Many people buying wooden house, are faced with the problem of the unaesthetic appearance of the beams that are on the ceiling. But such a design is inevitable when forming a roof made of wood.
At the same time, the majority do not want to put up with the unaesthetic appearance of old ceiling structures and strive to cover the existing beams. It can be done different ways, but the most common is plasterboard finishing.
Plasterboard finishing of structures such as wooden beams is very common today. This is due to the fact that this material has undeniable advantages:
Closed beams
It will be much easier to cover wooden beams using plasterboard finishing than with plastic or other finishing materials.
To understand how to use plasterboard sheets you can sheathe wooden beams, you need to first deal with them functional purpose. Otherwise, the main ceiling may be damaged.
Beams in this type of ceiling have the following purpose:
As you can see, such elements of a wooden ceiling have a wide variety of purposes. But if you want to bring your home to modern look and make modern ceiling structures, the beams will still have to be closed.
But you should not think that the reason for masking the beam elements on the ceiling is only the aesthetic desire of the owner. There may be more compelling reasons here. These include, in particular:
In the process of finishing with plasterboard sheets, you can prevent the collapse of the roof, as well as successfully disguise old and unnecessary parts of wooden structures.
Any installation work that involves the use of drywall should always be carried out in accordance with the technology and using step-by-step instructions. Masking beams is no exception.
In this case, plating is possible in three ways:
Frameless method 
Wooden frame
Note! This option is considered the best, as it is more durable than wood.
Metal carcass
Today there are two ways to disguise such wooden elements:
You should choose a finishing method based on the ceiling you have, as well as the condition of the beams themselves.
The first stage installation work the frame will be assembled. Consider the option of assembling a metal box.
Note! When choosing a method for completely masking the beams, you should lath the ceiling according to the same pattern as for simply finishing wooden ceiling structures with sheets of plasterboard.
The frame of the box is erected as follows:
Installation of hangers
Crab mount
The result should be a metal box around the perimeter of the room.
If you need to completely mask all the beams, then we make the sheathing in a similar way. Make sure that the wooden elements starting ceiling did not protrude beyond the boundary of the plane defined by the profiles.
The main thing is that the resulting box or full-fledged sheathing is not attached to the walls. This requirement is based on the fact that wooden ceilings are characterized by a certain mobility, which is not visually visible. This mobility occurs due to the influence of temperature changes on wood, as well as humidity. If you make a frame that adheres to the walls, then after a while cracks may appear in the drywall or the material will simply collapse on your head.
The frame assembled using the technology will have insignificant mobility. Entering into dissonance with the tree, it will repeat its mobility. This way you can minimize the risk of cracks and the plasterboard suspended structure will serve you for a very long time.
Do not forget that if you are planning to install additional lighting, then the wiring for it is laid at this stage.
Upon completion of the assembly of the frame like a box or full sheathing, it is necessary to begin covering it with plasterboard sheets.
Sheathing a frame or box requires the same procedure. It’s just that in the second case it will take much less time. And here it is fashionable to cope on your own, without an assistant.
We fasten the sheets as follows:
Screwing in self-tapping screws
If you have assembled a box and want to add hidden lighting to it, then in the right places the sheet of plasterboard must extend in relation to the metal profile at the distance required for placement lighting fixture. Often used here LED strips different colors.
After this, all that remains is to putty the mounted surface using standard technology and give it its final appearance.
As you can see, there are several ways to cover ceiling beams with plasterboard. The main thing is to strictly follow the technology for installing the material on wooden base and in the end you will get an excellent, smooth ceiling without cracks.
With the help of plasterboard sheets you can even old attic turn the dacha into a chic and modern premises. Believe in yourself and just follow the instructions - the result will be excellent!
"Connected!
In most old private houses, the ceiling is “decorated” with beams (svolok) - this was such ancient way roof installations. And in the most economical and fairly durable way.
But still, these open beams had some disadvantages.
Firstly.
Due to the lack of stiffeners and the long age, they sagged.
Secondly.
Unattractive and rough appearance.
Now many designers decorate ceilings with decorative beams (Decowood), made of high-strength polyurethane with a wood-imitating coating.
This method, of course, is good and beautiful, because the dummy beams are absolutely even.
With old beams such a ceiling is simply not possible due to the fact that they are so strongly curved that there is no way to level them and somehow improve them.
Therefore, the most the best option in this case, covering the beams with plasterboard.
To work we need a tool.
You will also need this material.
I will tell you below why you need wood screws.
Construction chemistry.
What is a facet I talked about in the article?”
The entire process of remodeling the ceiling will take place in 4 stages.
1. Preparation.
2. Installation of the frame and drywall fastening.
3. Finishing and decoration.
4. Installation of lamps.
One of the most difficult, because... the beams (svolok) bent to varying degrees.
This was easy to check by measuring with a tape measure from the floor to the beams at five points in the room (in the corners and in the middle).
The heaviest sag occurred on the middle beam.
