The people who long wait for a change while dreaming to create a fantastic atmosphere in their home, often end up with the option of coffered ceiling. During the old days when technology wasn’t so advanced, the decorative ceilings were just a fantasy that nearly no one could afford. Even if they could, the process and installation was lengthy enough to tire the initiators. Professionals, who could install a trendy but traditionally settled and copied coffered ceiling were extremely out of the budget for most of the people, as well.
Whereas in this new era, advancement has taken up technology and ease and even the daunting and treacherous tasks could be done easily with hacks, tricks and modern tools. These days the installation of the coffered ceiling is easy, cost is economical and designs are countless to choose as per the preferences of every individual.
What is a Coffered Ceiling
People who fancy architectural textures love these kinds of coffered ceilings. Coffered ceiling is actually done with panels which are sunk into its adjoining yet suspended grid. This gives your ceiling more depth and warmth and you can also choose the panels as per your preference. These panels are mostly made of plastic flat boards and come in a standard size of 24″x24″. Their purpose is to enhance the impact of the room with wider or deeper looks for the house. If your house has the old and classic style of construction then the advisable design change for you is to go from simple to traditional coffered ceiling.
Where to Install Coffered Ceilings
In previous decades, coffered ceilings were used to create and increase the warmth of the certain rooms which were often used to welcome special guests. For instance: halls, libraries, corporate offices, conference rooms etc but most recently, it is not a thing that least can afford, which is why, people now use these coffered ceiling even in the common rooms like their bedrooms, living rooms and kitchen or select a theme to be followed in the entire house for better impact.
Installation of Coffered Ceiling
These days everything is available in the most feasible, user friendly and easy mounting process where you do not have to master a skill to design these traditional looking ceilings. Rather, you can just follow an easy manual of step by step mounting guide and acquire the most contemporary looking, coffered ceiling for your house or particular room just with the use of molded beam and dry wall compound. People who like to do, construct and mend things themselves can easily opt to attain this new look for their house but if you are a person who is not friendly with nails and bolts or hammer and drill guns then you can simply take the help of a professional who will still be pretty affordable for you as compared to the traditional coffered ceiling of the old times.
The total coffered ceiling cost that matters consists in the panels and the work employed with the installation of coffered ceiling on metal suspension along with alternative borders for the customized look and the panels that are to be placed.
Coffered Ceiling Ideas – Shapes and Styles
If beams in your house are arranged in any pattern or design they give a completely different look to your ceiling but to acquire an exact beautifully carved and installed coffered ceiling the beams should be planned and placed in crisscross pattern. The distance between the beams and the panels doesn’t matter as long as they make a perfect shape of square, octagon, rectangle or even diamond. And to create these angular shapes into your basic grid design, you can easily get and choose from variously available faux, beams and wood. There are various other options in the styling of these coffered ceilings with sunken panels and indentations.
The shape and styles of the coffered ceiling depends mostly on your choice and the room or objective you are using it for. The most commonly used styles include traditional, rustic and contemporary. As the name depicts, the traditional coffered ceiling is the simplest version of this enhancement with the very basic square grid pattern. Whereas the rustic coffered ceiling style is more liked and is ideal for creating more dramatic and dark ambience. While the contemporary coffered ceiling is the modern, advanced version with endless options of shapes and styles. Be it geometric shapes or more deep and formal ornate moldings, everything is widely liked and used.
The final look of your coffered ceiling depends more on the accessories like proper lighting, installation of fixtures and customized patterns along with the right choices of colors and materials for different rooms because these days the options are endless which can be confusing for anyone. It is therefore advisable to get the professional help who would also provide proper consultancy about which room should have what color, style and which beams are to be shaped in what pattern, to give your house an idealistic and gorgeous new look.
Coffered Ceiling Ideas – Materials and Colors
These days everyone is very particular about the interior and outlook of the house and they have their own imaginative ideas for the décor and design of their houses. To meet the needs of such people, every industry creates customized options that add to their already designed materials and colors. Same goes for the coffered ceiling tiles.
Other things to be considered in these many options are the budget and costing as well as aesthetic and innovation which is the dire need of the decorative interior designs. Also the material used for the construction of these grid beams matter a lot, especially for the installation of your coffered ceiling because of their weight and support issue.
