Making Timber Wall Panels

A blog adventure about beautifying my home.

Thanks for stopping by. I’m Amos, I live in Auckland, New Zealand and I’m still wondering why I decided to start this blog, but here goes. 

It all came about after returning home from a year’s holiday in Europe with my wife Nikki in 2009. I was deeply struck by the beauty and history of the buildings and I felt this increasing need to surround myself with beautiful things. I was fascinated by the palaces, abbeys, castles, churches and cathedrals. I found myself awe-struck by the energy and the affect of these beautiful places. We couldn’t drive past a castle or church without me sticking my nose in for a ‘quick’ look. This happened all through Europe. I couldn’t, and still can’t explain, the very deep tugs I felt. I began to feel more and more uncomfortable with the prospect of returning to a home with predominantly painted plasterboard walls and I just knew that I needed to change this.

So I started planning on how I could beautify our home, and was keen to give it a go myself. I’ll add that I have worked as an architectural designer for many years with some building experience. So this blog is intended as an on-going diary of events; my plans and ideas along with all the outcomes.

The Bedroom Beautification Project

Nikki and I settled on ‘beautifying’ our bedroom since it’s the one space in our home that we have our first and last impressions of the day. I actually lost sleep over this! I know, it sounds ridiculous, but ideas were abound. These initially gravitated around the use of ornate plaster cornices, carved timber wall panelling, ceiling panelling, up-lighting (rah rah rah). In the end I decided on a contemporary style of timber wall panelling to two walls with Anaglypta (heavily embossed) wallpaper on the remaining two opposing walls. I was about to embark on selecting a suitable timber plywood for the timber wall panels. At the same time, I’d been messing around with the idea of creating faux timber panels using mdf (particle board) and a variety of wood stains to create realistic looking timber. It was curiosity as much as anything. A part of me was saying “use real timber”, and another part was saying “try the mdf, see what you can do”. So, having given myself a bit of a challenge, I started trying out different techniques and fairly soon, came up with this:

[600mm x 600mm wall panels]

I was really digging how good I thought this looked, so I made a few more panels and tried to make them all a little different; some with knots and swirls and growth rings using different stain colours. The panels had a very nice walnut look. I finally decided I’d go with this design. The other attraction was that the panels were significantly more affordable than timber. So I made around 30 panels and glue-fixed them to the wall in a grid with a negative detail (gap) between each panel. The gaps were painted with acrylic chocolate brown before installing the panels. My wife loved it! Bonus J. The difference in the way the room feels is amazing! It seems to have a level of warmth, depth and beauty not there before. I’m about to put wallpaper up on the remaining two walls. Nikki and I have slightly different preferences on the wallpaper so I agreed to hang a few drops of her fave pick and if we like it, I’ll finish the room with it. It’s not Anaglypta, but it’s still a nice design that’ll go well with the panels. I’ve never been one for wallpaper, that is, until I started noticing some of the old Anaglypta wallpapers in buildings around Europe. After returning home, I discovered a wallpaper shop five minutes drive from home that specialises in, you guessed it, Anaglypta. Here’s my first pick for our bedroom.

[My Anaglypta wallpaper choice]

Anyway, back to the timber look. Here’s a question you might ask and one I asked myself often:

Question: Why not use real timber for these timber panels?

Answer: Firstly, good quality timber with a nice grain and colour is expensive. Secondly, it can be harder to work than mdf and mdf is more stable as long as it stays dry. I also wanted to have a go at creating something.

Before I sign off, I’ll say that as of July 2010, this is a work in progress. I have other rooms in our house that I’ll create these panels for. It also happens that I have a room that I’m fortunate enough to call a library and for that I intend to create a far more elaborate version of the wall panelling used in our bedroom.

Anyway, that’s my introduction. Feel free to post any questions – I’m happy to share what I’m doing. I'll post again soon. I have another more interesting project I'm working on.