Hope everyone had a wonderful 4th of July weekend! We had a great time camping up in northern Michigan and visiting Mackinac Island–a stunning island in Lake Huron that only allows two modes of transportation: horse-drawn carriages and bikes.
But on to today’s project. If you are new here, we removed the wall between our kitchen and living room. Because it was a structural wall, we had to install a 1,200 pound, 26 foot long, 8.5″ wide and 18″ deep beam to hold up the house. It sat exposed for a couple months while we searched craigslist for barn wood to wrap the beam.
As planned, we also added dimmable can lights in the living room (there was no lighting in the room previously). Here’s what those looked like before wrapping them in barn wood. We built boxes around them and had an electrician wire them up.
And here is how they look today!
We still have to drywall the end supports, and patch and paint the ceiling, but things are shaping up!
We’re really happy with them and think they add a lot of charm and character to the house. Not to mention function with 9 new lights.
And we have a little bit of scrap barn wood left over that we will definitely put to use somehow (maybe frames or shelves?).
Really nice job! My house is a similar layout to yours, so I like watching what you do to it. Are your ceilings 8′ or 7.5′? How high is the decorative beam?
Thanks Sherry we have 8′ ceilings. The biggest beam protrudes about 8″ down and the smaller ones 4″.
Love it!! Great job. Would live to do something similar in our home. Could you share how tall your ceilings are to give me an idea if this could work for us?
Thanks!!
Tori
We only have 8 foot ceilings. Good luck!
These are gorgeous! I love the lights that you thought to place in the beams. I don’t know that I’ve seen that before, but it adds a sophisticated touch. Well done!
Your room is looking really beautiful. Putting lights in these barn beams is just like an cherry on top of the cake.