Wood Behaving Badly - Understanding and Dealing with Wood Movement

Hubby and I installed the kitchen sink and faucet over the weekend (photos Wednesday).  Maybe it's because I spent a couple of days inhaling the cloud of sawdust generated by cutting a giant hole for the sink, but I've been thinking a lot about wood.  In fact, a lot of woodsy things have caught my eye recently:

This streamlined credenza I'm confident we could build (welded legs and all):

This striking front door:

These mod bathroom vanities (which are a lot like what I'm planning for our phase II bathroom reno):

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This nature-inspired table (as tacky as it sounds, I'd like to make a knock-off version for the dining room):

This impossibly chic kitchen:

This painstaking wood plank ceiling:

This inventive take on the DIY tree stump table:

This agate-topped solid wood table I can't stop thinking about:

Wood Movement

We actually have quite a few woodsy projects on the horizon, and while I was huffing sawdust I dreamed up a few more.  The tricky thing about wood, though, is that you can't just slap it together.  Wood expands and contracts (primarily across the grain - width wise) and it can't be forced to stay put.  It sometimes has a mind of its own, which needs to be accounted for during construction.  It was once a living thing, after all, and the cells that held onto moisture for its survival still move moisture, so in humid conditions wood can expand as it sucks in moisture while in dry conditions it can shrink as wood cells release moisture.  Plus, if it hasn't been properly seasoned, even if construction allows for wood movement, wood can still crack or split or warp.  (Of course, this is a simplistic account from a simple DIYer).  Last week I spotted a couple examples of W.B.B. (wood behaving badly, my term for the more accepted "wood movement"). 

Although they rebuilt it, Scott and Kim found that their farmhouse table split along the grain:

Jenny made wood floors from plywood planks (what a neat idea!) but in an instagram shot it looks like one board might have split (to the left of Evelyn) . . . although I might be seeing things because plywood doesn't behave the same as solid wood.  It should be more resistant to W.B.B.

Edit: After posting, I spotted Daniel's DIY kitchen counters, which had sadly warped and developed gaps.

I don't even need to go online to see W.B.B. - our hardwood floors have gaps!

Tongue and groove hardwood flooring, which is seemingly straightforward to install, also experiences wood movement.  When Hubs replaced the hardwood flooring in the closet, he realized the flooring in the lakehouse had been improperly installed.  Typically, hardwood flooring is installed so that there is expansion room around the edge grain.  The baseboard hides any gaps, and the quarter round attaches to the floor, so as the wood swells and shrinks the quarter round moves with it (no gaps!).  In our case, the edges of the hardwood planks were shaved down on an angle to facilitate wedging them tightly against the wall - the drywall was even dented from the force with which the hardwood was pushed down.  We're lucky we don't have any buckling that should accompany this kind of mistake (drywall is soft-ish, so it's likely smooshing to accept the swell of the wood).  Instead, we have gaps, which is kind of the opposite problem we expected. 

Yay.

The gaps might have occurred because the wood wasn't allowed to acclimatize in the house prior to installation.  Maybe it was installed during a humid spell and our dry winter sucked the moisture out of the wood.  Luckily the gaps aren't really prominent, and hopefully they will disappear come summer.  But after the incredible effort Hubby and his Dad put into installing the townhouse hardwood floors, which looked perfect and never behaved badly, I'm crabby about inheriting gaps.

The townhouse floors, I miss you!

These musings on wood movement are relevant to our counter project because wood movement made planning our DIY wood kitchen counters tricky.  On a surface that butts up to a wall, like a counter, it could cause major problems.  If the wood isn't given room to expand, it could push against the walls and cause the cabinet to buckle.  If a wood counter is installed close to the wall in humid conditions, it could shrink and cause gaps between the counter and backsplash in dryer months.  When Hubby shares the how-to of our wood counters, we'll explain how we accounted for wood movement and what our solutions were.

I am by no means knowledgeable about wood, but I've learned enough from Hubs to know what wood movement is, and to be wary of it.  In the meantime, for anyone planning a wood project, here are some tips and, more importantly, resources to prevent W.B.B.

