Parlor Ceiling Vibes

When we moved into this house almost a year ago (holy moly I can't believe that's even a true statement), the fist thing I did... and I mean LITERALLY the first thing I did, was grab a crowbar and start removing the ceiling tiles in the large entertainment room, which we have now endearingly dubbed "The Parlor." To be totally honest, I don't have any idea what is required for a room to be called a "parlor," but I do know that we have one now!

The tiles that were on the ceiling (the ones I removed immediately) were a styrofoam like tile, and they just were not my thing. We knew our plans for the ceiling from the start, but it took us a while to finally muster up the courage to tackle this job. I've always wanted a coffered ceiling. I absolutely love the way they look. However, because we live in an old home, I didn't think a true coffered ceiling was an option in this room, because it would come down even lower than the current height. I wanted something to bring the eyes up, and so I landed on a kind of "wanna be coffered ceiling," which we achieved by using bead board mdf panels and 1x6 mdf boards.

As I mentioned, we always knew the design, and so when our contractors were working on our house, we had them attach 2x2s to the ceiling so that we would have something to screw the bead board into. In most houses, you can probably just attach to ceiling joists, but our house has radiant heat (and therefore copper pipes running throughout the ceiling), and so the 2x2s were necessary in order to ensure that we would have proper spacing for attaching the boards. The size of the boards is really personal preference, but we landed on our design because we knew we wanted two long beams on the ceiling, so we spaced them in a way that was aesthetically pleasing to the eye.

Now, as for the hanging of the actual boards, this is DEFINITELY a two person job. If you happen to follow me on Instagram or Tiktok, you will know exactly why I say this (see here and here). There are a few different options for hanging the bead board, but we decided to screw into the 2x2s since we knew gravity would be working against us. We did use a finish nailer to throw some extra nails in here and there in order to prevent drooping in the middle of the sections. Once all the boards were cut (we used a circular saw) and hung, we were ready for the "beams." We hung them along the seams, and also screwed these into the 2x2s. Once that was done, and our arms were sufficiently burning, we had to fill any visible nail or screw holes, caulk the seams, and paint. Seems easy enough, but I'm telling you right now that if you're doing this project, you won't need an arm day any time soon.

That being said, I would do this project over and over and over, because the results are absolutely stunning. I honestly can't believe this is the same room that I was removing ceiling tiles from last summer. So if you're room needs a little something to bring the eyes up and you're looking to tone those shoulders from summer... this one is for you!