Post 15: Dining Room Part 3 -- Beadboard Ceiling

Here we are, still working on the dining room.  Need a refresher?  Here's where we started:

And here's where we last left off:

So far, we've replaced the fan with a chandelier, taken down wallpaper, and framed in the window. 

Today is all about putting bead board on the ceiling.What you'll need for this project:

• Bead board (we used bead board planks)
• Liquid Nails
• Nail Gun
• Saw (we used a radial arm saw)

Here's my handsome fellow getting ready to work:

We started off with your basic, textured ceiling.

We used liquid nails on the back of the bead board planks (so that they won't come away from the wall or shift when the weather changes).

After the liquid nails, we held the plank in place against the ceiling and nailed it into place.

A few nails later, (okay, a lot of nails later,) and we were rolling!  One piece up, 800 to go!  (It wasn't really 800, but it did feel like it!)

Here's a closer look at the first piece.  Notice we didn't put nail holes too close to the edges.  That's because there is a lip on the edge that the next piece will fit into.

We took a few measurements to finish out the length of the wall...

...measured and cut...

...and started back at step one.  We did the best we could to line up the bead board lines, but you can see there is a small gap where it just didn't fit perfectly -- that's okay!  We fixed this later with some caulk.

Onto the next few rows!  The next piece "snaps" into the first.  It isn't a perfect fit and nothing is completely square, but with two sets of hands and a nail gun, we got it pretty close.

Here's a look at the first few rows.  We'll caulk the seams and the nail holes later -- fun!!

Along the way, we did our best to stagger the seams so that they wouldn't be as noticeable after we caulked them.

We measured and cut some more...

...and fit each piece into place.

We repeated the process about 800 times (now I'm thinking it really was 800) until we got close enough to the other wall that a plank was too wide to fit.

This time, we measured the remaining width on the ceiling and cut the boards longways (I believe that's the scientific term) to fit.

A little maneuvering...

...and MAYBE a few extra cuts...

...and voila!

The ceiling was covered!  Time to rest.  That project was a little over our heads... (anyone?)  

Here's a look at where we first started and where we are now:

Read our next post here where we'll show you how we finished off the edges!