Budget-Friendly Statement Ceiling

With my DIY sidekick (a.k.a. my dad) , we took this home office from done to dreamy. Let's walk through the steps we took to make this simple wow statement.

Step 1: Remove Pre-exisiting Light Fixture

Step 2: Mark Studs on Ceiling

Before we even did anything with the piece of wood, we mapped out how the wood was going to be attached on the ceiling. First thing was to use our stud finder to mark the studs. We started finding the studs closest to the light box. We marked them with a pencil on the ceiling and then verified the distance between each... 16" apart. We then took the measurements from the wall to the stud to get a better idea of how many studs our 4' x 4' piece would cover in its diagonal form. We wrote these measurements down so we could mark them again when we put the piece of wood in place on the ceiling.

Step 3: Measure the Light Fixture

For my light fixture, I had a 5.5" square cover and a wire box that had a 4" radius. In order to keep the wood piece within the square cover, but still allow the wire box to be accessible, I made the cut on the wood a 4.5" square. Be sure to measure and measure again before cutting. The goal is to get the light fixture cover to hide the entire opening in the wood once installed.

Step 4: Cut Hole in the Wood Piece

Before cutting the piece out of the middle, we marked the center of the 4' x 4' piece of wood. Since our square cut out needed to be 4.5", we lined up our flat ruler with the 2.25" mark in the center and drew a mark on either side.

After repeating for all sides, we outlined the square in full that needed to be cut out. I'm sure there are better tools to actually cut the hole in the wood, but all we had on hand was a circular saw. With the wood piece propped up on two sawhorses, we very carefully used the circular saw above the top of the wood and cut on the lines we had drawn.

Step 5: Stain the Piece of Wood

Step 6: Paint Rosettes & Moulding with Your Ceiling Paint

Step 7: Measure Again

To avoid any misalignment with the install, we marked the ceiling with an X for each corner the wood piece would line up with, so we could see if we were holding the piece straight before nailing it. We also extended the measurements of the studs we originally marked on the ceiling to a spot outside of where the 4' x 4' piece would go, so we could see it when we held up the wood piece to install it.

Step 8: Nail Wood to Ceiling

This part is definitely a two person job. We used 10 dark brown nails, two on each side in line with the studs and two in the area aligned with the studs.

Step 9: Nail Chair Rail Moulding

Once your main wood piece is up, you can trim out the edges using the chair rail moulding. This is where a nail gun would be helpful.

Step 10: Hide Nails Using Wood Putty

Step 11: Touch Up the Paint, if necessary

Step 12: Glue Rosettes to Each Corner

We used a swirl of glue on the back of the rosettes and the sides to adhere them to the moulding as well. We had a wet rag handy, too, to wipe off any excess glue. In order to make sure they stayed put, we used two strips of painter's tape to hold the rosettes in place while the glue dried.

Step 13: Caulk Edges (optional)

Step 14: Re-Hang your Ceiling Light Fixture

For the full tutorial and all my tips, check out the original post https://www.myhomierhome.com/wood-statement-ceiling/. What do you think of the finished product?