Use Reclaimed Wood to Decorate Your Home Interiors

December 23, 2009

From Colorado to Oregon, and even well into British Columbia, the pine beetle epidemic is ravaging forests. Little can be done to contain or stop the infestations, and whole forests are dying. But not all the wood is going to waste. Many forest managers have easily found buyers for the dead or dying lodge pole pines. The reclaimed wood is being used for a variety of home improvement purposes, including decorative touches in home interiors.

Reclaimed Wood and Your Home's Interior

Reclaimed wood is often thought of something only to be used for flooring. But creative home interior designers have discovered a multitude of other functions that range in style from rustic to modern minimalist. Use reclaimed wood to panel or wainscot a home office. It can be made into doors or even mounted on a wall as art (and the ultimate eco-statement).

Clodagh of New York-based Clodagh Design, for example, is an avid fan of reclaimed wood. The Irish designer, who goes only by her first name, creates artistic headboards out of slices of tree stumps salvaged from clear-cut forests, cuts stools from waste stumps, and fashions other design elements from naturally felled trees found on the bottoms of river beds and forest floors. Her 2008 book, Your Home, Your Sanctuary, showcases many of the ways the natural colors and textures of reclaimed wood, coated with nontoxic finishes, can add sophisticated beauty to your home.

Something to Consider

Some reclaimed wood is shipped great distances, subtracting from its green value. There are plenty of reclaimed wood options right here in the U.S., though, including American walnut and beautiful lodge pole pine, felled by the ongoing pine beetle epidemic.