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• Bottom line: you can't stop wood from moving (glue and nails can only do so much)
• Opt for joinery that allows for wood movement, like elongated screw holes
• Allow wood to acclimatize to its environment before use
• Ideally, construct a wood project in an environment with the same kind of humidity level as where it will be positioned once completed
• Factor in the species, the way it was cut from the log, and the humidity, which all impact wood movement (this widget might help, talking with the pros at the lumber yard will too)

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• Realize that the smaller the panel, the less it will move overall
• Research any project to get advice from the pros (not necessarily fellow DIYers), about how to address wood movement for your project's particular circumstances
• Consider plywood (and other manufactured panels), which are more stable than solid wood and are better for beginner projects 

How you deal with wood movement varies from project to project, so it's difficult to provide more troubleshooting tips.  Click here for a great article about why wood moves and how to estimate wood movement.  This article is even more in depth with great photos to illustrate wood movement.  Finally, this article lists which kinds of wood experience more, or less, movement.  There are a LOT of woodsy DIY tutorials out there, but not all of them account for wood movement so I thought I'd chat about it a bit today. 

Worst case scenario, there's always the option to just work with a split and make something totally bad-ass:

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Reader Q: How I Get Such Shiny Wood Floors (Ha Ha)

If I had an FAQ page, one of the most-asked questions would be how I got the wood floors to gleam in the townhouse.  I never really answered this question, because I wasn't really sure. 

My readers with kids and pets, prepare to laugh . . .

Because I was trying to provide an answer, I really paid attention to my cleaning habits.  At the time, I used a dry swiffer once a week to catch dust bunnies and then I mopped with a Vileda sponge mop and Murphy's soap once a month (sometimes every six weeks).  Was this why the floors were so gleamy?

Maybe a little (Murphy's soap is awesome), but nope, not really.

Now I know the answer: we were pet-free and child-free, plus we had radiant heat instead of forced air.  Of course it's easy to make floors gleam when nobody is smearing peanut butter all over them!!

Once Szuka arrived on the scene, her smudgey little paw prints and nose prints made our wood floors much less shiny and she necessitated a weekly, not monthly, mop.  Truthfully, we could benefit from a daily mop.  Moving to the lakehouse, which boasts darker wood floors and forced air, I found I was hauling out the swiffer or mop every couple of days, and sometimes multiple times a day, to maintain any semblance of cleanliness, never mind gleamy-ness.  My system had limitations, however, and I really yearned for an itty bitty vacuum just to pick up the larger detritus Szuka tracks in.  I started sweeping up Szuka-grit using a broom left with the house, but that seemed a little 1800s.  We casually shopped for a little dust buster, and almost bought one at Costco, but online reviews revealed that the battery life was disappointing: ten minutes - twenty at best for the models I was considering.

When I was given the chance to review the Rowenta Delta Force Extreme Lithium 18V Stick Vacuum (which is new to Canada, and available in stores like Sears) - with up to 45 minutes of use on one charge - I was eager to try it, but skeptical all the same.  It's similar to their Air Force model, but with an even longer battery life.

I was instantly smitten.  First of all, it's really cute.  I know that shouldn't matter, but in a house this small, with so little storage space, it matters because there's no where out of the way to charge it.  I store it in a closet but once a week I charge it in the office or laundry room.  It's designed in France and the French must know what I love because it's teal and sleek, plus it stands upright on its own.  It also has headlights (!) which seemed like a silly feature until I realized I can see under the furniture and catch little bunnies lurking in the shadows.  It's also great in the hallway and laundry room, which get so little natural light.

It takes 6 hours to charge, but that charge really does last 45 minutes.  Of course, it's new so the battery still holds it's charge well, but I cleaned intermittently for two weeks with nary a charge.  Just in case, it's got a battery level indicator so I'm not stopped mid-task by a dead battery.  It has three settings and I usually use it on the highest because I don't have any carpet.  I have little experience with full-size vacuums, but this one seems to be impressively powerful - it sucks up dust bunnies from a few inches away.

I am loving the fact that it's cordless, and super light, because it makes cleaning so much faster.  Because it's so easy to use, I find I'm using it often for a quick maintenance clean.  Instead of reaching for a swiffer cloth (and burning through dozens a week) and then following up with a stupid broom, I just whiz by with this and pick up all the dirt in one fell swoop - it's excellent at grabbing gravel, luckily.  When it's full, it's a snap to empty and the electro brush is easy to clean too.  Here's Hubby, in the rattiest pants ever, showing us how:

   
CONS: There's a bit of a learning curve to work with the way it tilts and swivels to move under furniture and around obstacles.  I'm getting the hang of it, but I have never owned a proper vacuum so I'm particularly stupid in this regard.  (Okay, technically we had a clunky vacuum that the former townhouse owners left but that was short lived because it caught on fire while I was using it).  I also find that this vacuum is not the quietest thing around.  The media kit contends that Rowenta products are exceptionally quiet, and maybe they are quieter than other brands - I don't know - but I find it a bit loud.  I used to swiffer the floors while anytime I talked on the phone (I have ants in my pants), so I miss that.  In the video below, you can get a sense of the loudest setting, and how the vacuum swivels and moves.  It has a MSRP of $269.99, which isn't the cheapest vacuum around, but the company has been designing and developing household products since 1884 and has devoted 40+ years to vacuum cleaners specifically, so there is a lot of research and development behind their products.  I'd never heard of them before, but they are an industry leader in Europe, which piqued my interest!  Only time will tell, but I think there's a lot of quality behind Rowenta vacuums, which hopefully makes these a good investment.