Among the many materials that are used for the making of the sunken panels are:
- Wood
- MDF
- Polyurethane foam and plaster
- Marble
But the most commonly used material is none other than the wood. Even the weight of the wood has not been able to stop its use. Rather it is used ever so more because of it beautiful texture, strength, and finesse. Only the light weight wood is more likely to be in demand like pine and faux wood. Once their construction is done, the second step is the color selection as it is the most important element in the final look of your ceiling. The color options are numerous but you have to pick the one that could enhance your interiors and could create the ambience you require, from that particular room. The impact of every color is different and thus lighter and darker shades also have their own value. One has to be very realistic and careful while selecting the right color for their coffered ceiling.
Numerous Design Ideas of Coffered Ceiling
The criss cross beams of coffered ceiling are ideal for the home décor which is the most traditional idea of the enhancement of your house. But these days numerous contemporary styles and designs have been introduced and people love to opt for more advanced look for their rooms to blend with the modern era. Following are a few of such new and inviting ideas we have researched about for your convenience.
Classic Traditional Look
Coffered ceiling is also known as waffled ceiling as the most classic and traditional look was created with the square pattern made with the grid beams like a waffle. It’s the most used architectural style in the ancient times of Romans and Greeks. It was used to support the cathedral ceilings and share the load of the structural weight of the building in those times. Even today, they create symmetry in the construction of the flat ceiling. These could be made out of wood or plaster and are usually colored to match the need of the customer. The rhythmic pattern that is repeated in the ceiling for a perfect look enhances even more with the crown molding which is used to enhance the edges while the panels are used to enhance the texture, depth and volume of your ceiling.
Wainscoting
Wainscoting is the design made with bead board. You have to use these in between the beams. It is commonly used for kitchen ceiling in the houses or else to create the impact of country side houses. They were used in the wall designs but with the more advanced options, wainscoting can now be used in the ceiling as well. It offers more finesse where the walls are also decorative and you could use it in the architecture of the ceiling to smoothen the ceiling trims. It looks very refined and suave and enhances the entire look of your room and thus should be used for the decorative room of the house.
Wainscoting is also used to beautify the motifs on the ceiling and polishes the final look of curve designs and styles. If you have small rooms with lower ceilings then this wainscoting is the best option for your house.
Cathedral Ceiling
If you own tall, big rooms with higher ceilings then cathedral coffered ceiling is the best option for your house. Because of this ceiling, the impact that your rooms get is more friendly and easy going instead of coldness that a big room generally emits. They are used on central plane and are an expensive solution. It offers more texture to the plain surface and thus enhances the space with its texture and intricacy. It actually gives you a box pattern but depends mostly on the requirement of the customer. It act as add-on and can thus be installed later on whenever you want a new look for your room or have a budget for it. It can be paired with small designs or patterns to enhance the overall space and moldings into the beams can also be added.
Cathedral ceiling also works great for creating the symmetry in the architecture. The boxes of the cathedral ceiling can be chosen in darker shades for more dramatic look or else can be chosen after the installation so they can blend accurately with the size, height and width of the room.
Curved Ceilings
People generally imagine the coffered ceiling to be in the same traditional square grid which used to be great but it doesn’t necessarily limit the scope of the coffered ceiling to a square only. These days, all sorts of shapes, designs and styles are available in the decorative interior to decorate your personal space. These times they are purely designed by the professionals but at other instances are the result of the customization of the client and their unique demands.
The aesthetics of the client blended with the skills of the professional create master art pieces. Curved beams have no limit what so ever. They can be designed and installed later on after few years of construction or can be placed during the construction but their final look amazes the viewers. They create magic on the otherwise plain surfaces and few designs are made keeping in mind the fixtures of lights which look commendable after the placement and formation of everything.
Round, Oval, Circle Ceilings
Using this style, you can actually highlight a certain area in your room. It creates a shape over the head and thus makes your bed or dressing table the focal point of attention in the room. Most people utilize this form of coffered ceiling in their dining room to create the ambience and welcoming atmosphere in the area. Naturally with round or oval ceiling your round or oval dining table becomes the focus of all the attention that you most definitely want to achieve.
With this style of ceiling, the finesse and polish come when all the right lights are used around the beams or in between the design. A chandelier in between can also work marvelously in this form of ceiling and if you don’t have the budget for a chandelier then you can opt for an easy going big LED light with curved design patterns around it giving the look of a lamp that is emitting light around it.