spruce for indoor furniture?

BARCUD · 4 Jan 2014

Hi, I have been using pine from my local diy store for my kitchen projects. But now I want to put together a chest to use like a coffee table in the living room. They seem quite fashionable at the moment. I've seen some nice one's in an antique type shop made from reclaimed oak. I can't find any reclaimed wood at all in my area.
At a wood yard close to where I live there were 8x1 pieces of locally produced spruce. The wood is kiln dried and is stored outside mainly for external use. I was wondering if I dried out some pieces for a few weeks, and did a bit of sanding, do you think this would be suitable for my diy chest?

Burnerman · 4 Jan 2014

Its a very quick growing timber, and often used for rough carpentry.......it doesn't take a finish particularly well due to the coarse grain. By all means give it a try if you want but I don't think you'd enjoy the experience.
John

BARCUD · 4 Jan 2014

thanks burnerman.

I've looked a bit more on the internet and it looks as if like you say, spruce wouldn't be too good for what I have planned.

Reclaimed oak floorboards would be ideal but the only way I think I could get hold of some is through ebay.

wrightwoodwork · 4 Jan 2014

Yeah it never seems easy getting reclaimed timber you could try architectural reclamation yards but they properly want to over charge or an other option would be to get oak furniture panels from some like GA imports then distress the wood yourself to make it look old. They will have a diver fee for order under 750. Don't let that put you off. The furniture pine furniture panels you buy in B&Q they sell at half the price for a better grade. There is other companies as well but would need to do a search

big-all · 5 Jan 2014

contact you local woodyard /timber merchants they will have reasonable quality timber and possibly a suitable hardwood at a reasonable price
its worth popping down as they may have offcuts suitable for a coffee table
or an idea off where you can get recycled timber

i actually had a 4x4" fence post that was about 25 years old and rotten at the base
it had several nails and 3 eye bolts for a chain link fence it was as hard as iron
and with careful planing i turned it into a 22x26" coffee table with 1 x3/4" legs

pinenot · 5 Jan 2014

If you have a local demolition contractor in your area, they would be able to pass on there salvage buyers name, also look in yellow pages for architectural salvage yards...pinenot

BARCUD · 5 Jan 2014

Cheers guys. Good info.

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spruce for indoor furniture?

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