How to Implement Reclaimed Wood into your Bathroom

April 18, 2016

This year so far, is all about using reclaimed wood in your home, whether it be in the form of pallets, or literally used and reclaimed pieces of wood! Reclaimed wood has grown super popular over the last year or so, and it’s made its way from being used in chic and funky basement bars, to elegantly rustic master suite bathrooms. We love how creatives have been using it as bathroom flooring, for accent wall pieces, vanity countertops, bathtub surrounds and even mirror framing.

Old and reclaimed wood brings a warm, textured and elegant sense of style to a bathroom, especially if you feel like it’s looking a little cold and sterile and needs some charm and character, wood, and reclaimed wood, more specifically will bring your bathroom’s true potential out!

One thing that needs to be considered when using reclaimed wood for your bathroom – MOISTURE! Usually moisture and wood don’t really gel well together, but there are so many different kinds of repurposed wood and reclaimed pieces of wood out there that you can use to spruce up your bathroom, so, you really need to be smart about your choices. Choosing a worn out and broken piece of pallet wood as a countertop in your bathroom, isn’t going to last you longer than a couple of months in a bathroom’s moisture-filled air. However, finding an old-growth pine lumber piece of sturdy wood from an old 1930’s farm barn will definitely withstand the moisture of any bathroom.

Good choices for a moisture resistant wood piece in your bathroom would be finding reclaimed teak and old-growth cypress, but no the less, whichever type of wood you choose, you absolutely need to go through our brilliant list of ideas and ‘tick offs’ for a perfectly created reclaimed wood bathroom.

Chat with your building contractor about the realities of keeping the wood protected!

So, whether you’re deciding to treat the wood or not, you definitely need to take measures to protect it from direct contact with water, because no matter what, if water is going to sit on the wood, no matter for how long, it’s eventually going to find its way into it, and that’s not a good thing!

You should definitely discuss an option on sealing any reclaimed wood that you’ll be using in your bathroom or around your bathtub, and preferably with an oil-based polyurethane! Anything that you use on your reclaimed wood will eventually be infiltrated and start breaking down, however, choosing wood a very high rot resistance will help you preserve your reclaimed wood for much longer.

Remember that the wood is going to swell and contract

You need to understand how important it is to treat any reclaimed wood that you salvage and plan on using as an actual living and breathing thing – now it may sound crazy, but it’s true, because wood is going to grow and contract, so using a silicone caulking on the sides of your tub as well as the walls, when installing a wooden bathtub surround is a perfect solution to this problem

Reclaimed wood is perfect for contrast

Using reclaimed wood is an absolutely wonderful way to add some rustic warmth to a modern bathroom, that’s lacking in character. The rough looking finish of most of these reclaimed wood pieces makes them really stand out in a bathroom that would typically look plain and clean cut, it’s a great way to add some personality and character into your bathroom.

There is, of course, a lot more maintenance involved in having reclaimed wood in your bathroom or around your bathtub, so you need to really decide if this look will work for you and if you’ll genuinely put in all the effort that it needs. There are small things that you need to consider, like the fact that you’ll need to sand down a countertop that has a basin on it, however, you could always opt for putting a glass top over the wood, but then it needs to be sealed perfectly.

Use reclaimed wood to create a bathtub surround

Using a freestanding bathtub in your bathroom is sometimes a fabulous opportunity to create a bathtub surround using reclaimed wood! Try and find some reclaimed teak wood, it’s one of the most rot-resistant wood’s out there, in fact, back when the USS North Carolina battleship was built, this is exactly why contractors used teak boards surrounding their bathtubs, as they knew it would survive all the water it could possibly handle. The gorgeous deep color of teak and the knots in its texture create a really amazing focal point for your bathroom and your bathtub!

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