|
Going Up?
When we planned our two story living room, I only knew for sure that I wanted to make a statement without making a statement - you know, something really profound but not so obvious that it hits you in the head... so I looked upward for answers.
I had been in a custom home out in the middle of the Big Thicket where a carpenter had built his own house and the first thing I noticed when I went into the main living area of the house was the ceiling. It was wood planks. That was kewl, sort of, but the room was a long and narrow space that contained living room, dining room and kitchen under the same, moderately peaked, single-story ceiling. To me it felt like I was in a wooden fort or in the bottom of an old ship or something. If that’s what the builder was trying to achieve, he did it.
 But my house was an updated farmhouse on the outside with very contemporary interior features like bullnose corners on walls, eyebrow-arch windows in the second story, and Corian countertops in the kitchen. I could tell, though, that my husband loved the look of the ceilings in this house so I decided to incorprate that into our design scheme.
Our 2-story ceiling in the living room begins extending from the wall at a height of about 19 feet above the floor and peaks at 24 feet in the center, so we wouldn’t have the drawback of feeling like we were inside a little wooden box. We also have what I call a “pass thru” center ceiling line - we have the same exact ceiling contour from the front door to the back door, so we repeated the exact same ceiling treatment in the 2-story entry of the house (pictured above). If you didn’t know better, you might think that we have wooden planks that run from front to back continuously through the middle of the house, which is the intended effect.
 We chose a beaded pine flooring material (not wallboard) from a local lumber yard that was a 6-inch wide plank with a single beaded division, tongue-in-groove joints and a few knots - I don’t like knots but I compromised on that. We got a selection of varying lengths: 6’, 10’ and 14’ long pieces.
We stained every piece in a light oak finish (our floor is red oak) and coated it with satin finish polyurethane because I didn’t want it to be too shiny. We also bought some 3/4” quater-round trim to trim out the edges in a tidy little way that woudn’t detract from the impact of having flooring on the ceiling. Traditional moldings would look too cluttered and out of place.
 Our best tool investments during this phase of building were the three-level scaffold, a rubber mallet, and a pneumatic brad nailer. Ok, an electric nailer might have been better - that’s what I would have used - but my husband has a whole collection of pneumatic nail guns and I’m not about to try to convert him now. The need for the scaffold is obvious - who wants to be 20 feet above a concrete floor on a ladder trying to nail a 14’ long board in place? We borrowed this one from a friend but you can rent them as well. The rubber mallet was used to tap the planks into their respective grooves - before I made the trip to Wal Mart to get the mallet, the guys were killing themselves trying to hold up a plank and place a wood block on the edge and hammer the block with a regular hammer... sheesh, men. The nailer made quick work of attaching the boards once they were in place. It took three of us about two days to completely cover two ceilings once the polyurethane was dry, one over a 16’x25’ area and the other over a 16’x14’ area.
 For lighting, we chose can lights in four spots in the living room (two on each side) in addition to a complete light kit on the ceiling fan. (More about the ceiling fan later) All the lights have dimmer switches so you can get just about any sort of light effect in the room you need. We ran a 2”x2” strip of pine, stained to match the other material, down the center joint. We lucked out and both sides of the ceiling actually WERE the same linear size - amazing - so each side of the ceiling has the exact same number of planks and the last plank toward the center is trimmed out in exactly the same place on each side - the symmetrical architect in me is happy about that.
It was easier than hanging sheetrock, that’s for sure, but putting wood on your ceiling will cost more than drywall. The clincher for me happens every time someone walks in the room, sits on the couch, and five minutes later says, “whoa, what a cool ceiling!” - that’s what I wanted - not “in your face” design elements, but more like, “when you get a chance, look up here and be surprised... “
Now all I need is that blasted $1200 fan and I’ll be set...
~ .\\
Win $200 in free house plans!
If you’ve got a woodworking project or tips you’d like to share with us, send it The Fix Chicks at tips@thefixchicks.com. If we publish your project or tip, we’ll send you a free Fix Chicks coffee mug just for playing nice!
|