All in all, I think it's a fabulous little vacuum, high on style, power, and easy of use.

With this new tool in my dirt-busting arsenal, I think maybe, just maybe, I might be able to keep the floors townhouse-clean.  Now I need some kind of robotic mop that just swirls around the lakehouse, cleaning up peanut butter paw prints.

Disclosure: I was provided the Delta Force Extreme Stick Vacuum for review by Rowenta, but not compensated or otherwise motivated to provide a positive review.  We have been in the market for a small, cordless vacuum for months and hadn't found one with a long-lasting battery.  This suits our purposes perfectly and not only would I purchase one of these if they took mine away (please don't!), I would certainly recommend this to friends and family.  As someone who doesn't need a big clunky vacuum, but gets frustrated with cheap little dust-busters, this is the perfect combination of quality + small size.

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Kitchen Progress: No Stain, No Gain

Our solid maple kitchen counters have been built!!  Hubby and his Dad did a beautiful job making them, so it was a little nerve wracking for me to not only choose the finish, but also apply the actual stain.  Hubby will be sharing the construction how-to on the blog soon, but in the meantime I wanted to show you how I stained them - and share my stain snafu.

Originally my plan included turquoise cabinets and grey counters.  I loved our low-maintenance grey laminate counters in the townhouse because they reminded me of concrete.  They cost $750, which is more than I wanted to spend on our kitchen spruce so I nixed that option.



Covering worn out laminate counters in actual concrete has became a DIY trend (see Kara Paslay Designs, Little Green Notebook, and A Beautiful Mess for three great tutorials), and I've loved that look as well.  I nixed this option too, though, because the existing mint green laminate counters were bubbling and peeling, and had a weird rounded edge that bothered me.

Still, I wanted some kind of grey counter for the lakehouse kitchen because it would be a pretty, cool neutral to pair with turquoise, and I thought that a shot of grey in the kitchen would connect with our darker grey fireplace.  Because Hubby's Dad is a woodworker and Hubby's picked up some skills, I figured Hubby could make some wood counters for cheap and we'd stain them grey.  Somewhere along the way our wires got crossed with Hubby's Dad, who hooked us up with some wood from one of his suppliers.  I had planned on buying cheap, builder's grade wood at Home Depot and budgeted about $200-300 for this project but my father-in-law ended up picking out some quality maple for us, to the tune of $611.  I don't think he realized our kitchen spit and polish is just temporary, while we save for and plot a full reno. 

The finished maple counters have beautiful grain and are substantial: they are 1 3/4" thick and the largest piece weighs 130 lbs!!  At first I fretted that these beautiful maple counters are too fancy for our kitchen spruce.  They are, but ultimately I'm thrilled with them.  And they were still cheaper than laminate.  Plus, I figure that we can always re-purpose the counters for the fish room (see the house tour) or make a table(s) top from the wood.  Here are the unstained pieces, laid out how they will be in the kitchen: stove in the gap and sink in the skinny piece.  The widest piece hangs into the dining room, with stools pulled up to it.



It took me days to finally track down a not-brown grey stain and the folks at the store tested it on a sample of maple that was more yellowed than our wood, and it looked perfect.  On our wood, however, the blue-ish grey turned purple thanks to the pinkish hue of the maple peeking through.  I think lighting had a lot to do with it too.  Unfortunately, I hated the stain with the turquoise cabinets - it looked so 80s!  I've learned my lesson: it's important to test stain not just on the type of wood I'm using, but on an actual piece of my wood for the most accurate indication of colour.

I deliberated some more and ultimately decided I was wrong about the grey because the cabinets are very bold and the painted fireplace is also dramatic, so I figured we need something more mellow, instead.  I opted to use the same white stain we used for Hubby's welded desk - Saman brand in "whitewash".  As a bonus, it dries quickly (1/2- 1 hour), which made staining multiple pieces with multiple coats less of a chore.  I guessed it would end up a creamy white, and I thought that would relate well to the off-white and beige flooring, which we're not changing.   You know I'm really into bleached oak hardwood floors, so I also thought that whitewashed maple might have a similar, airy, Scandinavian cottage vibe.

