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Houzz TV: Love Reclaimed Wood? Here’s How to Work With It

See how a master woodworker turns old beat-up wood into clean, usable pieces for furniture

Mitchell Parker December 31, 2016

Houzz Editorial Staff. Home design journalist writing about cool spaces, innovative trends, breaking news, industry analysis and humor.

Houzz Editorial Staff. Home design journalist writing about cool spaces, innovative... More

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Raun Meyn is a third-generation craftsman. His material of choice? Reclaimed wood. He uses it to make desks, tables, dressers, beds, bookcases, accent walls and more, a lot of which can be found in his Chicago home. In this video, Meyn shares tips and tricks for finding and selecting a good piece of reclaimed wood.

Houzz Tour: Reclaimed Wood Fills a Third-Generation Craftsman’s Home

Watch now: See Meyn’s tips for selecting reclaimed wood

Meyn, seen here in his Chicago wood shop, finds reclaimed wood everywhere — barns, torn-down sound barriers at an airport, an old city water tower. He takes the pieces to his shop to sand or plane them down into clean pieces of usable lumber that’s full of character.

Here, Meyn examines a 70- to 90-year-old piece of standard yellow pine covered in nail holes and stains. He recommends preserving elements like those to show off the wood’s beauty.

The older the wood, the better, Meyn says. Old-growth wood with a tight grain pattern indicates the piece is more structurally sound. A denser board will ultimately make a stronger piece of furniture.

Meyn is holding a piece of tar-covered white pine wood he got from a demolished water tower. He’ll plane it down to remove the tar and turn it into a clean piece of lumber, as shown next to it. “Any piece of wood can be brought back to life,” he says. “And you’ll always have an interesting story to tell when you’re done.”

Watch now: Get more tips for working with reclaimed wood | Take a tour of Meyn’s wood-filled home

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Comments (8)

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shainesus

"Hey, Houzzers". Love it. :)

1 Like January 22, 2017 at 12:44PM

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suede57

Great video, thanks! Can I ask you Raun or anyone .... what would be your choices as far as using the least toxic, most durable, finishing products?

1 Like February 7, 2017 at 1:28PM

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Veronica Mensch

We want 100 year old pine to not only match what was used in our home but to also replicate the original trim that is still the majority of the wood in the house, (picture trim like this but not painted). Finding old pine we can afford is an issue. Loved the video.