Reclaimed Wood Bench

I was given a piece of very thick wood from friends that looked like it was part of a house or barn at some point in its life. I had the reclaimed wood for about a year before coming up with a piece to make with it. I decided to mill the board for the top of a bench. I quickly realized the wood was not wide enough for the bench seat. I decided to rip the wood down its length and leave a slight space between the 2 pieces. The problem was it totally changed the look of the piece. You really couldn’t tell that the 2 pieces were from the same board. I thought about scraping the whole bench. Then I remembered my friends had given me another piece. I milled up the second board but it was fir and not pine like the first board. Since I had already ripped the first board into 2 pieces I decided to put the fir between the pine and really liked the new look. I epoxied the pieces together. I finally achieved the look I was going for after I distressed the milled wood with some old keys. The final piece is reclaimed fir and pine top with solid maple base painted navy blue.