Faux Tin Tile Ceiling Reveal!

When I purchased my house the ceilings in the entire house were all covered with the one foot square tiles (I've been told the name of these but can't remember it right now - oh well). I had no trouble deciding that I didn't like those and wanted a different look. So the task began of bringing them down. Pictured below are my niece and nephew the day I bought the house, not sure why they wanted their picture on the counter top but it shows the ceiling tiles this way so it a good thing for me.

The ceiling I found that I loved the most were the tin tile ceilings.  I'd already decided on stainless appliances and a stainless back splash.  I knew a tin ceiling would look so cool with my red walls and appliances.

Then I calculated the price!

So much for a tin ceiling.  From my rough calculations (I'm an accountant, I do pretty good calculations), it was going to cost me over $4000 to install a tin tile ceiling in my kitchen & dining room.

After hours of research on the internet.....a found a faux metal tile ceiling look that interested me. I decided to use a paintable, textured wallpaper and a two-step metallic paint to mimic a tin tile ceiling. I purchased the wallpaper @ Lowes for around $18 per roll. It had the look of a 4" tile with a flower burst in the middle, not an exact match to my back splash but similar. I ended up buying 8 rolls but only should have used 6 rolls. I ripped the paper down 4 times before I finally got the seams to line up correctly ummmm old house = nothing square or plum. But hey, the fifth time was a charm and it only cost me 35 bucks to get it right - I've had more expensive mess ups before. I'm pretty sure the paper is made by Allen Roth, but forgot to keep the label. I followed advise I read on a blog while researching the faux tin ceiling look and decided to cut the wallpaper into squares (kind of like metal tiles would come). So I made the length the same as the width of the paper. I sat in front of the tv and cut these on the floor, it took several hours to cut it up - I won't lie to you. I started out using a utility knife but quickly switched to scissors. My lines weren't as straight with the scissors but they were so much easier to handle.

It was a pain at times to line up the seams of the paper tiles I'd created, but I don't see how I would have papered an entire ceiling row at once. A 20" square tile was more than I could handle at times. If you attempt this look, I recommend cutting the paper into tiles.This is my fifth attempt to get the lines going straight. The theory of wallpaper sounds so easy, I don't have a clue why I kept getting everything out of whack (this isn't my first time papering either). I gave up on the stated directions of starting in a corner since mine aren't square and choose to get the hardest piece out of the way first - under the already installed ceiling fan. If you look closely in the picture below you can see where I'd ripped off still somewhat wet paper and it left an imprint on the ceiling. Also, once a tile dries on the ceiling/wall - don't try to reuse it. Just bite the bullet and throw it in the trash - yes this was a lesson I learned the hard way. I know you can mix up a glue mixture and reapply it, but that mixture is stronger than the prepaste that comes on the wallpaper and is a tad bit harder to get down when you decide it isn't going straight again. The finished wallpapered ceiling. I did contemplate just getting a white gloss and leaving the ceiling white after I had all the wallpaper hung. I'm not sure exactly how long it took me to do this part of the job - I started and stopped frequently after my 5th restart. I'd work on it a little in the evenings until my neck would start hurting. I had other things going on so I didn't get to work on it every evening. I think it took me almost 2 weeks to finally get all of it hung. I let the ceiling "sit and rest" for a few days and then got out my Elmers glue and fixed a few corners that weren't sticking like they should be. Then on the following weekend I decided I was ready to paint.

The first paint in the two-step process is the Valspar Semi-Gloss Finish from Lowes. I had them mix it in the Pewter color (I looked online for color swatches of their metallic finishes but gave up on that search) - you can get a wide variety of metallic finishes, the copper looks cool too - I painted my utility room a light orange, a copper ceiling in there??

This paint kind of freaked me out when I opened it and started stirring and stirring and stirring, it was super thick and sticky (yes I mean sticky) - not at all the consistency of normal wall paint.