All this to say: yes, I totally chickened out and went with white stain.  But look how pretty it is:

Application was a breeze: after giving the counters a hand sanding with 150 grit sandpaper, we moved them over to Hubby's Dad's spray booth.  We brushed off any dust and I used a sprayer to apply the stain.  I contacted Saman and they recommended adding 5% water if the stain is applied this way, but I found it to be watery enough (it is, after all, a water-based stain).  I sprayed each section, starting with the edges, and then - spraying along the grain - worked my way from the section closest to me to the one furthest away, overlapping with each pass.  It's a good idea to apply stain or paint so that any over-spray is on an unpainted/unstained area.  I sprayed each strip of stain in one continuous motion, and started spraying just before the wood and stopped spraying right after.

I let the stain sit a few minutes and then wiped it off with dry cheesecloth (any lint-free rag or foam brush works).  I went through a lot of cloth, and it was handy to have fresh cloth ready because the stain dried quickly.

I've learned with stain to really wipe it off.  Like spray painting, it's better to work in multiple thin layers than one goopy one, and even though it's painful to watch the wood return almost back to its original state with the first coat, it's crucial for a finish that sinks in and doesn't look painted on.  Any time I haven't been diligent about really removing the excess stain, I've ended up with streaks.  Three coats later and the counters were looking very Scandinavian.  I contemplated a fourth coat, but wood-loving Hubby and his Dad winced at the proposition, and hurriedly packed away the equipment.  They're right: a fourth coat might have covered too much grain and just looked painted.  If we've got lovely wood, we should show it off.  A bit.

Applying stain with a sprayer is a great way to practice using the equipment because it isn't as critical to get an even coat with stain as it is with paint.  It's the first time I've used one since painting Charlie the car (Hubby used ours to paint the kitchen cabinets).  I was on the fence about using a sprayer because I was nervous about messing it up, but this method felt foolproof and was so much faster!!  It took an hour to apply one coat of stain to all of the four counter pieces, but this included moving each piece in and out of the spray booth, applying the stain, wiping off, and inspecting for streaks.  By the time we were done the last piece, the first piece was ready for another coat.  I bought two 946 ml jugs ($27 each) and used all of one, plus a tiny bit of the other - I was so close to only needing one. 

We've left the counters with Hubby's Dad, who is spraying on a few coats of top coat.  He's using the brand pictured below, which will also be applied with a sprayer (with a light sanding between coats).  He suggested a semi-gloss finish because scratches and marks won't show up as well as they would with a high gloss finish.  This should be durable enough to be used for a kitchen counter, which will see spills and water.

How spoiled do I feel?  Not only did fabulous, solid wood counters (seemingly) materialize by magic, all I needed to do was swan in and lay down some stain . . . I don't even have to apply the top coat!!  Installation is slated to happen Friday, and I'm so excited!  Open drawering is overrated.  

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Artful Expedit Hack, 2.0

My artful Expedit hack - canvases (with abstract paintings) hung on small hooks to act as "doors" - has been one of my most popular DIY projects.  It's been exciting to see so many people try this project for themselves (see here and here for examples).  Now it's my turn to tackle a simplified, and less artful, version.

For my second version of the same hack, I just painted some canvases the same turquoise as the office nook.  So easy!  I hung them in an orderly row on the bottom, which is a change for me.  To underscore the orderliness, for the next row up we will be building 15 magazine holders that will perfectly fit the cubbies and house our burgeoning magazine collections. 



If you're curious about what's lurking behind the swinging doors:

You might have noticed that I have a new Ikea Expedit - my fifth.  I've always wanted a white Expedit but the floor models always look so beat up - more so than the dark brown, which is what I always end up buying.

The first two Expedits I bought stayed in my childhood home and my parents now use them in the store they own.  When my Dad said he wouldn't mind taking the two brown ones from the townhouse as well (seems he's as keen on them as I am), I figured it was finally time to buy a white one.  It's creamier than I thought it would be, and nicks and dents do show up more than on the dark finish, but I love it.  The dark one took up so much visual space and was really imposing.  The white doesn't close in the room as much, even though it's just as large and just as packed with books.  I wish I'd trusted my gut years ago and chosen white.

