Here's a great installation from Martha Stewart that's not only beautiful but is also useful, complete with its hooks for bags and coats.
Do you want to be greeted by this wall every time you come home?
Here are the full DIY details from Martha Stewart: Birch Wall Panel How-To
(Images: Martha Stewart)
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I love this look, but I think it will be very hard to keep clean. I live with rough wood beams that are magnets for animal hair and dust. It's a real challenge to get them clean, and I think these birch pieces will present a similar challenge.
I'd love to know where the tree branch light fixure in the background is from.
Love it! And love the birch pegs too.
Martha, Martha, Martha, it's projects like this that give you a bad name and makes people mock you. Which makes me sad because so much of what you do is really fantastic.
It would take over 1000 disks to do an 8ft x 9ft portion of wall. The article asserts airily that you can "purchase crosscut birch rounds at a garden center, or have poles cut into disks at a lumberyard." Maybe they are available somewhere, but I have never seen these at any of the garden centers I haunt. Maybe they exist, but I'll bet 1000 of them would cost a lot. None of the lumberyards I use would cut 1000 + cuts on anything. Especially from birch logs I hadn't purchased there.
You could cut them yourself, of course. And then glue them on one by one to achieve a beautiful effect. But, then, as Greenkey points out, then you'd have a wall with 1000 little rough-edged dust and pet hair traps.
Really a beautiful effect, I agree, and maybe in a smaller installation it would be do-able, but I'd rather use wallpaper.
Oh the dusting - the dusting!
I agree with Dee of BC though. The suspended branch riff on a chandelier is nice.
I saw a similar thing done with old square barn beams sawn in cross-section and then installed as an accent in a larger white wall (a 6'x6' section) - stunning! They fit tight together and were sealed with polyurethane or something.
To do it yourself all you'd need are a few beams, a chop saw with a couple of spare blades, ear protection and a bunch of spare time.
What Greenkey and Dulcibella said.
I once saw an episode of Candice Olson's Divine Design (or maybe it was the newer show, Candice Tells All) where she did a bathroom makeover. The result was stunning, but she covered one wall with squarish wood cuts (they looked like slice of 4x4, but of course with nice natural cracks etc) stained to a nice dark reddish colour. They were of an uneven depth so some were sticking out a bit more than others. Although it was visually very pleasing I could not imagine having it anywhere in my house, let alone in the bathroom. Perhaps it's just my bathroom but the 'stuff' seems to grow on everything at a much faster rate than in the rest of the house.
Although I would not have a problem cutting the wook myself, I also wonder about how ecofriendly this would be. Nobody would use diseased wood and imagine people cutting down birches or other trees to revamp their walls. I am under the impression that people are too frivolous and opt to get rid of trees for whichever petty reason (the tree is casting SHADE!). I see it where I live and it truly pains me to see a perfectly healthy tree cut down - a tree that has been there for 50 years at least.
When I read the headline, I was honestly expecting to see birch bark. IMO, the most attractive part...
love love love love love love love
Imagine the next person trying to pry off 1000+ birch circles off the walls. Oy.
Shark = jumped. Yuck.
Yes, the dusting! I am glad I am not the only one who thought, "how in the world would you keep this clean?" It makes me sneeze just thinking about it.