Wood Barn

I’d had this idea for some time and was determined to at least try it out. It looked great in my mind and would, I thought, have the effect of dropping down the relatively high ceiling to make the room more ‘enveloping’. I wanted to attach thin oak slats to part of the ceiling. Creating a wide strip of wood running from the double doorway to the sliding patio windows and outside to the lovely view.

There were two risks with the idea, the first was practical, could it be done? The second was aesthetic, if it could be done, would it look striking and have the effect I’d imagined?

If I’m being completely truthful, none of us had any idea if the ceiling plasterboard would be able to bear the weight of the slats or whether it would all come crashing down one day. Unsure of this, our builder recommended we think of something else, even though he liked the visual plan. I was more gung-ho and decided we should at least try.

I’d already pre-ordered the slats, 2400mm long x 65mm wide x 10mm thick. I’d asked Winkleigh Timber to leave one face rough and un-planed to give the slats a more textured look. Whilst each one felt light enough, as a pack, they were heavy!

Having painted the area to be clad, black, we set about randomly cutting lengths and gluing up each slat. We started with mitre glue. This was very quick and required virtually no support of each slat, literally 30 secs holding in place and it was up. Only, 10 minutes later, they fell off. Pulling paint with it! Our joy at our first couple of lines going up was quickly subdued. This wasn’t going to work.

Our next solution was to buy some tubes of sealant adhesive. Sticks and binds to anything it said. The issue here was, drying time. It took 4 hours or so to cure and hold fast. We only had 3 ceiling props so this was going to be a very slow process. After a couple of days we had 4 lines up. However, horrifyingly, slowly but surely, they were falling off again. They weren’t secure and the wood’s natural tendency to bow, combined with the fact the sealant was bonding with the paint and not the plaster board itself, meant the slats were very unstable.

Back went the tubes of sealant and in it’s place, I bought some Evostik, “Sticks like sh*t” adhesive. This had a faster drying time and in the meantime, I’d bought more ceiling props. We were now getting a bit desperate to make this work but were also even more determined. There had to be a solution.

This product seemed to be the answer. In a few hours, we finally had a finished ceiling. Time would only tell if the weight would be too much for the plaster boards! Importantly, the slats were staying up, for now.

The result is we have a unique feature on our ceiling that does exactly what I’d hoped it would. It makes the room feel more cosy and warm. It balances the wood in the room nicely and creates a stylish link from one side to the other.

Costs:- Oak Slats – £280, “Sticks like Shit” x 8 £60, Total = £340

Edit:- Since completion, it has to be said that occasionally and due to heat changes in the room, the odd slat still falls or becomes dangerously unstuck. Not ideal of course. As this happens, I’ve taken to making small notch half cuts in the back side of the slat to release the tension of the inevitable natural bowing. Gluing back up using the same adhesive, all seems to be more stable. I’m expecting this to happen periodically for a while yet which isn’t great but easily manageable.