It’s been a crazy start to the One Room Challenge already. I laughed because after doing a major renovation last spring, I told myself to pick an “easier” room this spring. And then I decided to rip down the ceiling.
Many rooms in our home have these acoustic tile ceilings. I have always hated them. My thought is, I spend all this time making the rest of the room look gorgeous, but then if you look up, there’s this ugly ceiling. Last year, we ripped ceiling tiles out in our enclosed porch, to find gorgeous original bead-board ceilings (see picture above). I didn’t think we’d get so lucky in other rooms. Since I’m tearing up part of the dining room anyway, I decided now was a good time to demo the ceiling tiles in here.
Thankfully the tiles came down pretty easily about a row at a time. They were stapled into some furring strips and under that plaster & lath with some vintage wallpaper. This was a messy process so I made sure to wear eye protection and a mask, but overall it didn’t take too long to remove this existing ceiling. I did have to go around with pliers and a hammer pulling many stray nails and staples, and that part was a bit tedious.
Up next for safety, I turned the power off to this room and removed the existing light fixture, capped the wires with wire nuts and electrical tape, and installed what’s called a blank plate over the electrical box. This allowed me to work safely in this space and around the electrical box until I’m ready to install the new chandelier.
Now as far as a new ceiling goes, I really wanted wood planks, but with always rising prices of lumber, I opted for good old fashioned drywall. This is not my first drywall project, but it is my first time drywalling a ceiling. This was different than most of my projects. Usually I work alone, rely on my own strength & skills, and if I mess something up, it’s completely on me. If you’ve ever worked with drywall, you know there is absolutely no way I could’ve lifted it. I 100% had to rely on someone else, and trust that they wouldn’t drop anything or allow me to get hurt. Thankfully I roped Dylan into being my drywall hanging partner, and he was great. He of course was an extra set of muscles, but he also helped me cut each piece, provided encouragement along the way, checked in on how I was doing, and reminded me to take breaks to rest, hydrate, and even eat some candy bars.
We hung all the drywall in an afternoon, and have been resting our sore muscles since then. Up next, mudding the seams, primer, and paint! Make sure you check out the One Room Challenge Blog to see everyone else’s amazing progress as well! One Room Challenge Apartment Therapy
bonita by rachel 