Then, when using a ruler and a level, it turned out that absolutely all the beams were initially installed at different levels.
As a result, we get a quiet horror, which, to fix it, you need to either lower the ceiling significantly, or replace the middle beam with metallic profile(I-beam or channel).
Long story short, we decided against reducing the ceiling height because it was not part of the building code.
note that according to construction rules, the ceiling height in residential premises must be at least 220 cm.
They also refused to replace the wooden beam with a metal one due to the high cost and laboriousness of the replacement process itself. Moreover, it should be noted that it is not safe!
The solution was found in the elementary optical illusion, i.e. We decided to simply divide the ceiling into three parts and make it on three levels.
It was this decision that allowed us to win the size.
If we made the entire ceiling at one level, then it would have to be lowered by twenty centimeters, or even more.
Our task is to first make a frame over the middle beam, which sagged the most.
In order to level the beam and not lose its size, you need to carve out a place for the profile with an ax and chisel.
We use an ax to trim the beam itself a little.
After constructing the frame, you get such a box 50 cm wide.
This optimal size, which makes it possible to install spotlights without problems and does not create bulkiness for the entire ceiling.
If you make the width smaller, the lamps won’t fit; if you make it wider, it won’t look good.
note , before facing with plasterboard it is necessary to carry out electrical wiring.
We sew up the resulting box with plasterboard.
And we attach side profiles to it at different levels for the frames of the remaining two ceilings.
We also attach the profile to the walls using a level using long wood screws (70-90 mm).
Advice.
If the walls of the house are made of adobe or other soft material, then it is better to drive the screws into what is called “insolently” using a screwdriver.
In general, it turns out that during the preparation and manufacture of the frames, we had to trim almost all the beams with an ax in order to maintain the height of the ceiling as much as possible.
Advice.
The binding of the plasterboard ceiling frame should be as thick as possible so that there is no sagging in the future. It is not advisable to save money on this!
Once the frame is completely ready, we attach sheets of drywall to it.
First you need to apply primer.
note
, you can use soil from any manufacturer.
And not only primer, but also putty, paint, etc. The main thing is that all construction chemicals come from one manufacturer.
Then we seal the seams between the sheets with sickle and putty (KNAUF Fugenfüller).
We putty everything in one layer of “starting” and two layers of “finishing”.
Sand thoroughly.
Mode in right size ceiling plinth and using putty we attach it along the entire perimeter of the ceiling including the central box.
We paint everything with water-based paint.
After drying, we mark the central part of the ceiling for attaching the decor in the form of mirror squares measuring 150x150 mm with a bevel.
note , we attach the mirrors using Liquid Nails glue.
To do this, we also make markings so that there is an even distance between them.
We drill holes for the lamps.
We connect the wires.
Once upon a time, ceiling beams were a necessary architectural element in the tradition of many peoples. The construction of spacious buildings could not have been done without them. village houses, domes of temples, theater vaults and long covered galleries. Today, ceiling beams in the interior are rather a decorative element that reflects a certain style. Often they are multifunctional and practical, but in order for false beams to become a highlight of the design, it is important to follow the recommendations of experts.
Children's bedroom design with wooden beams
Decorative beams on the ceiling in the interior
Kitchen design with flowers and decorative beams
Wooden and metal jumpers- part of a roof, ceiling or roof structure of complex shape. It is impossible to build an attic, large terrace or extension without them. In this case, they carry an important functional load.
The main task when decorating a house with ceiling beams is to give the rough logs the most “lived-in” appearance. It is important that the atmosphere of the living room, hallway or recreation area with flights of stairs looks homely and hospitable.
Modern decorative ceiling beams in the interior look like wood, although they are made from composite and polymer materials. Most often they are hollow inside, and this good opportunity hide wiring and pipelines, secure lamps or brackets for suspended structures. In this case, they carry more of a practical load than a functional one, and false wood in the interior is very popular today.
Wooden lintels can be adjacent to the ceiling, form a separate lattice, or be a support for connecting inclined planes, as in the photo of the ceiling with beams of the original design.
Living room design with corner sofa, paintings on the wall and decorative beams
Apartment design with decorative beams
Today it is customary to build houses with an aesthetic connection to a certain style, so that they look like an old “family estate”, and not like a new unfurnished building.
The most popular are buildings in the spirit of Provence, where the floors are made of light wood or covered with whitewash. In a Provence style kitchen, it is appropriate to decorate with garlands of garlic and onions, suspended from the beams with dry bouquets of lavender and spicy spices.
The natural color of dark wood is used in the style of a mountain chalet from the Swiss Alps. This style is especially relevant in attic-type buildings with habitable attic space. And although the ceilings here are the basis of the roof, they are used for insulation and decoration in all possible ways.
The Japanese style was initially focused on collapsible houses, since the elements often destroyed the buildings of the poor and rich islanders of the easternmost ridge. Beam floors it was easy to construct and dismantle after the tsunami and earthquake. This style has taken root all over the world, and decorative ceiling beams remain an indispensable attribute of a recognizable minimalist interior, where a tribute to Japanese culture is noticeable.