As you can see from the picture, it went on dark. For as thick of a paint it was, it covered the ceiling very well but you did have to put a little muscle into it. So similar to the hanging of the wallpaper, I took several breaks to let me neck and arms rest. But I did finish it in one Saturday afternoon. It was tacky to the touch so I let it rest overnight. The second coat - Valspar Brilliant Metals from Lowes.

This paint is a gloss and has the metal shiny, sheen effect. Plus it covers up any of the little bumps and ridges in the textured wallpaper that you didn't quite get enough of the thick, sticky paint on.

Drum roll please! The finished ceiling after the metallic gloss coat...... I absolutely LOVE it! I love the way daylight coming in the window shines off it.

When you stand long enough and stare at it you can see the seams from the wall paper, but hey tin tiles would have seams too and this cost me over $3700 less to complete plus I don't have noise echo issues like I would with metal. After buying 2 extra rolls of wallpaper I spent just under $250 for the wallpaper and metallic paint.

Now I just need to get the crown molding up, finish the shadow boxes above the cabinets, finish building & painting the kitchen island and install the flooring! Easy peasy, should be done in oh......3 months, ok maybe 4 months :)

When the ugly white tiles came down we found this....I wasn't happy about the wallpaper I found on the ceiling, I was hoping it would be all wood and I could just do a white-wash finish and leave it antiquey (I know this isn't a real word but you understand the meaning!). Anyway, I was told that I shouldn't remove the wallpaper on the ceiling do to the age of it and not knowing what type of 'glue' was used. You can see the pretty living room tiles in this picture too, I'm telling you the whole house had those tiles. and this would have been another problem with leaving the wood.....the newer edition has newer wood - imagine! I can't believe they didn't search around for the same wood as the 100 year old original house when they added on. Geesh, what were they thinking. So, when we hung the sheet rock on the walls I gave in on my hope of a wood ceiling and had the ceiling sheet rocked too. Then I started researching options of ceiling finishes.

I'm BACK!

Hello Maude, it's me again! I know I've been a terrible blogger recently, I just been so busy.....this is going to be a long post. I'll get pictures up soon of my progress and a recap of sports I've been shooting.

After Christmas it felt like I was at a basketball game 3-4 times a week, wait a minute I WAS at basketball games 3-4 times a week. I made custom storyboards in different sizes for each of the 8th grade boys that their parents presented them on the last home game. I also made an album for the coach that the boys presented to him that same night. Once junior high ball ended I was at the high school games and then volleyball began. Volleyball ended last night, track practice started yesterday with the first meet in 2 weeks - it never ends!

One weekend toward the end of basketball I had a 3 hour session with the junior high cheerleaders, it was a lot of fun. The junior high boys won regional and competed in state (didn't place but we're still proud of them) and the junior high cheerleaders also competed at their state (6th place but deserved 2nd at the very least in my opinion). I had a fun weekend in Springfield watching the cheerleaders, reliving high school memories.

I was hired by a couple other schools to shoot some of their sporting events - that's exciting! I didn't intend to become a sports photographer but always loved participating and attending sporting events of all types plus I understand the rules and flow of the events for the most part which I think is necessary to capture good sports pictures.

In addition I've done several newborns, toddlers and a few family sessions. I've also shot 2 birthday parties (80 & 90 year old folks) with extended family group pic's. So that's what I've been up to the last 2-3 months.......sports and pictures.

On the house renovation:

I'm having a love/hate relationship with red paint. I can't get it on without showing brush strokes and I've painted many a room, inexperience isn't the issue. I purchased an additive a few days ago on a friends recommendation that's suppose to reduce/eliminate brush strokes from showing. Repainting again this weekend and will let you know.

I'm 75% done with my kitchen/dining room ceiling! WooHoo!! I only restarted it 5 times, Sunday I tore half of what I had done down and kept going until I was done with that part of it (my neck and shoulders weren't happy with me Monday morning). Tonight I'm going to buy the cabinets & supplies necessary to build my kitchen island. Tomorrow Michael is coming over to move my light (it's about a foot off from being centered over the island which will bug the heck out of me if I don't get moved). Once he moves the light I can do the last step of the ceiling and it will be DONE.

