Bedroom #2 wood ceiling. Part 1.
We had many different plans for the ceiling of our largest guest bedroom (affectionately titled “bedroom #2″) but finally settled on a plan last month. With a pile of clear pine leftover from flooring jobs throughout the house, we decided to stain the T&G flooring and use it for the ceiling. It just so happened that we had exactly the right amount of boards needed (40) with none to spare.
The plan was vaping tonal values from dark brown/walnut to light orange/cedar. They would be installed randomly for a somewhat modern rustic look, but critically: all would be full length. There would be no cut boards. The wood ceiling measures (roughly) 11′ x 17′ (the bedroom is larger than this, but 1/3-2/5s od the ceiling is drywall, not wood) so all the boards would be a full 11 feet. The wood is beautiful completely clear south yellow pine. A few of the boards had be bleached my me over a year ago for use in white floors elsewhere in the house. And some boards have uneven sunburn lines after sitting stacked in our unfinished master bedroom in direct sun.
I selected a range of 6 Minwax colors and stained 4-8 boards in each color. Plus 4 more with only Watco Dark Walnut (which on pine results in a generally ugly medium brownish board... equivalent to nothing found in nature, LOL, but in my variety pack here, worked well and filled a vacant color slot). Chosen colors were Dark Walnut, Red Chestnut, Red Oak, Gunstock, Colonial Maple, Golden Pecan and Classic Gray.
Favorite? Two actually: 1. Gunstock by a long shot. It took to the pine better than all others with a high contrast result and was less blotchy as well. 2. Surprise! The Watco Dark Walnut pulled out sparkle in the grain and looks better in the mix of ceiling colors than it did alone on the floor.
Happy with the result and high on VOCs, I gave them all one coat of Minwax semi-gloss poly (I hate unsealed pine after its been stained --it looks cheap).
General success.
For photos of the pine being installed on the ceiling, see Part 2 of this post.