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A few days ago I posted about our next big project, the basement. Last weekend we were able to get a little DIY’n in and it made a HUGE difference!!!
I have always loved the look of beams and knew that we had to get them in this house somewhere – so, why not the basement?
It was the perfect space to put them in, especially since we decided to leave half the basement as one big open space – the beams really help break it up and I love the character that it adds.
And, the best part? These beams were super cheap and SO EASY!! And, the entire project took about 3 hours – sweetness.
K – I did some research on beams and thought maybe we should do the faux Styrofoam ones – way pricey. then I was going to make a hollow box with mitered corners – way time consuming. Then, I was looking at some pics on-line, went to my shop and grabbed some 2×4 scraps and constructed a little beam. It wasn’t the way the ones on-line were made, but mine looked just as good as way less work. Again… sweetness.
Basically, its just made up of 4 2×4’s. One that is hidden and attached to the ceiling, one directly underneath, and one for each side. And I love that the side 2×4’s drop down a little lower than the middle one – lots of on line pics were that way.
I put my husband to work putting up the 1st board on the ceiling – this one is hidden, so don’t worry about stain. We made sure that we hit a stud and used liquid nails and a nail gun to attach it.
Then, I put Santi to work staining the bottom and sides of the beam.
Then, the bottom board was nailed to the “hidden” board – again with the nail gun and liquid nails. We probably should of used screws – but we didn’t. And everything is fine – no boards falling on our heads yet :)
Next, I put Santi to work putting up the side beams. Do you notice a pattern? Santi doing all the work? Ya right!! Its harder being brains than labor – us girls all know that:)
And lastly the 4th board was added to the other side, and WA-LA, instant beams!! SO easy huh?!
We did go back over all the nails with a little bit of stain so they blended in.
And, just so you can see the difference that these make – here is a before & after – I love how it broke up this huge room and makes it seem a little cozier. Plus, the runway lights were a little crazy – so this really helped it not look like an air strip.
Before…
After…
..…the 411…..
2×4’s – $130
Liquid nail – $20
Stain (Kona, by rustoleum) – $8
SO- $160 dollars and a couple of hours!!! love projects that are super cheap and have such a big impact!!
And notice my wall color has changed? I painted it Lattice by Sherwin Williams – SO.MUCH.BETTER.THAN.THE.YELLOW.
Where else can I put up some faux beams?! Hmmmm……. 
Great addition to your basement. It breaks up the long room and looks amazing. I am featuring this Saturday evening at somedaycrafts.blogspot.com.
smokin' awesome! They look like the real deal!
What. A. Room!
Donna
Look great! Makes a huge difference with breaking up the lighting. Nice basement too.
Too cool – you've done a great job, the basement looks so nice!
Your basement looks great! Our house had cedar faux beams when we we moved in. We opted to keep the ones upstairs and refinish them. They were dark cedar with rough sides, we planed them and put sand and sealer on them and rehung. They turned out great! With the lighter color it opened up the living room. When I redid the downstairs, we took them out, it opened our basement up with it being so enclosed.
This looks great! I love how they broke up the lights.
You. Are. Amazing.
They look great! Good job, Santi, I mean, Sausha! lol
pinning this!
Really cool project. Got me thinking about how to make some that are a bit more substantial (I have a HUGE space – maybe bigger boards…). LOVE how these turned out.
LOVE the beams!! I'm in love with beams. Period. :-)
shaunna
Can I borrow your brain for a weekend or two? Pretty please? Love the beams!
Awesome–you guys just do great stuff together! Love, love your ideas and domestication-inspiration!
Love it!! It looks like it was made that way!! I love your HUGE basement! It looks as big as my house! :)
That looks great! And not too difficult to achieve!
Again you cease to amaze me I would LOVE to do this in my basement. Our looks a lot like yours we call it our bowling alley. These add so much architecture to the room. And i love that your are such a great supervisor. We all know you do a ton of work yourself, girl you need a break once in a while.
Lindsay
ountrygirlhome
Love it… and I'm SOOOO jealous that you are finishing your basement ;)
SO WONDERFUL! I've always wanted to do this!!
Love your site! I'm a huge thrifter, so I certainly appreciate a good find!
http://www.lifeasathrifter@blogspot.com
Hope you'll stop by!!
it looks awesome :) i love it!!!
That looks so good. I love it. Totally want to do beams somewhere…never thought of doing is this way but it looks great and seams pretty easy. Sold!
Really, really hoping your use of “wa-la” was ironic. Even so, it’s an incredibly distasteful butchering of “voila”.
Really?
Love this idea will use it in my cottage which has weird and lovely shaped ceilings but no beams. thanks for sharing
Looks great and I want to do myself but Quick q
Ideation. How did the seams look? Did you do anything to make them look seemless?
*question
no we didnt do anything to the seams
My wife and I just did this in our living room and one of the bed rooms. Thank you for the great idea. So easy and what a huge impact it makes on the rooms. We plan on doing our kitchen and the last two bedrooms.
Looks like stained 2×4’s to me. Leave finish carpentry to people like myself, you’ll get better results.
Ive done a hell of a lot of projects and my finish carpentry skills are just fine – you have no clue what i can do. Dont like my idea for these beams? Then move on.