"Yeah, so I dumpster dived..."
Have you ever gone to bring bags of garbage out to your workplace's bin to discover it is filled to the brim with wooden surveyor stick markers from a local piping company and immediately thought; One, why are we throwing this wood in a trash bin rather than properly recycling it; and two, I could make so many things out of those sticks, then proceed to dive in and retrieve as many of those sticks out of that bin as you could fit in your vehicle? Hi there, I have!
Circa covid-19 era. I am bored, I have no extra money, store's are scary, the world is dull and I was lacking in creative outlets as many others like me were during this time. This particular day was during business closures, and to stay feeling motivated, I had spent the afternoon alone at my workplace cleaning up, decluttering, organizing etc. Little did I know taking a couple bags of trash out to the bin afterwards was going to suddenly spark up a handful of DIY project ideas, because the moment I saw all those pieces of wood in that trash bin, my mind went, wood slat EVERYTHING!
Where do I find inspiration?
I am a huge fan of wood paneling, wood accents, wood ceilings and basically most interior design from the 60's and 70's era. Seeing an influx of wood features resurrecting into modern design is not only exciting for me but also relieving. Design over the past couple of decades has just not been "it" for me, and I don't feel like there were many aspects of this decor era that I would consider being timeless or even unique. Give me angles, give me huge windows, give me floor to ceiling wood paneled rooms, give me patterned floor tile and for sure give me a massive disco ball. Lusting for this style whilst also being a frugal, repurposing kind of gal, if I can DIY my way through quote on quote trash to make average items or areas in my home resemble this epic style for a dime then yeah, I'm in!
Can we all refer back to the days of $18 2x4's and $95 sheets of plywood for a moment and think about the jackpot I felt that I scored that day from the dumpster bin. Let me paint a picture for you, I was not inside the dumpster at any given moment, I was however damn near injuring my back reaching over the sides to pull them all out of there, haha. I do remember sending a snapchat video to my co-workers saying, "I just found a ton of wood in the back garbage! Who would throw this all away?! I'm gonna make so many cool things with this!" Perhaps it was indeed the lack of life we were all living at that moment that caused me to have utter enthusiasm over a pile of trash, but it sure became a handy stash to hoard in my material collection.
Why would I use "trash" material?
Now, the elephant in the hypothetical room is obvious. This wood may have been free, but it sure ain't nice or high quality, and it certainly isn't going to have the luxury finish or feel of say walnut or maple, which clearly I would 100% prefer using. We are also seeing premade decorative wood slat panels available from companies who are catching on to decor styles we're sodding after, and bonus is they are beyond simple to pop up as a feature wall on a Sunday afternoon.
Give me a simple wood slat wall DIY any day of the week! However, may I remind you that this was not a time to be spending money that we just weren't making, so splurging on a high quality wood species or premade panels such as those would likely burn a hole in your pocket for a little while. Besides, if you are anything like me, then you are more than likely using wood slat as a distant feature rather than something you will be touching, wiping and microscopically examining everyday. It is simply going to live in the background offering warmth, interest and an additional layer to your space and decor.
Why is this material worth grabbing?
Admitting my awareness of the lack of quality these free pieces of wood tend to be, let me now share with you what is so great about them and why they are perfect for DIY projects. Firstly, they are all the exact same length, depth and width as the next piece, which means no milling down to match up dimensions. They are often 4-5 feet long which is a great size for a slat wood feature on a number of different items around your home. They are very quick to sand down smooth even by hand. It is easy to stack together and cut multiple pieces to length at the same time. They accept wood conditioner and stain very well, in fact I only had to do one coat of each to achieve the look of my head board I have shared here. Lastly, the pieces are quite lightweight therefore very easy to add to furniture items without the risk of weighing them down or perhaps tipping over. Oh, and I guess the thing that makes scoring them so great is well, their free and not heading their way to a landfill.
Follow me for more projects where I use repurposed materials to help boring items or spaces feel fresh and unique on a budget!
-Ol' Bettie DIY
How to DIY a vertical wood slat headboard using free materials
I won't bother adding dimensions to any of the steps ahead as they would differ space to space, plus, you may not want to copy anything I've done, and that's okay!
Step 1: Steal free wood from local dumpster...but for real, I started by clamping bundles together to cut the spiked ends off all of the sticks at the same length.
Step 2: I sanded with 80 grit to 120 grit for what felt like an eternity because my sticks sadly had spray paint ALL OVER them on some sides. You really only need to prep one face and the edges of each stick as you won't see one face side once installed. This was before the day I owned a planer...which I highly recommend.
Step 3: Wood conditioner, stain, and seal. Here's the products I used:
Varathane soft wood conditioner;
Varathane Early American stain;
Behr polyurethane in satin.
I surprisingly only needed one coat of stain after applying my wood conditioner. Once the stain was dry, I lightly sanded with 400 grit sandpaper and applied one coat of satin poly. Once the poly was dry, I also gave it a quick sand with 400 grit sandpaper to smooth it out, and once the slats were installed on my wall, I made sure to give them a wipe down with some wood oil as well.
Quick tip: Make sure your stain and poly of choice are matching bases. For example, Oil based stain with oil based poly.
Step 4: Once all the pieces were dry overnight, I started to plan out my dimensions. I used my laser level and measuring tape to ensure the center point of the bed wall as well as considered the height of our bed as I wanted our pillows to hide just the bottom of the headboard.
Quick tip: I use painters tape for all my wall planning. You can adjust the tape with ease, write on it, poke hole marks in it and more. It is a staple in my DIY project toolbox.
Step 5: Once I had my tape laid out on my center point and height point, I began to attach slats vertically using brad nails starting from my centerline out. For example, my centerline was the middle gap between 2 pieces of slat. I simply used one piece of slat on its side in between the slats as a spacer for even gaps throughout the headboard. I did this side to side until I completed my desired width of headboard.
Quick tip: I did not use glue for this installation. I change my decor often, and if want to remove this headboard for something new, it will be easy to remove with a pry bar and not damage my drywall other than pin holes I will need to fill.
Step 6: I personally wanted a small ledge and some bordering for my headboard and this is where I had to make the one purchase of material (already had the staining products on hand). The top ledge is a simple piece of 1x2 from the hardware store, the small piece underneath that is a piece of wood I already had which I ripped down to size on my table saw, and the very bottom border was also a piece of wood trim I had in my garage.
I prepped all the trim pieces the exact same way as I did to all the slat pieces. If you don't want to add those details, I suggest making sure your slat tops are precisely straight and level and stained nicely as the tops would remain exposed.
Step 7: Lighting! These small black wall sconces are adorable plus affordable and can be found locally from my favorite little store called IKEA. They were $19.99 each and have corded power so you can just plug them in, no electrical work needed. I made sure to feed the cords behind my bottom trim piece to conceal it plus keep it in place.
And that's it! This DIY vertical wood slat headboard took me a couple hours of prep and drying time, plus about 2 hours to install everything. The total cost for me is slight embarrassment for dumpster diving, and I believe $3.50 for the piece of 1x2 wood trim! I certainly don't have a retro theme going on in this room, it's more dark and moody, but the slat wood feature brings your eye to this black room and promises that touch of warmth and texture. All in all, this is a win in my books, what do you think? Let me know!
-Ol' Bettie DIY
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