When Craig Wallen approached Interlink in September 2021 with his idea of utilising rustic timber in his living room design the Interlink team were keen to be a part of this. We caught up with Craig in June 2022 to see how his project was coming along and to chat about the process behind incorporating rustic timber into his design.
Craig and Sally, Craig’s wife, had been looking for a way to include rustic timber into their new house for a while when they saw an advertisement on Trade Me for Interlink rustic timber. Craig said they were keen to use rustic timber for its special and unique finish that can’t be found in re-produced alternatives.
Matthew, GM Interlink, worked closely with Craig (a professional builder) and his wife from concept design through to delivery to help figure out exactly what rustic timber would suit and what specific installation requirements would need to be considered.
For this project, Matt put forward multiple options and Craig settled on the European Hardwood Oversized Sleepers as they offered a prominent, but not too overpowering, finish for the rafters in their living room.
Both Matthew and Craig’s background in building helped immensely; as they were both aware of the challenges of using reclaimed timbers, such as adjusting plans to suit the chosen product and working with the timbers to achieve the sought-after finish. Factors such as differences between stock, textures and finishes, and varying lengths also needed to be considered.
For this project, Craig needed quite specific minimum lengths, it took three views and extractions of the Interlink stock to find the right solution that met the design requirements. Matt enjoyed working with Craig, mentioning he “was exceptionally good at accommodating the nature of the reclaimed timbers”.
Once the rustic timber type was chosen Craig had the task of getting it ready for installation. To achieve the desired rustic, raw finish, he spent time lightly sandblasting, washing, and drying the timber. The process from then on was fairly straight forward, with Craig commenting that “the timber was heavy to work with but once we were geared up it was not a problem”. After some structural checks by the on-site design engineer, Craig was able to install the rustic timber and completed the project in March 2022.
“We could not have been happier and still look and admire every day, and so do all our visitors. This was the first time I have used the timber in an indoor setting and am already looking to use more timber outside to complete the indoor/outdoor flow and tie it together”.
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