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Studio Renovation: Planked Ceiling (post 3 of 4)

Studio Renovations
1. Studio Renovation: The Beginning (post 1 of 4)
2. Studio Renovation: Structural Repairs & Design Plans (post 2 of 4)
3. Studio Renovation: Planked Ceiling (post 3 of 4)
4. Studio Renovation: Complete!
5. Studio Renovation – here we go again!
6. Focusing on a Finish – Studio Bathroom Renovation
7. Studio Bathroom – sink, faucet, toilet, and tiles!

I should begin by saying that I never thought it would be easy to plank the ceiling in my studio, given that we had to work around the roof’s trusses and a lot of times you see planked ceilings in spaces where there are no trusses (for example: here). But, this project has not been nearly so arduous as I thought it would.  In part, that’s because as the ceiling goes up, it becomes so obvious how RIGHT it is.  It’s so pretty in there, guys!  Seeing it take shape so beautifully filled up my energy tanks!

When last we left off, at the end of September, the ceiling was prepped for planking and had spray-in insulation.  November was a month of craziness for Jon and I; we took turns traveling for work, then hunting season & Thanksgiving travel took up the rest of the month.

During that time, we gathered and prepped materials, but did not install anything.  I bought the beadboard planks and gave them their first coat of paint.  Notice the nice tongue and groove on these boards…the quality is amazing and has been so helpful while installing (sourcing info is below).

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These boards come in various widths, I chose the widest board they had at my local lumber yard, they are about 7″ finished.  Each plank has two sides–the one showing in the photo above has a groove down the middle so that each board looks like two boards.  The other side doesn’t have a groove, the board looks like a single board.  We decided to install the boards with the grooved side showing; I did this for aesthetic reasons, but it also was useful at a tricky point in the installation, which I’ll discuss when it comes up.

Other studio progress has been rolling out.  A fair amount of the furniture that will be going in the studio is being painted white, including a pair of chairs that came from Jon’s childhood home.

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I took advantage of some holiday sales and snagged this electric fireplace / space heater.  It gives me a way to add a quick burst of heat to the studio in the coldest months.

 

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During these slow weeks, I thought through all of the steps we’d be taking and made a list of all the tools we’d be needing.  I then managed to borrow a compressor, nail gun, and floor nailer from a neighbor, which was a real money-saver!  Jon and I already own the other necessary tools: jigsaw, chop saw, measuring tape, laser levels, rubber mallets, etc.

Once it came time to install the ceiling, we started from the bottom of the south side.  The first row had to be fit in between the trusses (which are almost all 24″ apart, but some are a tiny bit more or less as it is an older building that has settled a bit) These first short boards had to be cut to measure and then installed so that they were all at the same angle along the top, to line up with the next board.  This was really fiddly and time consuming, but once they went up and the next board was nested onto them, we felt very accomplished.

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At this point, we realized we had skipped a step and we needed to cover the ends of the room, so we ran out to the store and bought these lovely gray panels.
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And then we were off and running! The room is 24′ long and the boards are 12′ long; which makes life fairly easy.  Each row is made of two boards; we used a repeating pattern of: 12/12;  3/12/9; 6/12/6.  As with a wood floor, varying the seams increases the strength of the structure and is pleasing to the eye.

The high quality of the lumber was a real gift.  We have ZERO warped boards and the wood was strong and flexible.  We were able to bang directly on the tongue of the planks as we slotted the boards in.  This caused no damage!   Each plank is secured in place by nailing through the bottom of the tongue, so that the nail head disappears into the next board’s groove.

As we moved higher, we realized that we needed different ladders than the ones we had on hand.  Thanks to #countryliving we had two more ladders at the house in a flash (our neighbors are awesome!)

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Now, look at the photo below and see how the angled trusses go through the planked ceiling?  Jon worked some real magic to get those looking so great.  We would load the boards up there, he’d trace the necessary notches, and then cut the wood while up there!  In the photo, Jon is holding a saws-all, he actually used a jig saw for this step.  While I helped with the installation, this was one step that was a one-man job, so while Jon was sawing, I was puttering around below him with other tasks (I didn’t want to leave him alone in the studio, up a ladder with power tools).
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One of those tasks was made possible by it being freakishly warm in Michigan this December; I was able to paint my windows (the walls aren’t done yet in the photo below.)  The color was picked to go with the aqua fireplace I showed you earlier.

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By mid-December, we had all the windows painted, and the south side of the ceiling installed.  🙂  You can see the wood tone in between boards; these seams will disappear with the next coat of paint.

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Christmas is a major holiday for Jon’s family, so not much happened that week, except for taking our niece and nephew out to buy lumber for the center seam and the other finish work.  These are city kids whose parents don’t have much occasion for DIY-ing, so we thought it would be fun and educational to take them on these errands. They also learned to feed the goats!

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We started on the north side of the ceiling on December 26th.  It slopes down over the kitchen and bathroom, which still have their drywall ceilings, so working on the first few rows was uncomfortable–being careful not to put weight on the drywall means putting all one’s weight on skinny beams…ouch!  You may notice that Jon is not so amused that I’m taking this picture…

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Below you can see our borrowed ladders.  That extendable aluminum one is particularly fantastic; it feels very sure under your feet, even as you stretch out to bang on planks or reach for an air gun!

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The north slope of the ceiling proved a little bit trickier than the south because as we reached the trusses–which remember, we had to notch our boards to get around–it because obvious that the seam between the boards was going to be in an awkward place.  To solve that problem, we ripped one row of boards in half (making it about 3.5″ wide instead of 7″), we then added a groove to the ripped board, and installed that half-board.  This meant that our seam would be through the trusses, as it had been on the other side.  I can’t believe it only took one sentence to write that out!  Doing the work took hours!

Remember how we installed the boards with the grooved side showing?  This is the step that would have had to have been done differently or looked much worse if we were installing the boards with the other side out.  The groove conceals the fact that we’ve got half-width boards mixed in with whole-width boards.

By the first weekend in January, we had all our planks up!  That Saturday, Jon’s mom came over and painted the walls while I worked overhead, priming the trusses.  In photographs, the bare wood of the trusses looks pretty good, but in person, they looked dirty and were a pretty wide variety of colors, so painting them was the obvious choice.  It really felt so much more open in there as they were primed, one by one.  I can’t wait to paint them and really see the difference.

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This weekend, I finished up priming those trusses.

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There’s still a lot of painting and trim-work to be done to complete the ceiling, but I’m so excited about how far we’ve come!  It’s like having a completed first draft of a term paper, and knowing that it still needs time and attention, but is going to be so very great.

 

 

Resources [Amazon links are affiliate links]

Awesome aluminum ladder: Little Giant Ladder System borrowed from neighbors

Electric fireplace: Duraflame 8511, available widely in black and cream, the aqua color is exclusive to QVC.com

White paint: Popped Corn from Behr from Home Depot

Aqua paint: Refresh from Sherwin-Williams from Lowe’s (SW6751 or HGSW1306)

Primer:Water-based low-odor primer for wood from Meijer (grocery store)

Ceiling planks: Gorman brand.  Purchased from Chelsea Lumber (local lumber store)

Grey panels at ends: Purchased from Menards.

Air compressor: Dewalt Emglo Compressor borrowed from neighbors

Air gun: Dewalt 18-Guage Brad Nailer borrowed from neighbors

 

 

 

This Post Has 4 Comments

  1. I am enjoying watching the process of creating your studio. Thanks for sharing it with it. The plank ceiling looks great.

  2. Your studio is looking amazing!!! How wonderful your husband and mother in law are to help you with your dream studio! Thanks for sharing, I love seeing the progress!! Happy New Year!!

  3. The Little Giant is the best ladder ever. I remember my man obsessing over buying one, they were so expensive. Now, he has a few for his business!

    Also, would it not be easier to spray the ceiling for painting?

    1. It probably would be easier, but we don’t own or know anyone who owns a sprayer, so we’re just going to do it the old-fashioned way.

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