How to Frame With Reclaimed Wood

Old American barns provide a lot of reclaimed wood.

Using reclaimed wood for timber house frames and furniture has become extremely popular. Not only is it recycling at its best, but the wood is superior to newly manufactured timber. It is very dry wood so it will not twist or bend over time. When this wood grew, the trees had to fight to survive in thick forests, causing the wood to grow dense and strong, says website Reclaimed Lumber. Also, the kind of trees that took hundreds of years to mature are no longer grown, as quicker-growing types replace them. These factors all mean that attempting to make new wood look distressed will never achieve the same effect as genuinely old wood.

Things You'll Need

• Length of reclaimed wood several inches longer than perimeter of picture
• Miter box
• Wood saw
• Wood glue
• Band or strap clamp or heavy weights
• 1/2 inch sheet of MDF slightly smaller than frame
• 1 inch galvanized steel nails
• Small hammer

Instructions

1. Choose your reclaimed wood with your picture, print or photograph in mind. Measure and write down the widths and lengths around the picture and keep them with you. Knock 1/2 inch off the length and width of the picture dimensions if it will not spoil the picture to have the outer edge missing. This will make for a neater framing when it is positioned in your frame. If you are using old barn wood, larger pictures lend themselves more to frames made by the wider barn panels. Select a length of wood that is a few inches longer than the total measurement of the picture's perimeter.

2. Cut the wood into four lengths. Using a miter box, cut the end of the length of wood at a 45-degree angle. Along the length of wood, cut more 45-degree angles in alternating directions. Make the first length of wood you cut the width of your picture along its shorter side. The second length of wood should be the length of your picture along its shorter side. The third and fourth pieces will be a repeat of the first two and the end of the wood should be finished off with a 45-degree angle cut opposite to the previous one.

3. Glue the four pieces of wood together using a strong wood glue. Clamp them in place with a band or strap clamp if you have one. If not, use heavy weights to hold the wood in place overnight, or for the time recommended by the glue manufacturer.

4. Attach your picture to the centre of a piece of 1/2 inch MDF (medium-density fibreboard). The dimensions of the MDF should be slightly shy of the length and width of the outside of your reclaimed wood frame.

5. Glue or nail your MDF onto the back of the reclaimed wood frame with the picture centrally positioned in the frame when it is turned upward.

Tips & Warnings

• A reclaimed wood frame looks best in an environment to suit it. Either put it in an antique themed room or, if your home is more modern, make it a main feature in a more minimalist room.

• You may find when buying reclaimed wood that it is more expensive than new wood. Acquiring it, cleaning it and making it into marketable pieces takes more labor than the processing of new wood. You will, however, be doing yourself and the environment a favor by using this beautiful one-off product.

References

• Reclaimed Lumber: Reclaimed Lumber--Wood
• Free Woodworking Plans.com: This is the Picture Frames category of information
• HGTV: Home to Stay
• On The House: Homemade Picture Frames