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Reclaimed Wood Sample: How to Test Real Barn Wood Before You Buy

Reclaimed wood wine wall with bottle racks and a red Wine sign, a customer install

East Coast Rustic doesn’t sell a reclaimed wood sample pack. The smallest order is one 20 sq ft box of real 3/8 inch barn wood, and we think that box makes a better sample than a chip in an envelope. It ships free to every US state except Alaska and Hawaii. If you like it, it becomes the first 20 sq ft of your wall.

Does East Coast Rustic sell reclaimed wood samples?

No, there’s no separate sample pack. Every color and width sells in 20 sq ft boxes, so one box is the sample: $205 for the brown 3.5 inch reclaimed wood planks at today’s sale price, or $270 for the grey 3.5 inch planks.

Box of thin reclaimed wood planks, about 20 square feet, the smallest order and the best reclaimed wood sample
One box holds about 20 sq ft of planks in mixed lengths.

Here’s what one box costs in each line right now:

  • Brown 3.5 inch: $10.25 per sq ft on sale ($11.75 regular), so $205 a box
  • Brown 5.5 inch: $10.75 per sq ft on sale, so $215 a box
  • Grey 3.5 inch: $13.50 per sq ft, so $270 a box
  • Grey shades 5.5 inch: $14.50 per sq ft, so $290 a box

Since even the cheapest box is over $200, a single box qualifies for free shipping to any US state except Alaska and Hawaii. Orders usually leave the next business day by UPS Ground and arrive in 3 to 7 business days.

Why a full box tells you more than a sample chip

A sample chip shows you one board. A finished wall is dozens of boards side by side, and with reclaimed barn wood the spread from board to board is the whole look, so 20 sq ft is about the smallest amount that tells you how your wall will read.

Brown 3.5 inch reclaimed wood planks laid together, showing the shade range from board to board
Brown 3.5 inch planks side by side. The spread between boards is the look.

Plenty of reclaimed wood sellers mail out two or three short pieces for a small fee. That’s fine for confirming the wood is real and checking the thickness. What it can’t show you is how dark the wall goes once forty boards sit together, or how the random lengths stagger across a 4 foot run.

Our planks come off barns that stood for 100 years or more. One box might hold pale honey boards right next to deep chestnut ones, with a few showing old saw marks. If your three-piece sample happens to be the three lightest boards in the barn, the real wall will come out darker than you expected.

We’d rather you see the full range before you order 200 sq ft, laid out the way it’ll hang.

It’s the same wood that went up in the Baltimore Ravens studio and in a home Gordon Ramsay picked it for.

How to test a box of reclaimed wood at home

Lay the boards on the floor in a block about 4 by 5 feet, staggered like a finished wall, and look at it in daylight and again at night under your own lights. That one mock-up answers most of what a sample is supposed to answer.

Brown reclaimed wood plank wall next to a white door frame in daylight
A customer's brown 3.5 inch wall in daylight, next to a white door frame.

A few things to check while it’s laid out:

  • Warm bulbs push brown planks toward amber. A north-facing room makes grey look cooler and bluer than it does in photos.
  • Hold a few boards against your floor, cabinets and paint. Brown planks over a red oak floor can blend into one big brown mass, and sometimes the grey line looks better there.
  • Keep the end joints from lining up in neighboring rows. Our stagger layout guide shows the pattern.
  • Every plank is about 3/8 inch thick, close to the thickness of a pencil. That’s why it goes up with construction adhesive and a brad or two anywhere, and you don’t need to find studs.

Open the box within 48 hours of delivery. If anything arrived damaged, email photos of the boards and the box to [email protected] with your order number.

And don’t install anything until you’ve decided. Our return and shipping policy takes unused, uninstalled boards back in the original packaging within 7 days of delivery, less a 10 percent restocking fee, and you pay the return shipping. Email us before you send anything back.

Brown or grey? Order one box of each

If you can’t pick between the two color lines, order one brown box and one grey box together. A brown 3.5 inch box plus a grey 3.5 inch box is $475 at current prices, and seeing both in your own room settles it faster than any set of photos.

Grey reclaimed wood accent wall behind a cream sofa in an open living room
A customer's grey 5.5 inch wall in a living room open to the kitchen.

Grey costs more per square foot, and there’s a reason for that; our post on what makes grey reclaimed wood different covers it. In a room, grey reads cooler and sits well with white kitchens and black hardware. Brown warms up a space with wood floors and leather.

Width is worth testing the same way. The 5.5 inch boards look calmer across a big wall, and the 3.5 inch boards look busier and more detailed. The grey shades 5.5 inch planks are the widest grey we carry.

The second box can go back unused under the return policy or become a small project of its own.

What to do with the box once you’ve decided

Put it on the wall. If you go ahead with the full order, your test box is simply the first 20 sq ft of the job, and if you don’t, 20 sq ft is enough for a small project on its own.

Reclaimed wood bench wall with iron coat hooks above a white storage bench
A customer's bench wall with coat hooks, a small job that suits a single box.

For the full wall, use our guide on how much wood you need for an accent wall to count boxes with 10 percent extra for cuts. Order the rest soon after you decide. Barn wood comes in lots, and a later lot can run a little lighter or darker, so when the boxes arrive, pull boards from all of them as you go instead of finishing one box before opening the next.

A single box covers these small jobs well:

  • A bench wall in a mudroom, about 5 feet wide by 4 feet tall
  • A section of wall behind a bed, like our reclaimed wood headboard idea
  • The back panel of an open bookcase or a pair of shelf niches
  • The front of a kitchen island or a small bar

More ideas for partial walls are in our reclaimed wood wall decor post.

Frequently asked questions

Do you send free samples of reclaimed wood?

No. East Coast Rustic doesn’t offer a sample pack. The smallest order is one 20 sq ft box, which ships free to every US state except Alaska and Hawaii because every box costs more than $200.

How much does one box of reclaimed wood cost?

One 20 sq ft box is $205 for brown 3.5 inch planks on sale ($235 at the regular price), $215 for brown 5.5 inch on sale, $270 for grey 3.5 inch and $290 for grey shades 5.5 inch.

Can I return a box if I don’t like the color?

Yes, within 7 days of delivery, as long as the boards are unused, uninstalled and in the original packaging. A 10 percent restocking fee comes off the refund and you pay the return shipping. Email [email protected] with your order number before shipping anything back.

Will the rest of my order match the box I tested?

It’ll be the same product line, width and color range, but no two boxes of reclaimed wood are identical. Order the rest of your wall together and mix boards from every box as you install, so no single shade clumps in one area.

Related reading

See the wood in person

The brown 3.5 inch reclaimed wood planks are the lowest-priced box to start with.