I'm also purchasing the crown molding tonight. Hope to find time this weekend to at least get it painted and maybe hung next week if I get the red paint to cooperate.

Once the ceiling & walls are done and the island is semi built, I can finally lay my kitchen floor. Am I ever ready to have an actual floor and not a wood sub-floor. The only major thing remaining in the kitchen/dining room is the deck door (it's a window right now). I still have to find the one I want at a price I'm willing to pay. It'll be a May/June project.

I still need to remove the bottom cabinet doors (again), sand them this time and repaint them. I also need to paint the shadow box area by the ceiling - I'll have to show you a picture to explain it. I think I've narrowed down my fabric for curtains.

Hopefully by Easter I can start to decorate this area - hopefully.
I think that's enough of a 'catching-up' post for now.

But why can't I sand it.....

Conversation from last night with my cousin Danny (the contractor/our remodel advisor)......so, Danny meets Dad & I at my house to answer a technical question or two dad needs clarification on before tackling the next project.


Dad had started tearing out the shelf unit between the living room and kitchen that I want to be an open area - no walls / no shelf unit / no beams. When he had most of it torn down he realized that the beam the framed the doorway was a support beam - bad news for me - and that the beam/joice it's supporting in the ceiling is bowing - more bad news for me. After Danny explained to dad how to build a support, jack wall and replace the joice I asked him about the ceiling.

Dad had removed the ugly tiles in the kitchen & dining room per my request. I was happy to find that there was an old slat ceiling in there but unfortunately they'd covered it with felt and layers of wallpaper (yeah for me, more wall paper!!)


and into our conversation.....

Me: Any suggestions on the best way to get the wallpaper off the ceiling and lightly sand the slats?

Danny: You don't

Me: Yah, I want to sand the slats and whitewash them - it'll look cool - I saw it on a blog

Danny: Then put up new slats

Me: Don't want to buy new ones, how do I clean these

Danny: You don't, either buy new slats or put up sheet rock

Me: Don't want to do that, what's wrong with these?

Danny: By the looks of them they're from the original house

Me: I know, that's what I like about them

Danny: Understand, but you don't know what's on them. You don't know what they treated them with a hundred years ago or what they used to put up the felt or what type of adhesive was used for the paper. Good chance there's something up there you don't want to stir up. I understand the concept of what you want to do and if you want painted slats you need to put new wood slats on top of the existing.

Me: Seriously. Well that's not the answer I was looking for.


So, now I have a ceiling without ugly white tile but with felt and wallpaper half attached in most places on old dark brown slats (that would look sooooo cool whitewashed by the way) that I'm told I can't touch and need to cover with something........any suggestions? Since I did ask his professional opinion I guess I'll listen to the advice and leave the old stuff up there alone (secretly protesting that decision though). I'm thinking I'll probably go back to the tin tile ceiling look for the kitchen & dining room.


On a good note - Dad started framing out my bathroom yesterday! Isn't that wallpaper lovely. It's one of the 4 layers on the slat boards that was under the sheet rock I/dad knocked down.

Kitchen inspiration

So as you just read in the previous post (or will read in a second), I just purchased a house! Bad news - it's almost 100 years old and in need of some serious TLC.

One of the first rooms I plan to tackle is the kitchen. What cabinets are in the house are a dark wood and there's CARPET in the kitchen! While I would love to gut the kitchen and start from scratch, that's not in the budget at this moment. Below is a picture of the kitchen (with all cabinets/drawers open thanks to my nephew. Notice the pretty green paper on the door backs - don't you just love that!

