Wood Ceiling Styles

A light wood ceiling with recessed lights can make your home feel open and spacious.

Wood ceilings can enhance the decor of your home, drawing attention to the ceiling's height and architectural features. They can also make a large room feel smaller and cozier. The type of wood ceiling you choose will depend on the architectural features you want to accent, the feeling you want to create in a room and the type of lighting fixtures you want to include.

Tongue and Groove

Tongue and groove plank ceilings are lengths of wooden planks linked together by tongues and grooves on each plank and nailed into place on a subceiling platform. The strongest subceiling is the original plywood ceiling framing reinforced by 2x4s. Tongue and groove planking can be very heavy. However, tongue and groove is also a very versatile ceiling material. You can stain it with a light stain to match the wood floor below for an airy feeling that reflects light from a sliding glass door in a kitchen, or you can stain a tongue and groove plank ceiling in a bathroom in a dark walnut to give the bathroom a more cozy feel.

Paneling

A wood laminate paneling ceiling mimics the look of tongue and grove planks; however, the material comes in sheets of paneling that are generally lighter in weight and thinner than wood planks. Board and batten is another type of ceiling paneling that is designed to mimic cottage wainscoting or outdoor porch ceilings. The paneling is nailed into place on a subceiling and may make it easier to measure and mark cutouts for recessed lighting, skylights, stairwells and other hard-to-fit ceiling spaces such as dormer windows. Lighter stains on a wood laminate or board and batten paneling ceiling may accent unusual ceiling lines, such as an A-frame ceiling or dropped ceiling lines in a multipurpose space. It may also accent the jewel tones in oriental carpets and other floor coverings. Use a darker stain on a paneling ceiling to give your indoors a more rustic, lodge-like atmosphere.

Wood Inlay

You can also use wood inlays on your ceiling that extend downwards onto an accent wall in a living room or multipurpose space with white plasterboard walls and ceilings to make the room feel warmer and to add visual interest. Create continuity by matching the ceiling and wall wood inlays with the stain of the wood floor. Use a simple block of wood paneling on the ceiling and the same on the wall, or create your own wall shapes such as a square, zigzag extending to the floor, dotted lines of wood, a T or an inverted U that outlines a doorway.

Open Rafters

Open raftered wood ceilings are particularly effective with an A-frame roofline with a triangular peak window that is timber-framed and/or a glass wall to flood the room with light. The support rafters can extend straight across the room while accent rafters can crisscross over or under the supports. This type of wood ceiling can also be used with a partial or full room skylight to provide a different source for daytime lighting while using recessed lighting around the ceiling at night. An open-raftered ceiling can create the illusion of spaciousness within a kitchen or family room that is designed with a rustic motif.

Tags: paneling ceiling, architectural features, ceiling lines, groove plank, into place, into place subceiling