I had old wood boards that I used as shelves before. It was stained into a darker colour (it was the "in" thing a couple of years ago to have dark wood shelves) but it look dated currently. Hence decided that it was time to breath new "life" into the shelves.


As can be seen, the wood stain used previously was very dark - almost brown black. Even under direct sunlight, the wood plank is quite dark.






Used an orbital sander and started to sand the surface of the wood using 60 Grit paper, stripping the stained surface of the wood.





Found by mistake that by partially stripping the stain, it gave the wood a "distressed" look which looked pretty good. Compare the left (original stain) and right side (after sanding).






Comparing the before and after pictures....




... and completion of phase 1 of the project. Time for a nice cool glass of coke.



Next step is to clean the planks of the residue wood dust and to give it a nice coat of oil to protect it.

Nice. You avid DIYer?

Amateur DIY. Can't make a living out of it, hence have to experiment at home first.

Part 2 - Protective oil on wood plannks

Target to apply a layer of protective oil - to protect it against the elements and provide a layer of water protection to the wood.

Raw form of the wood after sanding. Can see the wood grains visible giving it texture



Applying a coat of wood oil on the wood planks. The wood darkens slightly on the application of the oil. Application of the oil was very fast - took less than 15 minutes to complete.





The wood grains can still be seen after the application of the oil. Can see the contrast oil and non-oil application areas.





Took around 2 hours for the wood to be fully cured with the oil. And the final product looks like ....







Realised don't really need to spend much money to re-use existing stuff around the house to breath new life into the items.

What type of wood oil did you use?

Watco Teak Oil. Got it from Ace Hardware - very easy to use and doesn't stain the hands.

Had an excess piece of wood - approximately 5 feet in length - from my existing woods which I am turning into a bench (to be posted later).

At the same time, needed a clock for the bedroom so decided to re-use the excess wood to make into a standing floor clock. To make the wood piece stand, I used L-brackets as the "legs".

Had a set of wall clock which was not used and decided to stick it direclty on the wood.




Results? A vertical 5 feet floor standing clock combining wood and black metal. No wastage of materials and looks great.





This post has been edited by bigred: Sep 10 2017, 09:13 AM

Nice piece of wood you have it here.

The L angle at the bottom of the clock kills me a little...perhaps you can replace it with two pieces of wood.

It would be nice if cut it more than half and hang it on the wall.

Nice craft and workmanship.

The difficult part is the joining of another 2 pieces of wood at the bottom. That would mean either to screw right thru the back to the front (wood thickness is around 1.5") and trying to do another screw from front to back - I actually broke the screwhead while trying to do this (the wood is really hard).

I opted for the black metal L-angle as it gives is a nice contrast to the wood. All woody was too much for me.

I don't mean to sound offensive and disrespectful. This design reminds me of something else which is related to departed human being.

IMHO, you should cut the plank into half rather than using the full length. A bit unbalanced.

Apologies if you feel offended. Just my frank feedback.

Good feedback. Never see it that way.

The plank is 5' in length - can almost be a clothes rack. Too large to be the item you are referring to unless it belongs to giant. 😁

Nice crafting skill with limited tools.

hahaha, I had did some souvenir that my colleague ask me to redo it because the initial design looked like tombstone.

predrill, before driving in the screw

Had another wood ready and prep to be made into a 5' bench.



Managed to find a metalworks guy to make a frame using mild steel for me. When the bench was delivered, found that there were rust stains and the metal had a lot of black dust on it - probably not finished properly as I wanted it completed fast.


Noticed that the rust stains can be seen on the legs and the side part of the frame.


Decided had to use some elbow grease to remove the dirt and rusted stains - can't bear to live with rust stains inside the house (figured no fun getting tetanus from moving the bench around the house). Hence had to separate the wood plank from the bench frame - and started to strip and clean the frame using vinegar and a steel wool. Vinegar was surprisingly effective in cleaning out the built-up rust.

Problem was after leaving it out to dry from the washing of the rust and dirt stains - within a couple of hours, some faint rust can be seen building up again. Oxidation was happening very fast. Had to wipe out the rust stain and apply a coat of acrylic clearcoat to provide a protective layer.





So far looking good, the metal frame has the raw industrial look. Currently waiting for the frame to full dry before merging the wood plank and metal frame back.

Hope to get it done by tomorrow!

Nice loft table. Where did you get the wood, I always wanted one of these. But end up using ikea wood top

How much the steel work cost you?

It's actually a bench rather than a table. 5' L x 14" W x 22" H. If it was higher and wider, it could be turned into a table.

I had the wood for nearly 10 years, previously used it as a book shelf. Decided to re-purpose it and it "grew" up and became a bench 😆.

Got the wood from a Klang wood factory, forgot where as more than 10 years ago. There is a wood shop at Damansara Uptown, it's the same row as Wondermilk, can try to source from there.

The steel works cost me RM200 (minus my own labour cost to clean it 😁). Would estimate that the bench cost me approx RM500.

I know that damansara place, they sell mostly wooden door and windows.

Thinking to buy a big wood from china, maybe later when budget allow.