In Victorian times, tin ceilings were a widely available and inexpensive way to replicate the elaborate molded-plaster ceilings found in the palaces and finer homes of Europe. They stayed in fashion well into the 1950s, when many of the gorgeous tin tiles were painted over. If you have an antique tin ceiling, you'll find that restoring old tin is a big project, but worth the effort. Once you have taped plastic over all the walls, set down drop cloths and found someone to steady your ladder, you are ready to begin.
Instructions
1. Find out when your tin ceiling tiles were painted. If it was prior to the 1978 ban on lead paint, you will need to take additional precautions. In the United States, you can contact the National Lead Information Center by calling 1-800-424-LEAD (424-5323), or by going to their websites at www.epa.gov/lead and www.hud.gov/offices/lead/. They will tell you how and where to get your paint analyzed to determine if it is lead based.
2. Put on your goggles, mask, gloves and hair cover and dust the ceiling thoroughly with a feather duster or clean, soft shop rags.
3. Clean both a painted and un-painted tin ceiling with a few squirts of dishwashing soap in a bucket of warm water. Smooth out any rust spots in an unpainted tin ceiling with very fine steel wool, then buff the spot with a shop cloth.
4. Strip non-lead paint with a brush-on paint stripper designed for painted metal. Do not leave the paint stripper on for more than a few seconds. Work in small sections.
5. Buff the ceiling with very fine steel wool to make sure that all of the paint is gone. Many tin ceilings are beautiful enough at this point to leave as is. Dust the tiles once a month and wash them two or three times a year to maintain their beauty.
6. Give your tin ceiling a little face-lift if you are not happy with how it looks once it is cleaned and stripped, by spraying it lightly with a primer formulated for metals. Let it dry overnight.
7. Spray one to two coats of metal paint on top of the primer. You can use a traditional paint color such as cream for a faux-plastered look, a bright color for a modern twist or a silver metallic paint to mimic the tin's true nature.
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