Technological developments are a beautiful thing. I don’t just mean gadgets (although somehow I’m quite a bit more gadget-crazy than my tech-industry husband), but developments and innovation that make old school tasks that much simpler.
Enter Stikwood, the answer to my coffee table dilemma. I found it earlier this week while clicking around on Fancy.com, which is a black hole of pretty things I often can’t afford. Never let it be said that spending time on the internet is a waste – I wouldn’t find half the stuff I do if my 3rd hobby weren’t online browsing. On Fancy it said that Stikwood was $200, but when I went over to their site I realized it was priced per square foot. Glory glory hallelujah, I think I can make that work for my tiny coffee table.
So what is Stikwood? They have a collection of reclaimed and non-reclaimed wood planks that come with an adhesive backing. Goodbye liquid nails and nail guns – you can use these on pretty much any clean, primed surface. I love that the material is real wood, sustainable, eco-friendly and low-voc. I’m not the most careful when it comes to being environmentally friendly but I do try, and when something like this is staring me in the face, I can’t hate!
Their boards are thin (which is actually part of what makes them more sustainable than your average plank), but their customer service rep assured me that I could rip or cut one down to my liking, and seal it with water-based poly. They also give you the option of buying pre-sealed planks at an added $1/sqft which is awesome. I showed Matt their site today and he’s on board (pun unintended), so I’ll be placing an order soon. We just have to narrow down the color we want – we both really like the reclaimed weathered wood:
Isn’t it gorgeous? I think it has enough gray in it to look fine against our charcoal Karlstad (or even against white covers, if I ever convince Matt to get them), but still look good against the white/ivory that I plan on painting the coffee table. This picture actually shows more gray in it; the planked wall above is a better representation of what it looks like.
There’s also a reclaimed weathered gray option but it has too little actual gray in it to be a practical choice for a table top that I’m pretty set on painting white or off-white:
If we decide against the weathered options, my favorite is the black cherry:
The red tones are beautiful, but they might be too much against the mostly-red and orange cushion fabric and copper accents we currently have going on in the living room.
I hope Stikwood is around in a few years when we buy a place because I can bet I’ll want to get a few different styles. I never realized I might like a planked kitchen island until I saw this:
I think the thinness of the planks allows the look to stay light and seamless rather than overly rustic. Seriously, they can have my money.
I’ll be placing an order tomorrow so keep an eye out for that project to (finally!) reach its conclusion.
Flirting with DIY 