Lime (venetian) Horsehair Plaster From 1900; Pigment-Waxed Walls; Ivy leaves in Green Gold to Match

Ivy Leaves Glue-up Styrofoam Ceiling Tile 20 in x 20 in - #R37

Additional Information

Product Name With Model #: Ivy Leaves Glue-up Styrofoam Ceiling Tile 20 in x 20 in - #R37

Posted By: JFS

Color: Green Gold

Project Type: -Ceiling

Select Your Room Type: -Living-and-Dining

Did you hire a professional for this project?: No

Tips: 1. Look carefully, when ordering, to make sure whether your pattern is "directional" or "rotational." I didn't do that, and was down to my last full tile plus useful cut-offs, by the time we were finished. 2. getting the tiles up nearly perfectly isn't so much a matter of watching the corners, as sighting along the edges, and along linear design elements, in both directions. 3. Unless you're excellent with puzzles, if you have detailed shapes (windows, triangles, spaces where beams meet at not-exactly-90-degrees) put up all the easy tiles first, then make a template for the tough ones. 4. They actually look more authentic (given the age and patina of the walls and trim) for being on a surface that has some gentle bulges and troughs. You see that with real tin ceilings, too. 5. When "crossing" a beam, you can a) mentally continue the pattern "through" the beam b) mirror the pattern at the beam or c) fudge it to within an inch or so, if the beam is wide. There may be other solutions that also work, but these worked for us.

Describe Your Project: After a century or so, wallpaper doesn't stay stuck to high-gloss plaster. Result: exposed, glossy, venetian-plaster style lime plaster from 1900. Walls were mostly in good shape, but the ceiling (and one section of wall) had been patched with a variety of products (gypsum plaster, spackle, wood plugs, caulk, etc). In spots, the ceiling wallpaper (and paint) had been re-glued with everything from tar to gorilla glue liquid nails to epoxy. Same for a section of wall, where a leak had been fixed, by a high window. Additionally, in one ~3 x 4 foot section, the lath under the plaster had loosened from the ceiling beams, allowing the plaster to droop. I (re) waxed the walls (warmed paste-style floor / bowling alley wax, with natural pigments added). We next found and marked the (irregularly spaced) beams partially by tapping, partially by using a beam finder on the floor above, and partially by trial and error. We sucked the lath and plaster back up to the beams by screwing two yellow pine boards (as exposed pseudo-beams) onto the beams, then tightening the (heavy duty Spax and headloc) screws a bit at a time. Next, we ascertained that the remaining paper and paint were still sound, and did additional patching to smooth discontinuities. Finally, we covered the hodge-podge of surfaces with the styrofoam tiles. (One small section is bare, awaiting a last, non-structural bit of beam; that'll be our spring project.) The tiles were by far the quickest (!!!!!) and easiest (!!!!!) part of the process, despite the multiple strange angles. We're very pleased with the overall effect. The tiles are similarly real-looking (and a pleasant match) in natural light and artificial light. Love the colors.

Would You Recommend This Project To A Friend And Why?: Finding ceiling beams under a dropped surface, then installing heavy lumber, is a complete misery. If I had not needed to do it for structural reasons, I'd absolutely used one of the lightweight "fake beam" products from here (or gone "all tile.") The tile itself was an absolute breeze, except for spots where we had to cut more than two sides at angles (and even then, mostly because nothing in the room has ever been plumb, level, straight, or precisely perpendicular or parallel to anything else).

How Was Your Experience With Our Company And Why?: Excellent follow up to questions. I didn't expect that the caulk would ship far in advance of the painted tiles, and they were able to clarify that it was AOK that one shipment was nearly on my doorstep, while the second one hadn't yet left the warehouse. They both got to me in perfect shape, and as rapidly as promised.

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