Fix this wood ceiling? or replace it?

last year

We have been working on this wood ceiling to make it look better but it keeps having challenges.
First we had it sandblasted because it had dark brown painted beams and whitewashed gray planks. It didn’t still didn’t look great so we tried taking some of the non structural beams down. The dark color stain stripes is where the beams originally were. After they were down we noticed someone had the bright idea of taking a track saw or something and slicing an uneven deep cut line into the middle of each section.

On top of that, the structural beams have silly notches all over them and little pieces sliced out to make them look rustic but we think it just looks bad.

Do we go to the trouble of trying to fix this? We tried to sand off some of the dark stain / you can see that by the patio door. We also tried to do a wood fill on the structural beam…
But how would we fix those cuts? And is it worth the time, cost and energy?

Or do we just put new tongue and groove boards running vertically over it (pine or Borneo mahogany). And put a faux beam on top of the structural beams?

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Comments (9)

HU-104169096
Original Author
last year
Close up of beam
Lyn Nielson
last year
after all the work/expense you've already done, I personally would keep the wood as is, and stain it all in a dark even color tone. The ceiling is high enough so keep the walls light/white and

Focus on the rest of the room. with your lighter floor choice. Don't accent the trim(s), paint it the same color as the wall choice.
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apple_pie_order
last year
last modified: last year
White wallboard and white painted beams. At some point, you may feel like you have done everything you can, and the allure of a clean new finish will be strong.
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PRO
Patricia Colwell Consulting
last year
I think a good drywall job is in your future and IMO that ceiling is just not worth trying to fix love the look of the ne posted here from apple -pie-order
rainiel
last year
last modified: last year
Put the divider beams back, stain it all dark or paint it white to hide all the imperfections or cover it over. Personally I would tear it down, drywall over it all including the beams and paint it. Your trying to put lipstick on a pig and it never has a good outcome just a lot more money spent for a subpar look.
mojavemaria
last year
Seems like putting new wood over it may be your best choice. We clad an exterior front porch ceiling in T&G pine finished with Danish oil and it looked great. You could experiment with different finishes before installing your new planks so you get the look you want.
PRO
Sabrina Alfin Interiors
last year
I wouldn't keep that ceiling. If you like the general idea of a wood ceiling, I'd replace it with a slatted ceiling instead:
cat_ky
last year
I would go over the top of it with a new ceiling. Either new wood, if you like that look, or sheetrock, if you like that better.
AnnKH
last year
I think it would be worth the relatively low investment (in time and materials) to stain the whole ceiling dark, which will hide a lot of the glaring imperfections. If that isn't good enough, you're stuck replacing.

If it was me, I would feel like the effort expended so far would not be wasted if I could make it a uniform dark color, to be able to live with it at least for a while.