I recently acquired a large quantity of 46-year-old dock wood, and by large quantity I mean that a dump truck the size of my driveway backed in and literally dumped an entire dock’s worth of wood onto the pavement. Much to the dismay of my neighbors, my driveway is now the home to three very large piles of incredibly gorgeous wood.
This particular dock wood is rather special to me. It made up the dock that presided at my Aunt and Uncle’s house. I remember many a warm day there jumping into Turner’s Creek, jet skiing, boating, crabbing- simply enjoying the indescribable nature that which God has bestowed upon Savannah. As I said, this dock was almost 50-years-old. It had seen better days…. The current owners were tearing it down to build a new one, and my cousin jumped at the chance to reclaim a part of her old home and our fondest memories. What she had in mind for it? She wasn’t sure yet.
Well, she just bought a home and wasn’t ready to take on an entire dump truck of old wood, so the story now lives… in my driveway. I most certainly have a thousand plans for this wood. I can’t even begin to describe to you the ornate detail that years of weather has mustered to create these masterpieces. The biggest plan is to cover my master bedroom ceiling with it. That’s a LARGE project. My husband keeps working away at the wood, getting all the nails out, picking the pieces we like, but it’s slow work. After a few boards were done, I had another thought.
Why not dress up our blah dining room with a rustic, one of a kind chair rail?!? Brilliant, if I do say so myself. I will preface with- my husband did about 85% of the work on this project. He measured. He leveled. He sawed and screwed. What did I do? Picked out the exact pieces and painted of course! [The fun stuff…]
I wasn’t sure what height to put a chair rail so I googled it. It depends on your ceiling height. Here is a little help from the DIY Network >> How to Install a Chair Rail
Before… This room has been missing something! Arthur says my famous words are, “Doesn’t it just feel complete now?!” Well this room did not…
It was pretty with just the chair rail and the same color underneath, but I wanted that WOW factor, the detail that brings the entire room together!
And here it is! Isn’t it gorgeous!? I’m not sure the pictures even do it justice. After Arthur screwed each board up (I think there were 9 cuts altogether), I started painting this beautiful Caribbean color onto the wall. I painted one coat, knew it needed another coat, but it didn’t have the depth I wanted… so I grab a pretty gray I have a sample of and streaked it in between the bottom coat and top coat of the deep teal. I am very pleased with how it turned out! It makes my walls look much older than from 1986 when the house was actually built. Mission accomplished.
I’ve decorated our home in a coastal, rustic, farmhouse fusion. The dining room now flows perfectly into the kitchen with its bright teal walls, red accents, distressed cabinets, homemade butcher block countertops and old tin roof tile backsplash. It also flows right into the foyer and living room. It’s perfect! I just sit in there to admire. I LOVE it! Famous words time now- “Doesn’t it just feel complete now!?” It sure does. 🙂
I’ll let you know when that ceiling project gets underway! I’m super excited about that one…
Hope y’all like it!
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