easily be adapted for even more ambitious projects – just like Kevin’s.

The end result looks stunning – as if the wood truss had been in place almost as long as the family room’s wooden stairs. This is because Kevin ordered his faux beams unfinished, and stained them to match the existing stairs.

You can read a fuller account of Kevin’s remarkable truss building project on our wood truss design page; and if you start on a similar endeavor, would love to hear about it and see pictures of your project.

As you may already know, you install faux beams by first attaching several wood blocks securely to the ceiling or wall, and then attaching the beam to the blocks. The blocks are inside the hollow beam, so they’re completely hidden.

What’s not completely hidden are the screws you drive through the sides of the beam into the blocks. You have to countersink them a little into the beam and then fill the holes with matching caulk or wood putty. Or do you?

If you’re like me, the first impulse you have when you need to screw something in place is to grab for a box of drywall screws. They’re cheap and they’re handy. But hold on. Using finish screws instead can make hole-filling easier or even eliminate it.

Finish screws, or trim screws, are flathead screws with smaller heads than normal. Some have Phillips heads, but the ones with Robertson square-drive heads are even better. It’s too easy to strip the smaller (#1) Phillips slots. If you don’t already have a square driver, you can pick one up where the screws are sold. Sometimes the box of screws includes a free driver bit.

Finish screws are also available in colors. If you can match the color of your beam closely enough, and the beam is high enough up that you can’t see the small screw heads from the floor, you might get away with not having to fill any holes.

If that little cheat won’t work, at least you’ll end up with smaller holes after you countersink the finish screws. Smaller holes are much quicker and easier to fill, and harder to see.

In this case, smaller is better.

If one of the prefinished beams on our site suits your project to a T, you should definitely go ahead and order it. Staining a pile of unfinished beams is way down the list of things that most of us love to do. It’s messy, time-consuming, and (let’s face it) pretty boring.

But no prefinished beam can fit everyone’s needs and plans. You might want something more distinctive than a traditional walnut or pine color. And some of our beams are only available unfinished. With all the effort and expense you’re putting into your project, you want the result to be right — including the exact color of your beams.

If you’ve done much staining, you know colors can be hit-or-miss. You know the color on the lid of the can or the chart at the hardware store can only give a general idea of how the finish will actually look. And it’ll look different on polyurethane than on pine or oak or maple.

Thank goodness for free samples!

In case you don’t know: You can order a sample of any beam we sell. Order as many as you want, because they end up being free. It’s true: When you decide what you want, and place your order for the actual beams, you can deduct from the beam order every penny you paid for the samples. (Well, unless you went overboard and paid more for the samples than the whole cost of the beam order.)

That means you can order several samples of different beam styles, try out different stains and techniques on them, and see what you’re going to get before you commit to the Big Order. Let the stain dry completely before you reach any conclusions. And be sure to choose and apply finishes according to the instructions on our web site.

Sure, it takes some time and some fussing. But the results are worth the effort.