Staining Merbau hardwood

It's been a few weeks since my last post, I've been slammed with orders - crazy!  But I'm trying to experiment more with the reclaimed hardwood floor that I now have stashed all over our Manhattan apartment LOL (my husband is not nearly as thrilled about this as I am). 

The wood is Merbau, a reddish-brown hardwood and the underside is unfinished and has grooves in it to connect with the other pieces for making a floor.  I was excited to use the underside as the front of a chandelier because I thought it looked really rustic and kind of industrial which is the look I love so much.

So I tried out the charcoal stain on the Merbau and it turned out pretty cool.  Because the wood is darker than the birch plywood I've been staining, it looks very different.

On the left side is 2 coats of the Minwax Charcoal stain, middle is 1 coat, and on the right is the original color of the wood

I also tried staining the Merbau wood in Ebony and it turned out fantastic.  Here is a fixture I made with one 4ft panel of the floor with the pendant Edison bulbs:

More posts to come very soon!  I am aiming to finish the chandelier with the raw gemstones this week so pics are coming shortly.

Orders are coming in!

Or maybe I should say pouring in YEAH!  I'm so excited and a little overwhelmed.  I finally finished the two fixtures that I've been working on for weeks now.  The one made from the reclaimed hardwood floor is so cool!  I ended up cutting the big piece in half to make two chandeliers.  Here are some photos:

The first image is of the big piece that I purchased from Build It Green NYC.  You can see that I cut it in half to make a smaller fixture.  I used antique brass hardware on this one, it went really well with the raw wood.  You're actually seeing the bottom of the hardwood floor as the face of the chandelier.  I left the metal connector pieces on there because I felt like it gives it a more raw feel.  I love this one!!  Will be tough to let go if it sells:(

The other project was a more sophisticated fixture in the new grey stain I made.  I'm quite happy with this one as well.

I used all the same size clear globe bulbs and actually lined them up this time.  The globes are big so they're touching which gives it a unique look.

I'm currently working on 6 more orders!!  Gotta get to work:)