How to make new ... look old

OK ... it's not a new quilt ... but it's the place that inspired the quilting.  This is the master-bedroom at the cabin.  And it used to look like this ...

This is a weekend cabin, so we furnished it almost exclusively through Craigs List, second-hand stores and the like (except for mattresses & sofas). 

The cabin has a shed roof, which means we get a VERY high ceiling at the front, leaving you with what feels like a very tall room.  I wanted something that was horizontal and would bring the out-doors in.  With a limited budget, went looking and found some wood from old high-school bleachers (these came from RE Store -- they remove and take donations of used building materials, in this case they were removed from a Seattle High School prior to major renovations).

First, using a belt sander, on what was the bottom of the wood (other than a few ancient gum deposits, the bottom was in way better shape than the top and had far less shellac). We cleaned them up - the sanded wood is on the right.

Then we put a light coat of clear varnish on them just to make the grain stand out a bit more.

The installation wall got a coat of dark brown paint.  This wood is from bleachers and has small holes in it periodically from where the bolts used to go through, further, it isn't perfectly straight.  Since I couldn't eliminate the potential for gaps or holes, I wanted to minimize the impact it would have on the finished wall and the dark paint seemed to do the trick.

The lights went up on the wall this past weekend ... now all that is needed to complete the room is a quilt to hang over the bed ... which is where I believe this blog started ...

All the best

Lisa