Brazilian Cherry

Michael and I decided that we wanted to do a wood wall in the study, so we decided to look into it.  On Saturday we decided to make a trip to Lumber Liquidators in Charlotte.  It is extremely close to the loft.  So, we went in just to look.   We walked around and were discussing how much we should spend per square foot on this project, trying to keep in mind that this was a completely unnecessary project for the completion of the condo.  We talked about different options all of them comprised of woods that were "utility" grade.  Utility grade is flooring that has major defects, knots, open knots, missing tongues, machine burns, splits in the wood and short pieces.  But, for our wood wall project we thought it would be cool to have all the variation.  And, the price of utility wood is about $0.89 per square foot.  However, you have to figure at least 15-20% in wastes.

We walked out of Lumber Liquidators with no decision on the oak utility.  Outside of the store, Lumber Liquidator had pallets of woods.  They didn't have signs on them; they were just sitting outside.  A pallet caught my eye.  I walked directly to it.  It was a beautiful unfinished dark wood.  The wood was 3" wide and all were the same length, 12".  Each bundled had 12 wood pieces.  Michael and I could not figure out what type of wood.  Michael also had a feeling that it was completely out of our price range.  I went back in the store to ask what it was and to see what the price.

The wood was Brazilian Cherry, short planks.  And, it was $1.19 a square foot.  The store had this wood for a very long time, and it had never sold.  A year ago they were selling it at $3 a square foot.  And, if we had to order more, it would be $5.50 a square foot.  No one wanted it, and they wanted to get it out of the store.  They wanted to move it.  The store paid $0.90 per square foot for the lumber and I paid $1.19.  I bought the whole pallet.  He told me that the pallet had 300 square feet on it, but looked to have much more than that.  So, all said and done, the sales manager said I got the best deal of the day by a long shot.

The moral of the story: always ask, even if you think it is out of your price range.  

Brazilian Cherry is a very hard wood.  We are going to use it in the upstairs bathroom.  We will be laying in a brick layout as shown in the picture.  The picture is two bundles layout in the bathroom.