When it comes to choosing permanent materials, I take my risks carefully. I have to really love the style or visual aesthetics of something to sacrifice function. Our kitchen island is the perfect example – would a big “engineered stone topped newly made cabinet island” function “better” than our all wood vintage store counter turned island? What we did was far more expensive, complicated to design (we added the overhang and had it stained to match), and yeah, the drawers are heavier and kinda stick. But this island brings me joy every day, and I’m honestly never annoyed at the wear and tear or the stickiness – I bought into those years ago, mentally. But not everything needs to be “the moment,” and if I’m not super passionate about something aesthetically, I err on the side of function/durability, easy to clean, cheaper, or simply “the easiest thing to do” (yes, designers make that choice ALL the time, too). Take our painted stairs for instance – not stunning, but totally good enough and saved us thousands from having to patch, stain, and repair the OG wood stairs that were in terrible condition that you can’t even notice through the paint. This brings me to the reclaimed wood walls in the guest cottage…

The wood paneling in the cottage is one of the things that I’m willing to spend more on to keep or even add to. The living/kitchen shared space is such a pretty wood on the walls and ceiling, with a lot of imperfections (as you can see) that will be stripped and sanded to be uniform, then we’ll figure out about staining/sealing it. We aren’t considering painting it. WE LOVE IT. The rooms that are already painted (the old prop room and the stairway/upstairs) will get repaired and painted (not stripped and stained). We are still figuring out flooring, so stay tuned on that.

Today’s discussion is trying to get vintage or reclaimed wood to match the OG bathroom wall.

The Guest Cottage “New Bathroom” Walls

That wall is so dang pretty. It’s 5″ tongue and groove (likely old-growth fir or some other softwood species), and while it has a ton of variation, I think once it gets some TLC, it would look pretty uniform. It’s exactly what I want. But it’s the only finished wall. The other three walls are exposed and need insulation, electrical, etc and then would need to get fresh paneling – vintage or new.

So the question became: Is it possible to match the OG paneling on that wall for the other three walls and the ceiling? Or is this a fool’s errand? Will it cost way more than a new simple tongue and groove? Or should we partner with Stuga and put drift on the walls like we did in my favorite room at the river house? I want to do the more interesting thing (and admittedly, new wood would be far less charming), but I also don’t want to negate common sense in order to do it (and we’ll have a lot of other bigger moments in here anyway – i.e., the much-debated “outhouse” and handmade tile by yours truly).

Let’s Talk Numbers: How Much Do We Really Need?

The existing paneled wall is about 153 ft² (minus the door, it’s about 135). If we’re able to match that wall and panel the remaining three sides, we’ll need about 380 ft² with overage. If we include the ceiling, we’ll need to add another 200 ft² to the order (plus a little overage). If we redo the entire room in inexpensive paneling or if we’re unable to match the existing and want to start over with all matching reclaimed, all in, we need roughly 735 ft² (so let’s call it 750ft²). So to recap, just the three walls and ceiling would be around 600ft², but the entire room and ceiling would be 750ft².

That’s a decent amount of square footage. We needed to do some research, so Brian and I went to McGee Salvage, which has the most in town. And the owner, Tobey, was WONDERFUL.

Tobey Parsons. I love nothing more than meeting people who have been specializing in something for decades and are simply a wealth of experience and knowledge. When we went, we were exploring reclaimed wood flooring for the entire downstairs. We honestly didn’t fine anything that made sense (yet) but still exploring it. We plan on painting the flooring a pattern (since the walls are all wood) so it stopped making sense for us to splurge on reclaimed wood flooring.

His inventory was vast and fairly intimidating, but so exciting. He had a lot, and everything had a story. But we weren’t sure if any would directly match the wall we wanted to keep.

The thing is, I don’t want the “reclaimed wood” wall – you know what I’m talking about (see below). I want it to be uniform and have a pretty smooth grain. I want what is similar to the kitchen/living room in the cottage. I don’t want it to be a mix of different tones and grayed-out woods that look more cobbled together.

What I Don’t Want:

Now, it’s not that I don’t like that look ever, but it’s just not what I’m drawn to for this project. To be honest, I don’t even need reclaimed wood to get what I want (which is just a pretty wood-clad room), but I think it’s a nice way to use what we have, and then yes, use what the earth already made. Reclaimed wood inherently has more character (especially old growth that has such pretty grains and ring patterns). Not to mention the good energy – if you are into that sort of thing (which I am). I want wood that has lived a happy life – either happily in a forest treated with love or a former barn where life was lived (which is why I bought all my wood flooring for our house from Zena Forest Products – which, wait, I just realized I should probably consider for this project!). That’s not to say that I won’t use new wood from Lowe’s where it makes sense (that’s what we did in the Art Barn and the garage), but I love anything that holds a story more, which should surprise no one. I’m not super freaky about it, don’t worry, but I’m telling you it makes a difference in how your home feels to have vintage or storied pieces and finishes. Ok, enough of the woo woo stuff!!! Back to wood!

There was some wood that I totally fell in love with, but not enough square footage to meet our needs (the one on the right was so pretty though!). Other wood we liked would need to be sanded and planed, which is something we are considering, but it adds to the cost. When we first went, we didn’t know that we needed either 600 or 750 square feet, so it was more of an information-gathering session.

We pulled together all of these boards, which we thought maybe we could clad and then stain the same, so they had a bit of uniformity (the grain was really pretty), and it’s still something we are considering.

In general, like everything in life, the stuff that I was more drawn to was the most expensive ($8-$10 per linear foot), which will certainly add up. But listen, drywall isn’t on the table here, so it’s either reclaimed or new wood, and no, I’d much rather this room be all wood than paneled and painted (which would be cheaper). I’m open to also just doing what we did in the garage and art barn (just pine tongue and groove), but that seems like the less interesting choice.

I’ve given Tobey (McGee Salvage) our quantities now and am hoping that he can sort through what he has and give us some options. And then I hope those options make sense financially. I’m open to splurging on the wood if it’s stunning, but not if it’s just “good”. One benefit of doing reclaimed is that I think that Brian and I could potentially clad it ourselves since reclaimed is more forgiving than newer paneling – it tends to already have awkward cuts and lots of nail/screw holes, so mistakes are easily camouflaged (I would imagine that Brian and I would specialize in those).

So as of now, I don’t have the exact options for you, but I am also curious if any of you had experience in this or sources that might have the uniform quantity that we want (that makes sense on the walls – not 2″ reclaimed old gym flooring). I just want to be inspired by the beauty of the wood, not “ok great, yeah we can see if we can make this work”. So while the uniform quantity is important, the richness of the grain and the tone of the wood are really important to me. Any insight or ideas are much appreciated.