Interior walls

[diyfrank]

Interior walls...

I look for what catches my eye and is cheap.  What I picked up the other day is fence boards.  About 600 sq ft of 1/2 x 4 rough cedar boards for free.  It looks nice and would give it the look I'm after.  How could you use these on the walls?  Run them horizontal and stager the ends?  Maybe use some smooth boards as trim around windows?  It may make the room look dark??

Whats your suggestions besides using something else.  Can it be put to use and made to look nice in a cabin?

[glenn kangiser]

How about diagonal as an alternative?  Tons of restaurants use similar for interior decoration.

[MountainDon]

Diagonal looks good; we've done fencing like that too.

Remember the square edge boards will expand/shrink and reveal what's behind. So you'll need something as a backer material.

[diyfrank]

Would you do it all diagonal?  same direction everywhere?  Any pictures handy to look at?

What would you suggest putting behind? Paneling??

[MountainDon]

You do a lower wall wainscot with verticals and an upper section diagonal.

As for what to place behind the boards... Cheap paneling, thin osb (I've seen 1/4" I think), .....

[Ernest T. Bass]

What about just using tar paper as an uber-cheap backing?

[diyfrank]

Yeah, That sounds good.  Might be tricky attaching vertical to 24 oc studs. the back board would have the chore of holding it in place.
How much of a gap do you think they will gain between each. A little or lot?  

[Don_P]

It depends on the moisture content of the wood now vs the average moisture content in service. If you don't mind living with it for awhile, bringing the material in and acclimating it to wintertime humidity levels indoors will help reduce gapping later. Well stickered layers of 1/2" thick cedar will dry out in a week or three.

If you have a router I've made quite a bit of panelling, wainscot and flooring with various tongue and groove profiles with just a router.

I did this out of one of our homeowners favorite trees that fell across the road while we were building. I used 7/16 osb backup so that I could glue and shoot trim nails anywhere.



Unrelated but kinda neat, this was inside a log the other day.

[glenn kangiser]

A version of bluestaining?

[Don_P]

Not fungal, bluestain is dormant here now. It is called generically "mineral streak". I don't know why it is so vivid in tulip poplar. This is one cut in, on the outer face opposite the brown area is old damage to the tree. It runs up from the roots occassionally as well. Those colors fade very quickly, its a shame we can't "fix" them.

[diyfrank]

Thanks for posting your pictures Don P

If anyone has anymore / different ideas, fire away

If you seen something interesting done somewhere using this type of wood on the inside.