How to Carve Faux Beams

Study the wood grain in your sample and sketch it onto a piece of paper. Some grains such as walnut and pine are distinctive and bold. These make more dramatic beams than smooth grained woods such as mahogany. Practice drawing the grain until you can mimic the flow.

Set your styrofoam on a pair of saw horses, or other waist-high work support, outdoors, in a garage or other area where foam dust will not be an issue, as there will be a lot of it.

Draw the wood grain pattern you practiced on one face of your foam, with a permanent marker. Try to incorporate intricate details, such as knot holes and long veins of grain, with clear, lightly grained sections. The goal is to add enough detail to be convincing and interesting, without making the pattern appear busy. Refer to your sample often.

Continue drawing wood grain on the other sides that will be seen, making sure that any details that would flow to the other sides of the beam in real wood, do so in your drawn lines. Step back a few feet from your work every few minutes to make sure the pattern looks right.

Start carving at the edges, by rounding them over slightly with a hand held, dremel-style, rotary tool with a shaping stone bit. Round some areas over more than others to make the edge slightly uneven. Next, move on to your lightest grain areas and carve the lines of the grain into the surface about 1/8 inch deep. For knot holes and larger details, cut the lines slightly deeper. Cutting grain lines deeper than 1/4 inch will make painting more challenging.

Sand the entire surface of the beam with 150 grit paper to smooth out any roughness. It is best to do this by hand, so the paper can be worked into the details. Use a shop vacuum to suck the foam dust from the surface.

Paint the beam with semigloss latex paint. Use at least four colors chosen from individual tones in the wood you used as your sample. The most obvious color in your sample (typically a yellowish or reddish brown), the lightest color in the highlights of your sample, the darkest color in your sample and black. Take your wood sample with you for comparison to the paint colors available.

Apply the colors with a medium sized, soft bristle brush, dipped in all four colors, successively. This will layer the colors on, with various tones coming out more distinctly in some areas, much like wood grain. Work in long, straight strokes with the faux grain you carved. Cover the entire surface in this manner. Allow the paint to dry thoroughly before proceeding.

Use a small brush to add the darkest brown mixed with a small amount of black in the grain, knot holes and other detail areas in your grain. Wash the brush and use the lightest color, mixed with a small amount of the medium color to lightly outline these areas, to mimic natural highlights.