Nursery Update: The Ceiling is Finished. . . Almost

Hello and happy Monday! If you saw the post on Friday then you know it was a crazy week around here last week. We, thankfully, did not get it as bad as Atlanta and my

heart definitely goes out to the people stranded there on the interstate or sleeping in stores. I promised on Friday that I would be back today to share the progress we have made on the nursery. Well here it goes.

The ceiling for the nursery took MUCH longer than anticipated. (I feel this always happens with DIY projects we undertake, anyone sensing a theme.) So, instead of the one weekend or really one day we thought it would take us, it took two full weekends of work. However it is done now, and I love it. I thought I would quickly share how we accomplished this in case any of you are crazy enough to attempt a ceiling redo.

First things first, you must gather the appropriate supplies. For us a life saver in this project was the air compressor and finish nailer we bought. I would not have wanted to tackle this project without them. Here is a list of the supplies we used to get this job done.

Supplies: 

1. Air Compressor 

2. Finish Nailer

3. Nails

4. Chalk Line 

5. Molding Removal Crowbar

6. 4 inch Wide Solid Wood Planks (V-Grooved) (these can be found in the wainscoting/bead-board section of Home Depot)

7. Lock-tite Power Grab

8. Stud Finder

Now, on to the "how we did it" phase of this project:

Step1: You need to measure your room and decide how many packages of the wood planking you will need. Then you must remove the molding if you have it around the ceiling. 

Step 2. Since you are working on the ceiling you will need to find where your rafters are. These should be every 16 inches on center. 

Step 3: Once you determine where these are located then you need a way to mark it. Here's where the chalk line comes in handy. Mark your rafters all the way across the room.

Step 4: Once you have these marked you are ready to begin placing your planks. We did on 8 foot section and then a 6 foot section alternating each line. 

Step 5: Apply the Lock-tite power grip to the back of one of your pieces. Next press it up onto the ceiling. This is where two hands come in handy. Have one person hold while the other person nails the board into place. 

Step 6: Repeat the process along the width of the room until the whole ceiling is covered with wood planking. 

As you can see its not a difficult process to wood plank your ceiling, but it takes a lot more time than originally anticipated. Also, if your ceiling is not level (like ours), you may run into some bowing issues with the planking. Luckily, we fixed this by creating small gaps between rows until we were back to level.  The V-Groove planks allow for a little gaping without letting the drywall ceiling show through. Now all we have left to do is put a sealant on our beautiful ceiling. Let's hope that process doesn't take as long as putting this bad boy up did. 

Hope you guys enjoyed this project. The next nursery update will be the painting of the walls and a special mural for our little boy. I can't wait to show you guys!

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