Painting beams?
Hello everyone.
I know that this has been a much debate topic in the past and that everyone has their opinions.
We recently purchased an Eichler with a beige exterior and brown beams/framing. The ceiling is a stained brown color. We were thinking of painting the ceiling/beams white and the exterior a medium to dark grey color.
Any thoughts? We saw a home in Palo Alto for sale for 1.8M recently and really liked what they had done. The front door was an orange color and the colors all looked really nice together.
JG
Well, I've never been short on opinions ;-) so let me share mine.
Eichler's architects could have hidden the post-and-beam construction in the walls and attic like the traditional home--they didn't. they could have used drywall or cheap painted pine on the ceilings like most homes of the day--they didn't. And I don't believe it was done that way for cost savings, though some might try to tell you it was.
So, if you accept the premise that these are intended design elements/features, it seems counter-intuitive to buy an Eichler then remove or downplay them. Hence, I would suggest:
- *do not paint any existing stained redwood tongue-and-groove ceilings*. If they are dirty or dingy, you can wash the ceilings (you'd be surprised how that simple/inexpensive step can brighten them and is about the same work as painting but preserves their interest and value) . If necessary, I'm told the original stained ceilings can also be lightly sanded and re-stained. If you're looking to effect a color change, try re-staining them a grayer tone.
- * beams should be a color that contrasts with the ceiling*. Posts were typically black or dark brown. Respecting that original color guidance will bring them to the fore.
Just my 2 cents...
Cheers.
Jake
P.S. Home Depot sells "Krud Kutter" in the paint section which is pretty decent at removing old grime and smoke.
P.P.S. Take a look through "for sale" listings of the various realtors advertising on this board for more ideas on color combinations you might like.
Our house had a painted ceiling as well as the beams. I almost didn't buy it for this reason. I got a couple of quotes on bringing the original redwood ceilings back to wood and it was WAY out of reach. I made a compromise and painstakingly shaved and sanded all of the white beams to raw doug fir.
Everyone who now walks into our house comments on how beautiful the beams are.
My next eichler will have an original unpainted ceiling.
If you want a lighter, fresher look, I have seen homes with wood ceilings and off-white (or swiss coffee) beams, and dark posts. This is a nice look.
Brad
beam color should match inside/out
Our beams were originally painted off-white with a grayish taupe stain (Cabot Dune Gray) on the ceiling. Some idiot painted the ceiling white and I spent a ridiculous number of hours scraping that damn paint off and restaining back to the original dune gray. I painted the beams dark brown, but those could easily be painted white again. Eventually, I'm going to paint the exterior "ceiling" to match the stained interior, but for now they are still ugly white.
The thought of painting a stained ceiling makes me cringe. For a while during the ceiling scraping era I thought I was having gallbladder attacks until I finally realized the "gallbladder" pain only occurred on evenings that followed days I spent with my arms up over my head for hours.
The original beams in my 1958 Eichler were painted with a flat white wash but those in the living areas were changed to a dark brown color by the previous owners. Since I've got the place I have been painting them white again but with a slight difference. Instead of going with a stark white color, I selected a white that has a very slight green cast to it to harmonize with the green base color for the house. It keeps the "white" from looking too harsh against the other colors. I know that Eichler used other color beams in their houses. To find what your original colors were you need to do some detective work -- looking in out of the way places where the original colors might be untouched.
I recently restored the gray ceiling in my master bedroom. It was damaged by past water stains and staples where they had put up plastic. Checking in the closet I noticed that the original "stain" was actually a gray opaque wash, very much like a flat paint. Thus I found a low sheen gray paint to match the original and it turned out better than I imagined. The gray really offsets the white beams nicely. I'm not going to say that a gray ceiling is better than a white one though because I feel that each has their place. I can imagine that several of my bedrooms which originally had both gray ceilings and gray washed walls were very dark spaces.
Omnispace, do you have any photos of your ceiling? I have white paint and have been thinking of going back to gray with paint. I am concerned that it will be too dark. What color and brand of paint did you use?
Thanks
This is slightly off topic from the beam discussion but I suppose they go hand in hand. My ceilings seem to have originally been an opaque gray wash which looks very much like a flat paint. From what I can tell, it is different from the more transparent gray stained ceilings I have seen in some people's photos which seem to be a bit lighter and more wood coloring showing through. If I had the later type of ceilings I would have done more to preserve them. My living area ceilings had been damaged by being covered in sheetrock and then a white acoustic plaster (popcorn) applied. After removing all that I found that they had applied yellow mastic to all the knot holes for who knows what reason. I also found the darkened area above the kitchen cooktop where the previous owners had a little stove fire! Thus the decision to paint the ceilings was pretty much made for me by their poor condition and by the fact that they looked painted anyway.
The color that works best for me is Olympic D16-4 "Wistful Willow". It matches the original gray color pretty well and coordinates with my painting scheme. I kept the ceiling of the bedroom gray because it's a more subdued part of the house. The living space ceilings ended up being "white" because once I exposed the original gray my light and airy house became dark and confined feeling -- and that's with a 10ft ceiling! It's pretty much a matter of personal taste and as I said before, if my ceilings were of the lighter transparent-stained type of gray then I would definitely try to save them, but since your's are painted anyway it's no harm to change the color with more paint. The gray certainly makes the white beams stand out nicely. For your color, I suggest looking in the closets for an original ceiling. People seem to be too lazy to paint the ceilings of their closets.
Once I figure out how to include a pic I'll post it here.
The original 2x6 t&g Redwood decking and structural Douglas Fir beams in Eichler homes are treasures. While everyone has their opinions on what to do with these, my opinion is that the the ceiling and beams are important features of Eichlers. A key consideration is the state of the decking and beams, and the cost to show its original beauty again.
While not everyone will undertake a renovation like ours, you may wish to understand what can be done with the wood when evaluating your alternatives. We removed the Redwood decking board-by-board and all of the beams in the center of the house. The Redwood decking was sawn in two and remilled with new t&g, and the beams were removed, and then remilled and resurfaced. Here is a link to our blog featuring the finished material (it hasn't been put back in yet):
http://eichlervision.com/2009/01/visitors/
For those of you interested in our process, here are links to the two truckloads of timbers that we had removed for remilling:
http://eichlervision.com/2008/10/first-load-of-timbers-for-remilling/
http://eichlervision.com/2008/10/second-and-last-load-of-timbers-for-rem...
We're remodeling our Eichler and maintaining (so far!) a 'Construction Blog'. You can see it at:
Best,
Bryan