You already caught a peek of the colourful books.  We pared down our books a lot before moving because we knew we'd be collapsing two bookcases into one.  We keep most novels elsewhere because we typically read those and pass them on.  This bookcase largely houses reference books, cookbooks, and novels we read again and again.  I used to organize my books by colour but in recent years I felt pressured to organize them by theme to be more "scholarly," but a) we have so few books that I find them in seconds, no matter how they're organized and b) I now have a PhD so I no longer feel the need to conform to ideals of scholarliness (I also reserve the right to make up words) (and overuse brackets).  The new system - a rainbow of books, tightly confined to two rows - is strangely soothing to my frenetic brain.  Ahhhhhh . . .



My colour-blind Dad was visiting recently and spent a long time looking at the books.  Eventually he looked at me, totally confused and sounding kind of helpless, and asked, "how are your books arranged?".  I looked at him, then at the books, then at him and then realized - of course - it must look like total chaos to him! 

The top row of cubbies has been reserved for breakables; Szuka's swishing tail makes most surfaces dangerous for anything more delicate than a rock.

Onward with office progress.  In the meantime, has anyone else tried my Expedit hack? 

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I Have Teal Hair Now

Yup, that's me, with teal hair.  I actually went to the salon on Tuesday (April 1st!), but I didn't think you'd believe it was permanent if I showed off my ombré locks on April Fool's Day.  

You might by wondering . . . why?

I'm turning 30 in June.  30!!  My twenties were awesome, so I figure thirty can only be better.  But there's something about leaving my twenties that has me feeling really bold - like there's no time to waste.  I want to do everything I've always wanted to do, before I run out of time.  This is just one of those things.

Getting these ombré locks was a neat process.  It was also a lot more labor-intensive than I imagined and my derriere was totally numb from sitting in the salon chair for so long (at least they had Elle Decor).  My stylist mussed up my hair a little and bleached the bottom.  By messing it up (back combing a little), the bleached section didn't become a hard line but was more feathered.  After bleaching the bottom half, she applied blue to both the bottom section of my naturally brown hair and the beginning of the bleached area, and then applied a more green-tinged turquoise toward the bottom.  There's a lot of variation in the colour, but my stylist says blue has a hard time sticking so who knows how vibrant it will stay. 

It's a running joke between Hubby and I that anyone can get me to agree to anything if turquoise is involved.  If he's trying to convince me of something he gets this glint in his eye and sort of screeches the word "turquoise!!".  Jokes on you, Hubs.

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I Need Your Thoughts: Is Paint the Answer?

Monday you saw the refreshed hallway and now I need your help with a decision I've been waffling about.  I don't love our exterior door.  I thought paint might help, but I found a photo of a similar door, side by side with a more modern door (both painted the same cheery colour), and I'm still feeling a little meh about it:

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As a reminder, here's our actual door:

If money were no object I'd replace the door with a Crestview door, to imbue our 1990s bungalow with the mid-century inspired simplicity I'm inching toward.

Door 1, 2, 3

We're thinking of eventually turning the carport (behind the door) into an enclosed garage, so our main entrance might, quite literally, not see the light of day.  In that case, a cheap, simple option would be great.  I found a plain slab door that rings in at about $300 (we need two).  But the window-less door will certainly darken the hallway, and our garage plans might never come to fruition anyway. 

There's another window-less version that's really popular at the hardware store and it's much cheaper.  The ABM studio recently got one and they painted it turquoise (I'm drooling over here).  I love the colour, obviously, but the differently sized panels totally make me twitch.  Why can't they be the same size?!?  I literally see someone buying one of these doors every time I venture out for reno supplies.  I could probably even snag one in the classifieds for even less. 

A Beautiful Mess

In our city, I have yet to find a plain door with a window.  It's an elusive combo.  All I can find are doors that are incredibly ornate or traditional looking - even the plain slab I finally tracked down is a special order.

The miserly part of me says "just paint the door you have!" while the optimist says "don't waste time and money on a temporary fix - hold out for the one"!  You know my style and my vision for the lakehouse, so what do my lovely readers say?

EDIT: Wow, thanks so much for answering the survey I originally had embedded here.  So many responses!!  I appreciate you taking the time to weigh in.  These were the results:

Paint our existing door = 75.53%
Buy and paint the cheap paneled door = 2.13%
Buy and paint a plain slab door = 2.13% (what are the odds?)
Keep questing = 20.21%

I think that, for now, I'm going to go with the majority and paint our existing door.  We have no shortage of projects to tackle this summer - some of them quite pricey - so our budget will appreciate an inexpensive solution.  But like so many suggested, I'll keep my eye out for "the one," or maybe next year we can build a custom door like some readers proposed - I think we're up for the challenge!  Thanks so much for all of your feedback!!

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