BrittanyMakes

Paneling a vaulted ceiling has been one of my ‘bucket list’ home renovation goals for a VERY long time. I just love the hint of texture it adds, especially in an all white room like ours. Ceiling paneling creates a level of cozy that you can’t quite achieve with décor alone.

If you’re new to this renovation, we completely tore apart our master suite earlier this summer, removed the load bearing wall that cut the room in half, walled off a new bathroom, and are about to install the European hardwood flooring of my dreams, which I’ll be sharing VERY soon!

At first, I wasn’t exactly sure how to achieve the ceiling paneling I was looking for. I don’t know anyone personally with ceiling paneling, and thought maybe there’s a specific product or method out there that I wasn’t aware of. I also wasn’t exactly sure what style of panels were best for this project: shiplap, tongue and groove, beadboard? Each has it’s own look, I was looking for something around 7” wide, anything less would appear too busy since our ceiling is so huge. I reached out to Metrie, an incredible company in the trim & moulding business. Last year we used the Metrie Complete Pre-Painted Shiplap product during the One Room Challenge in our original master bedroom (yes, confusing, there are two master rooms in my house, the “old” is original to the home, and the current “master suite” is an addition to the house and what we’re renovating right now!). When we are finished with the master suite, the “old” master will turn into the guest room.  Anyway, back to figuring out what paneling to choose, Metrie steered me to their primed 16’ shiplap boards and they ended up being the perfect option! We opted for the primed boards because we plan to paint the entire room including the ceiling (but not the beams!), and it gives us more flexibility in terms of selecting our own paint color.

Installation was fairly straight forward, we started the panels at the center beam and worked towards the exterior windows. Initially we thought we’d have to purchase new faux beams since the old ones were warped, painted, and stained, but luckily our contractor brought his planer and he planed the beams which sands down the layers of paint and stain, and smooths out all imperfections. Now the beams look brand new! And they look so good in their natural state! I might wash them out just slightly to reduce the orange tone, in attempts to complement our hardwood floors better. I just have to test out some stains and washes to see if I can achieve the right look.

The beams were screwed into the supporting rafters & center structural beam with the longest wood screws I’ve ever seen.

Our contractor starts flooring Monday! This project has taken a lot longer than we thought, but it’s finally near completion!