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I am trying to convince my wife that we should put plywood squares on the ceiling. A bit of history first though...
Last year we removed several walls in the kitchen and with them a bit of ceiling. It freed up space that previously had been two closets and a hallway, a door wall and an adjacent wall with cabinets and turned it into a dining room and kitchen that is open to the living area. It was an incredible transformation, it was as though this was what it should have been in the beginning. Unfortunately, the ceiling was damaged beyond repair in the process, and a lot of it had to come out. The original plaster job was fantastic, a real work of art. I could never reproduce that finish, even getting the thickness right has been a colossal PITA. But, we are nearly done with at least filling the holes. Yes, we works slowly. The walls are done at least, and the floor is covered, if only temporarily.
The textures are different in all three areas, kitchen, old hall, and living room. Kitchen is smooth, naturally, hall had a stippled texture, and living area and rest of house is a swirl.
My idea is to use birch plywood squares that are stained to match the cabinet faces to cover the area. I know I have seen this somewhere, but i can't find the pictures.
My wife would like to see an example. Though we have seen walls like this in stores, and restaurants, she is unwilling to commit to it yet. I know I can't blend the textures, there needs to be some kind of defining feature to seperate the area.
Ideas, links? Thoughts or other options?
Thanks!
Michael
This is an interesting idea- I really like the look of wood on ceilings. BTW, I have seen plastered ceilings like you are talking about- my grandfather's house built in the early 1950's in Great Bend, Kansas, had different patterns in every room- swirls, whorls etc. I thought was beautiful, too, and I can't imagine being able to reproduce it!
Tell us a bit more about what you are thinking of- will the plywood be veneered and finished, or a more industrial look? Will you try to use an invisible mounting method or work something into the design, like brass finish screws? Would you consider wood planks? Cork? Skylights?
I'll look around for photos of finished installs of wood covered ceilings. I have found that most restaurants/shops have no problem with you going in during a slow time and taking photos of one or two details for your home...if you ask nice and make it clear it's for your home.
I've seen flooring used for ceiling coverings. It's a unique look, and probably not too difficult to accomplish.
I remember a Divine Design episode once that had a floating dropped wood ceiling, with little tiny (very expensive imported German) lights peeking through like stars. It was stunningly gorgeous. IIRC, it was for over a bed, but doing something like that over your kitchen with can or other types of embedded lights would be stunning. By floating it, you could build it and then install it, rather than building it in place.
How big an area are you talking about? And do you have a peninsula, island or bar? An alternative would be to do the wood over that element to define the kitchen area rather than the whole ceiling.
The panels will be attached with screw/bolts through the plaster, and nuts and washers in the attic. This will prevent any fasteners from being seen, and it will make it easy to remove and patch up if we ever change our minds, or want to change the color of them. I don't have the technical term for them, but the screw/bolts have a machine thread on one end, and a wood screw thread on the other. I would like to try and get away with using only 1/2 ply, but I will see what I can come up with. I have some to experiment with in the garage, left over from a cabinet build.
I would like to simply polyurethane the panels, just a clear or matte. We don't have any can lights to deal with in the dining room, just one chandelier fixture, and I can accomodate that easily enough.
I was thinking 3X3 panels perhaps, straight unfinished edges, and the ones on the perimeter would be the ones with the best edges, or fill the small gaps you always get with plywood.
The area is hard to describe, because it is an odd shape.
I think a picture is in order.
Yes, I know the tree is not decorated. We put it up late yesterday. And that the chandelier is crooked, one of the lids to the "globes" was missing when I got it, I got it at a habitat for humanity store, same place I got that ikea print on the wall. Also, there is still a hole in the ceiling, and the projector mount is unfinished. I haven't decided what to cover the bottom with. FWIW, it is made from the same 1/2 ply I will attempt to make the panels out of.
But, you can see the area is oddly shaped, sort of like a Z, but that shape is not set in stone, I could just as easily make it a flowy S shape. The house is a late forties streamline modern ranch. Over the years, previous owners have taken pains to eliminate it's individuality, and streamline modernity, but we are trying to work with it. One thing at a time.
I think my wife is just concerned it won't look good on the ceiling. Simple enough, I think finding a photo of a ceiling that is similar will help. But I may not be searching well enough, in the right places.
the closest thing I came up with was on the trading spaces site, which doesn't have the best pictures of the finished product-but does have good information about how to DO it. That said, if you realize that dropping the word "plywood" from your description, you're talking about a panelled ceiling, which is done in very high-end installations, and would look great with your projector's "cradle." It's important that it look finished, though- and furring strips are key. Enlarge the photo- its a wall treatment.
Looking at your space, I think you need to ensure that you're thoughtful about the impact ( in my mind, positive, but strong) this will have on the space. Essentially, you need to square off that space and make a good clean line if you are not installing in the entire area. Second, you need to know that you will be creating what feels like two spaces- and they better be "breaking" in the right places or your room will feel off. So, if you have a contigous space, with two uses, eg dining and living, you can use a ceiling treatment to demarcate one from the other very effectively.
I know you like the plaster ceiling, but I wonder if the two textures will work well together? One is very light and airy, intended to make the ceiling kind of dissapear, and the other makes the ceiling a focal point. Would you consider taking the panelling across the entire room? If not, you will need to figure out how you are finishing off the break off point- probably a piece of moulding.
I see what you mean. I think that it may still be our best bet, outside of hiring a professional plaster contracter, and there is very few of them left at all.
I think I will just have to cut some squares up, put them up, and see what happens. I will update the thread as I go.
We are doing this with wood bead board for the same reason... I got the idea for ours from someone's kitchen on THS... I'll see if I can find it. We have our bead board up but not the furring strips so it might not be one to convince your wife
I'm not sure if I can find it again but if I do I'll post it
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