Dress up a boring tray ceiling with a simple wooden beam.
These wooden beams are an easy way to give your tray ceiling some character. I also painted the ceiling to add a cozy feel.
This beam project is one of my favorite DIYs I’ve done in this house so far. I work with Minwax from time to time and this project was accomplished using their amazing product.
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A lot has changed since then! Those beams and painted ceilings add a lot of warmth to this space.
A look at the tray ceiling reveals potential projects. I have seen many treatments of this kind of ceiling, from adding crowns to attaching wood to the tray section.
This was a different interpretation than the typical tray ceiling treatment. Love What happened!
I worked on the first part of this project, so I took the steps a little later. I really wanted to paint the ceiling and then stain the wood, but I was at the mercy of someone else’s schedule, so I did the reverse of what I usually recommend. More on that later.
The goal was to create “beams” around the sides of the tray ceiling. He had two choices. Take the lumber and nail the sides and bottom on the table saw and it will look like this: truth beam.
Alternatively, nail two timbers together to create the appearance of a beam. You can see the seams at the joints, so you can’t tell what it looks like. very Just like the real thing.
We chose the latter. The main reason for this was the use of very long timbers (two 10ft and two 16ft). I don’t think the mitered corners match perfectly in length.
I’m glad I didn’t go in that direction. Without the extra steps it would have taken a lot more work, but the end result looks nice.
Adds support to ceilings and walls
First, you need something to attach the wood to. A wooden “beam” has only two sides: the bottom and the sides.
So the ceiling pieces (which must be attached to the studs) were there to stabilize the sideboards, and the wood attached to the sides of the ceiling in the tray were there to hold the bottom pieces.
I hope that makes sense. The arrows point to where the timbers that make up the beams were attached. You can see the bottom of the beam starting in the photo above.
You don’t need a full size board. You can also do it with scrap materials. Make sure they are the same overall distance from the tray wall.
Attach the sides and bottom of the beam
Once the bottom piece is up, nail the sides to the board attached to the ceiling, then nail to the bottom piece. The arrows show where to hammer the nails.
When you’re done, you’ll have a “beam” running outside the tray ceiling.
Like I said… the ideal way to complete this project is to prep the beams before you hang them. I painted the ceiling after the wood was up.
Painting a ceiling is never fun, but I finished it sooner than I thought. I applied two coats using a long paint pole.
While moving around the room, we moved furniture around and draped everything with a large paint cloth. I had to climb up and down a ladder a million times to cut around the tree.
Painting before the wood stretches makes it much easier as you don’t have to worry about notching.
painted the ceiling Westchester Gray by Sherwin Williams (Flat finish!) And it’s time to start the dyeing process. It was a lot easier to complete than I expected, even though the wood was already in place.
prepare for stains
I taped the ceiling and started with products that I consider very important, especially in projects such as:
More importantly, it gives you time to color the wood. This is very important for projects with such large pieces.
It is important to keep a “wet edge” when dyeing. That means you have to be careful not to apply the stain and let it dry at any point. That way you know where you stopped and started.
This wood conditioner makes it harder to remove dirt and gives you more time to remove it.
Color and protect wood
Over the years, I have found that the easiest way to apply the stain is with a cloth. Gloves are required!
Simply wipe off the dirt with a cloth and rub it against the wood.
Can you see the edges are wet and touching the part I just did? (The stain on the right looks dry, but has just been applied.) If the wood is unconditioned, some of the lines will remain. And it doesn’t look good.
It came together beautifully thanks to the pre-conditioner. No lines!:
I did the first coat of paint on the first beam and went down to check. I usually use stain her one time only in my projects. Additional coats will deepen the stain, but are rarely needed.
I love provincial colors, but this pine leaned a little more orange. I didn’t even notice until I stepped back.
It’s a beautiful color! Definitely more brown and that’s what I was hoping for.
Here are the differences: The left side is the Provincial and the right side is the Jacobean coat overlaid.
This is another reason why I love working with stains. You can experiment with different color layers to get a custom look. You can even pre-mix stains to find the color that best suits your needs.
Again, you’ll need gloves and a clean cloth to apply. You can see that with the poly on the left, the dirt gets deeper and looks even better.
There is one caveat here. If it gets dirty, it will produce smoke. I had the windows open all day long and the air purifier running all the time. We didn’t sleep in this room for several days.
After everything dried, we were finally able to enjoy this room again…and we’re obsessed with the ceiling! It looks great and I couldn’t be happier.
that completely The atmosphere of the whole room changes. It doesn’t darken the room at all. It just adds a warm, custom feel that you just love to lay in bed and look at. 😉
The ceiling is high and there are many windows, so there is no feeling of blockage at all.that do It makes us feel cozier and that’s our favorite part.
I’m also considering painting the dresser, but haven’t decided yet. Maybe black?
My favorite part is the before and after photos. Remember how it was a few weeks ago?
And what happened after this ceiling and beam project! Doesn’t the fixture look good on a dark ceiling?:
Here are some tips for this tray ceiling wood beam project.
- It would be ideal if the staining and painting could be done before the wood went up. But it wasn’t that big of a deal to do it after that. I thought it would get worse!
- I didn’t cut the width of the board. I cut the ready-made board only to length. 1×4 board and he used a 1×12 board. We found a 16 foot long board at our local lumber store (I don’t think the major hardware stores carry that length, but I could be wrong).
- The 1×12 I used for the side pieces didn’t reach the bottom of the tray ceiling, but it didn’t bother me at all. You don’t even realize it.
Check out another one of my favorite stain remakes here!:
