On my summer trip to my mom’s house, one of the project she asked me to work on was paneling her bathroom ceiling.  She had seen my powder room ceiling and decided she wanted something similar.

My mom actually has a beautiful bathroom (check out that oval window!), but the ceiling was pretty bland:

The rest of the room has very traditional features like marble counters and a chrome cross handled faucet, so beadboard was completely appropriate:

Her bathroom was a little different because it was larger than mine and required more than a single beadboard panel. (She wanted the lines to run parallel to the short sides of the room, not along the long walls like mine did.)

Because of this, we had to use 2 panels that we cut down, and be careful to align the seams in order to disguise the fact it was multiple panels, but we were very successful.  Another difference was that for my bathroom ceiling I used the larger plank-like panels, and she wanted the smaller more traditional double bead wainscot panels.



She is super pleased with the project and so am I, I think her choices were spot on:
If you want to duplicate this project (which is actually quite easy, we did the entire thing in less than 2 days and for about $100 in supplies) here are the details:

STEP 1:

Measure the ceiling and locate the ceiling joists.  You can use a stud finder or just drill holes in the drywall until you hit resistance.

STEP 2:

Cut down the beadboard (including cut outs for lights and vents).  We used a jig saw and it worked great.

The beadboard can actually be quite a bit smaller (a few inches on each side) than the ceiling since you will be masking the edges with trim board:

We also had to map out and cut out a hole for the can light.  Because you have wiggle room on the edges of the board, this is actually easier than you would think:

STEP 3:

Install beadboard.  We used a pneumatic nailer which made quick work of it.

Here is what the ceiling looked like with only the beadboard installed:

STEP 4:

Measure, cut, paint and install border boards.  Based on the size of this room we decided on 1 x 5 boards. Smaller rooms would require narrower boards to stay to scale.  We also mitered the corners, but you could have square butt joints if you don’t have a miter saw.

STEP 5: 

Add trim boards.   Unlike my ceiling, where I used quarter round for all the finished edges, my mom preferred the look of cove molding so we used that instead.  Where the border met the wall we added quarter round:

We decided to pre-paint the boards before install, just to save a step.  You will have to go over the entire ceiling with another coat of paint after caulking but it is a lot easier to get the initial coats on the boards before they are over your head:

STEP 6:

Caulk, fill nail holes and paint:

And the big final reveal:


Isn’t it beautiful?