Should we paint all the ceiling white in our cottage?

11 years ago

last modified: 11 years ago

We have a cottage built in the early 1970s. It is extremely well built with an amazing cathedral ceiling. Our dilemma is should we paint the entire ceiling white, just paint the orangy coloured pine paneling white leaving all the beams, or paint the paneling and beams leaving only the large centre support beams in their current natural state?
Note: we've removed all the carpet, all the brown brick and painted all the walls white. We are going to put in medium brown hardwood floors and cover over the fireplace to make it more modern. Many thanks for everyone's input! Kendra

Featured Answer

hahamoley

11 years ago

When I moved into my present house 30 years ago, I thought about painting the beams and ceiling white, but I'm glad I didn't. My living room ceiling is about 16 feet tall and had quite a few water stains from a leaky roof. The bedroom and bathroom ceilings were pine and dark beams as well - plus water-stained. I painted the bedroom and bathroom ceilings and beams white. Even though I used pigmented shellac, water stains and knotholes bled through within two years. Finally I used an oil based primer and made it to 10 years before I recently had them repainted. I'm so glad I didn't paint the living room beams and ceiling because it would be awful to have to deal with bleed through there. Instead. I stained the pine slightly darker and beams slightly darker. It makes a nice contrast to the white walls.

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Comments (15)

Ramona
11 years ago
last modified: 11 years ago
Start with the ceiling without touching the beams. I think you might like the contrast. Are you leaving the wall paneling natural? I would do this in stages, studying the effect at each stage, but my guess is that leaving the darker beams will be a nice contrast and keep the panelling you don't touch tied in.

If the walls are already white, meaning the panelling, we need to see pictures of that in order to get an accurate picture.
kendragrant thanked Ramona
PRO
User
11 years ago
I think it depends on the type of spaces you enjoy being in. There is no one right answer for everyone. What style of furniture do you plan to decorate with and do you plan on keeping the existing cabinetry? What a great space!
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kendragrant
Original Author
11 years ago
last modified: 11 years ago
@Ramona Thanks for the advice. I like the idea of leaving the beams BUT the time to paint (and then maybe not liking it) is a concern)
We did paint the walls white - right now there's just a primer up to cover the knots. We've demo'd everything so these pictures aren't very nice :) There's also a white primer on the subfloor. The floor will eventually be a darker hardwood. In the kitchen we knocked down the two walls (non-load bearing) which eliminated the dark brick veneer.
kendragrant
Original Author
11 years ago
@ Compass Rose Design. It is a great space. You'd never know it from the outside. It is hard for people to envision the design with the kitchen area overlooking the family room (that overlooks the river). I am going to keep the one set of cupboards (you can see them in the left bottom picture above) as a second kitchen in the breezeway. These are amazing custom made cabinets with a wood look laminate (very 60s) so we won't be keeping the remaining cupboards. Attached is our tentative design for the kitchen (and master bedroom).
PRO
Ellsworth Design Build
11 years ago
Aesthetically I would vote for painting the ceiling white leaving the beams wood. White shellac is your only hope for getting rid of knots...
kendragrant thanked Ellsworth Design Build
B Bert
11 years ago
I like the ceiling now that you have the white primer up.
kendragrant thanked B Bert
kendragrant
Original Author
11 years ago
@hahamoley Thanks for the advice. We painted the walls in another cottage that were knotty pine. We used a product with shellac (Bin) and nothing bled through in the 4 years we were there. Good point though. It is one of the reasons I left the walls over the winter with the primer on just to make sure it still works :)
hahamoley
11 years ago
Kendragrant, you may not have the problem with bleed through that I had. My ceiling had little insulation and a metal roof so it was very hot - and probably contributed to the problem.
kendragrant thanked hahamoley
magada
11 years ago
last modified: 11 years ago
Any water soluble pigment will "bleed" through a water base paint ; primer AND top coat should be oil base to prevent this.
Water base top coat can pull pigments even through an oil primer believe me, been there.
kendragrant thanked magada
Martha Carlton
11 years ago
My sister bought a Pacific beach house that looked a lot like yours then had the entire inside spray painted white ( she didn't have hardwood) except countertops and tiled area. The result was similar to this

Surfside Chic Nantucket · More Info
Irene Morresey
11 years ago
I like the look of it all painted white like Martha posted, more of a wash
kendragrant thanked Irene Morresey
magada
11 years ago
last modified: 11 years ago
As for your painting dilemma kendragrant, thats a really great house and interesting structure you have there and i feel something awesome could come of it if you get it really right.
I'd invest in a few hours of pro consulting for a few new angles if poss, i think it'd be well worth it.
kendragrant thanked magada
greenfish1234
11 years ago
No white ceilings. Ick. The all pine was too much but you have solved that problem. They look great now.
kendragrant thanked greenfish1234
kendragrant
Original Author
11 years ago
Thanks for the advice on the knots everyone! You can take short cuts with them or they just bleed through. Here's my old cottage where we painted all the wood. This one was only 500 sqft so it definitely improved it.