By: Molly Bowen
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| Trey Nichols begins his woodworking process with reclaimed wood. Trey spends the majority of his time working on his land in North Georgia, “I am constantly fixing something,” Nichols said. |
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| Nichols began restoring the wood by sanding the reclaimed wood by hand. He hopes to use the reclaimed wood to add shelves into his home. |
After the sanding process is completed Nichols wipes the boards clean. Nichols shared this step is essential after any project that involves sanding.
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| As Nichols continues his woodworking restoration project he stains the wood, allowing three to dry as he continues to work. This process is much more time consuming than one may think, and you must work quickly. |
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| Using a porous cloth Nichols quickly and meticulously applies the stain in a vertical motion. Nichols is very careful ensuring no spot is missed and no spot is overlapped, making for a nice even wash of color. |
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| As Nichols works on his restoration project he notices a few spots that need to be gone over with sand paper once more. Nichols explained this is a common practice, especially since the ends of the wood tend to be more jagged and textured. |
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| The next set of boards began being prepped for stringing, by using an electric sander. These boards were much thinner and were prepped quickly for staining. |
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| Before moving onto staining there is one last board to go over, Nichols moves the sander in a vertical motion. This step smoothes out all of the flat laying surfaces. |
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| Just before moving onto staining Nichols uses the electric sander and goes over the edges to prevent setbacks later. This process came to Nichols almost as instinct, but more importantly he was genuinely happy to do it. |
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| To visualize the shelves Nichols holds the hardware up to the stained boards, ensuring everything was measured correctly. This specific hardware allows the shelves to sit flush against the mount, this quality was very important to him. |
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| Nichols can be seen staining additional reclaimed wood boards. Technically he already had stained more than enough for his project, but he decided to go ahead and stain them all for further projects. |
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| Nichols compares an already stained board to the one he is working on. Nichols had a brief moment of panic when he thought he used teh wrong stain at first, but realized it had just oxidized. |
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| Nichols continues to use his previously mentioned technique of a porous cloth and vertical smooth motions. This was Nichols second time going over this board, and he was ecstatic about how everything was turning out. |
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| The panic finally subsides, Nichols realizes that he used the proper color stain after comparing the two. After several coats of wood stain and nail biting tension, the woods shades finally matched. |
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| Nichols admires his work after designing, cutting, sanding, and staining the reclaimed wood. This was one of the first pieces to officially dry and Nichols was proud to show off the finished product. |
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| Nichols walks through is garage doorway to check his work and get a visual. Nichols was on the fence about his color stain choice, so he wanted to double check in actual environment they’d be in. |
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| Nichols holds the board up to the wall checking the size, color, and overall look. Seeing the vision come together was exciting for both him and I. |
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| To compare other options Nichols holds up the same size board but in a darker stain. This color stain is the one that was ultimately decided upon for the reclaimed wood shelves. |
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| Nichols repairs his electric sander, by preparing a new Velcro grip pad for the sandpaper. Each shelf will be finished with a piece of trim, which Nichols was preparing to do. |
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| Nichols test his design on a spare piece of wood leftover from a previous project. This allowed Nichols to visualize and test his technique for the finishing trim pieces, he ended up needing different hardware. |
