Home renovations and remodeling projects don’t always go as planned. From unforeseen hidden structural issues to scheduling conflicts, many mishaps like to make themselves known during the thick of renovations. Sometimes, things just go wrong and are beyond one’s control. To minimize reno horror stories and improve chances of success, many prefer to overcalculate materials than undercalculate, leaving themselves with leftovers. Miscalculations often catch numerous people off guard, leading many to add a couple of bonus orders to their cart.
If you, too, like to err on the side of overprepared, you might find yourself left with extra planks after installing some sleek, new USA-made engineered hardwood flooring. Instead of stuffing them in storage or tossing them out, take a gander at some other fun home projects that put your spare floorboards to good use. Here is how to repurpose your leftover wood floors and make the most of your engineered wood planks.
DIY Wood Furnishing
Engineered wood features numerous beneficial qualities, from durability to high resistances and countless style variations. On top of providing ideal properties for flooring, many of these beneficial features make quality attributes to other home facets like furniture. With the right tools, you can transform your leftover wood floors into DIY furnishings, enhancing your home with more wooden characteristics.
Bench Tops
Do you need an extra seat? Wood benches make the perfect solution for using your spare planks and providing bonus seating in your home. Aside from seating, benches provide multiple functional purposes, from added table surfaces to decorative display stands. Plus, they often make great step stools for those awkwardly high cupboards. All you need to DIY a bench is your spare planks, furniture legs, and a few nails. Typically, you’ll want to use more than one plank to build the top of the bench, providing more surface area to sit on.
Coffee Tables
Akin to making a wood bench, leftover floors also work for DIY coffee tables. However, they require more planks and added materials for extra surface space, sturdiness, and additional functionality like storage space. How you mold the individual planks together to create the top of the table determines the style and aesthetic of your new coffee table. Clean plank attachments create sleek modern coffee table surfaces while keeping the planks separated a little creates a rustic and farmhouse table top.
Cabinet Doors
Whether you want to DIY a new drawer from scratch or simply replace the doors, your spare wood floors can do the job. Most sliding cabinet drawers span the same width as a floor plank. Attaching a handle and cutting out some inserts to slide the drawer walls transforms your leftover engineered floorboards into a functional cabinet door. Connecting multiple planks together and sanding them into one surface also creates the perfect door for cabinets and other storage structures.
Bookshelves and Shelving
Bookshelves and shelving offer numerous benefits. They provide storage solutions, keep spaces and items organized, and complement a room’s furnished look. Plus, shelves help decorate and add purpose to plain wall space. Like with the coffee tables and benches, your spare engineered floors provide a decent surface for the top of your shelves and book stands. The engineered plank’s durable and strong structure makes it a perfect fit for holding weighted items and carrying various objects simultaneously.
Décor and Artwork
Compared to other natural materials, wood provides countless purposes. Many crafts and items use wood as their main material source, making it a versatile building and artistic component. Cutting down your leftover floors supplies you with plenty of wood for a range of smaller woodworking projects. Some of the most popular ways to repurpose your floors into décor and artwork include using the wood for:
- Photo frames
- Wall signs
- Drink coasters
- Cutting boards
- Drawer organizers
- Plant stands
- Dining trays
- And jewelry dishes
Home Design Accents
Wood design accents make a frequent appearance in numerous architectural and interior aesthetics. They incorporate an earthy and authentic touch to spaces, creating inviting and cozy atmospheres. Aside from flooring, there are many other ways to feature wood accents in your home.
Wall Paneling
Wooden wall panels create unique wall spaces that offer lots of visual appeal. Understanding all there is to know about wall planks allows you to flip your floors to the walls and give them another purpose within your home’s interior design. The best part of using floorboards as wall planks is that they pretty much involve the same installation process, just with added gravitational security.
Wainscoting Trims
Another cool wall accent to DIY with your leftover planks is wainscoting trims. Wainscoting refers to the wooden panels that line the base of your walls. They come in numerous design variations, allowing you to explore different creative arrangements with your planks and any cuttings. As an interior feature, they implement texturized and visual enhancements to a space, upgrading the look and feel of your home.
Ceiling Panels
Paneling doesn’t just apply to walls. Ceiling panels switch up the usual plain white ceilings for a more creative version, adding an authentic design component to your home. In theory, ceilings may not seem that important, but people tend to look up more often than you’d expect. They also shape how a room feels, changing the size and openness of a space. Taking your spare planks to the sky allows you to see them from a new perspective, create a more cabin-esque home, and complete the look and feel of your space.
Other Home Features
Stocking up on wood never hurts. On top of supplying the main bulk of many DIY and home projects, wood also functions as a design embellisher adding extra details to certain items like décor and furnishing. Cutting your planks into strips or slicing the hardwood veneer off gives you the perfect tools for creating various embellishments.
Exposed Tambour
Exposed tambour made a huge entrance in the 18th century, shifting the design world with its authentic and natural design embellishments. Recently, tambour returned for another popular run in the interior game, making frequent appearances in the latest trends and inspiration boards. Cutting your spare floors into strips and securing them on a flexible cover makes a fun tambour surface that you can add to numerous items, from cupboard doors and wall paneling to the side of chairs and dinner trays.
Décor Detailing
With the thin hardwood veneer of your spare engineered planks, you can cut out simple, raised décor detailing that enhances the texture and look of various furnishings and surfaces. The more layers you add to your cut-out stencil, the more depth and texture you incorporate into the item you embellish. Plus, with some paint and stains, you can create an array of wooden detailing that’ll accessorize almost anything.
Exploring different ways to repurpose your leftover floor planks allows you to make the most of engineered wood’s various benefits. Between their durability, moisture resistance, strength, and stunning hardwood surface veneers, engineered planks that didn’t make the cut still deserve a second chance.
