Like those new jeans that were factory-treated to look a little beat up? Then you’ll love the lumber from downtown L.A. Arts District company Timeline Inc.

The two-year-old company buys fresh, sturdy wood and applies finishes to make it look old and worn. Then the company sells the “designer lumber” for a premium.

The wood is used most often for flooring or wall paneling, though some people build furniture such as tables or shelves out of it.

Co-founder Matt Stroud came up with the idea for selling faux reclaimed wood while traveling the country doing custom woodwork for clients of his carpentry business. He noticed a lot of people liked the look of reclaimed wood but could rarely afford the time or money it takes to install.

“Reclaimed wood has a lot of hidden costs,” he said. “You have a set rate to buy the wood, but there’re so many things you still have to do: pulling nails out of it, fumigation for the pests that might be in there, milling the wood down to the actual size you want … applying the finish so you can clean it and it’s protected.”

Nevertheless, Timeline’s prices aren’t necessarily cheap. Hard woods such as oak cost up to $26 a square foot and soft woods such as pine cost up to $16 a foot. For comparison: Pine from a local lumber yard can be had for less than $2 a foot.

Stroud started Timeline with his girlfriend, Shelby Keyser, in 2010. Last month, Timeline got its largest order to date from recreation retail chain Cabela’s Inc. in Sidney, Neb., for 9,000 square feet of faux reclaimed lumber to install in five new stores.

It’ll be a big job. For each piece of lumber, Timeline employees apply the finish by hand. Keyser and Stroud have two full-time employees.

Keyser said they’re looking for space in the Arts District to expand as soon as possible so they can up the company’s manufacturing and storage capacity.

“When that happens, we’ll be looking for more people,” she said.