So my plans include at the moment:

1.) Paint the existing cabinets white (undecided if top cabinets will get doors put back on - doubt it)

2.) Remove nasty carpet and 'hope' hardwood floor underneath is in decent shape, if not it'll get painted in a checked or striped pattern. Okay when I started this post a few days ago until yesterday when I finally took possession of the home and riped up one corner of the carpet I thought there were old tongue & groove hardwood floors in the kitchen. I still think that floor is there (I can see it in the basement - know it's there), unfortunately when I pulled back the carpet I found old tile that my brother thinks were installed with a glue that's been since banned and will require full haz-mat suits to remove......so the kitchen floor is in limbo - something will have to be put on TOP of the tile floor because the carpet will be going real soon.

3.) A refrigerator & stove are a must since the house doesn't have either and I'll probably get a microwave too, although I rarely use one, but my nephew (Johnathon) is worried that I won't be able to make popcorn if I don't have a microwave! Silly boy doesn't realize you can make popcorn on the stove top.

4.) Knock down a wall and make current bedroom into dining room

5.) Move current back door over 5 to 6 feet so it lines up with the stairs and gives me more wall space in the kitchen.

6.) Remove green colored paneling and replace with sheet rock

7.) Add a few floor and wall cabinets by stove and fridge. I hope to have enough room to do a floor to ceiling pantry style cabinet on outside of fridge, not sure I'll have room though.

8.) Remove facing above cabinets and make into a shelf to store baskets and such. This is not going to be what I'd once thought either - not as much room as I thought I'd have when I finally got the house and starting 'poking' around - still going to try it though.

9.) Install floor & wall cabinets on far wall in the new dining room.

10.) Replace window in new dining area with 15-lite patio door that will eventually lead to a back deck that I'm going to build (hopefully sometime next year, which may been when the window becomes a door too!)

11.) Cover ceiling in tin tiles. This may have to wait a bit but will happen at some point, I love, love, love tin ceiling tiles in a kitchen.

12.) New light fixtures throughout kitchen and new dining room

13.) Install outlets - there is only ONE outlet in the whole kitchen - Ugh, that won't work

14.) Kitchen Island - this may also wait a bit but I hope not since my new floor plan is kind of built around it. Don't think it should be too terribly expensive to make, it's just a few cabinets and a counter top with electricity ran to it - how hard can that be?

15.) Eventually I'd like to replace the counter top with either stainless steel or butcher block - most likely a combination of the two. Unfortunately the existing counter top is in good shape so I can't warrant replacing it right now, but one of these days....

16.) Food disposal and new faucet - stainless or brushed nickel

17.) One day I'd like to get a farmhouse sink also, but that's definitely one that will have to wait - have you looked at the price of those.

The primary color in the kitchen will be white. As of right now I plan to paint the dining room/kitchen walls a dark red and accent with yellow. Of course I hold the right to change my mind about that at any given point in time!! And going back and proof reading this post I realize after reading my to-do list for the kitchen that in the end I'll pretty much gut the kitchen with the exception of a few existing cabinets & the counter top, hmmmmm.

Below is a little inspiration for the kitchen design floating around in my head.......please realize if you come visit me I expect to be working on my kitchen/dining area for quite some time. Upgrade/remodel could likely take me about a year to complete. I'd love to have it done in a month but don't plan to hire a contractor to do it which means it'll be on the slow track (basically I'll get done what I can and then wait for help from brother & Dad). While I want to do as much of the work as I can, I'll admit now that I'll need help - somethings I won't be able to do by myself and other things I don't know how to do - yet anyway. To slow things down a bit more, we're in the middle of baseball season - 3 young one's (two of my brother's who's helping with improvements and he's the coach!) and they don't understand when you have to miss one of their games.

Love this island, but I think I'd like one that's bi-level with bar stools and butcher block top

Clean & Crisp - black, white & stainless - can't go wrong

French country kitchen - love just about everything in this kitchen
Love, love, love this look.....don't know about you, but I'm liking the look of the open cabinets, and once again white & stainless!

Pantry organized in jars with a chalk board door - how cool is that!

I've been downloading pictures from the internet for several months now while waiting to close on my home and failed to write down the website or link as to where I got the pictures. If any of these belong to you or you know where I got them please feel free to contact me and I'll get proper credit posted under the pictures.