Stretch ceiling with beams in the middle with a chandelier
Bright white design combined living room and kitchen with decorative beams
Balcony design in cream color
Loft – this reformatting non-residential premises for urban housing with a large area. Metal or concrete floors, open communications, roughly painted or aluminum corrugated beams.
IN classic interior Only well-treated wood is used, carved, varnished or painted. Neat beams on the ceiling in classic or traditional interior look light and elegant. The color of the wood should match the shade of the furniture and joinery.
Another classic version– ceiling beams and floors made of the same material against the background of white walls. A similar solution is often practiced in imitation of retro or country style.
Beam structures are widely used in high-tech style - as a basis for original lighting kitchen or living room.
A unique design can be created in the decor to suit any historical style, if you use decorative beams on the ceiling is structurally justified.
Please note: The owners of some buildings try to hide the structural beam base with suspended or suspended ceilings. This is impractical, since you will have to give up a significant part of the ceiling height. It is better to think about their decor, even upholstering them with fabric between the painted wooden beams in the bedroom or finding another option.
Living room design with suspended ceiling and TV
Wooden partitions in the kitchen interior
There is no point in hiding beam structures in nautical style, if the house is designed as a wardroom. They fit perfectly into bungalow, eco and ethno styles.
At home in english style- a lot of natural wood, including ceilings divided into squares with niches. This solution will emphasize the sophistication of the aristocratic finish. It is possible that old substrates will have to be renewed and varnished.
Decorative partition in the kitchen
Light kitchen design with brick walls
Bright white kitchen with wooden beams
Natural wood today is an expensive pleasure, and massive structures made of natural material very heavy. They create additional load on the foundation and walls; there are problems with installation and delivery due to their impressive weight. Moreover, from high humidity they can be "led".
Manufacturers of building materials have offered a convenient budget alternative made from polymer materials. The design of false beams, which are hollow inside, is not inferior to products made from natural wood, which have to stand for several months to reduce humidity.
Advantages of polymer decorative beams on the ceiling:
In terms of strength and some other indicators, decorative beams are even superior to wood. They have undeniable advantage– the ability to imitate any type of wood with a natural texture of various shades. For example, wenge-colored false wood in the interior, in harmony with eco-veneer doors, furniture and laminate flooring of the same luxurious chocolate color with a reddish tint.
Bathroom design in mustard color
Room design in mustard color with wooden beams
Leafing through catalogs from manufacturers, it is easy to notice that there are different decorative beams for ceilings:
With such products, everything is thought out for ease of fastening, and natural wood difficult to install in a hidden way. U-shaped false beams – The best way hide communications in a bathhouse or sauna, in residential premises in loft, country style or in classic-type buildings.
L-shaped pseudo-beams are also produced, which are laid along the perimeter of the ceiling, the goal is the same - to hide pipes and wires, and imperfections in the articulation of surfaces. You can also build a rectangular imitation with your own hands to hide defects in the joints of floor slabs in an apartment.
False plasterboard beams are covered with film materials that imitate wood. This design is visually no different from the original, as in the photo.
Natural wood is preferred in houses made from natural environmentally friendly pure materials. The fact is that when everything in the house is made of wood, it reacts equally to temperature changes or changes in humidity levels - it “breathes”. If some of the structures are made from building materials that are not as ductile as natural wood, additional load will be created, especially during primary shrinkage or during minor seismic factors.
Stone wall in the interior of the living room
Rustic room design
Wooden partitions in the interior
Wood with high decorative qualities is considered to be the most in demand for interior decoration:
When imitation wood cuts are used in synthetic analogues, the natural shade can be enhanced or “whitened”.
The color of the wooden beams on the ceiling in the interior is selected to match the overall design concept.
TABLE (Classic options)
House design with wooden partitions
Corridor design in white
A good example in the photo is the design in a white country house.
Advice. When choosing a color, keep in mind that dark wood looks heavier, white wood looks almost weightless.
Colored ceilings should be in harmony with the main tone in the interior. Contrasting designs seem to “break up” the space; this is good for spacious rooms with high ceilings.
If the interior design turns out to be expensive, but a little nondescript and faceless, you can transfer all the attention to the upper plane, which will become the “highlight” of the decor, as in the photo.
Decorative beams in the interior of the house
Option for using decorative beams for the ceiling
Living room interior with decorative beams
There is no point in hiding well-processed wood under the ceilings; it is better to add it to the interior with beams greater value in the design concept:
ABOUT self-installation We offer a video of decorative beams.
Any living space requires some transformations, in some sense an “upgrade,” in order for a person to feel comfortable in it. These changes are possible at the design level, color scheme or decoration.
Some things can be changed from the start, but others will have to be put up with, somehow played out in the format of the chosen style. Large beams sometimes become a stumbling block when choosing and decorating a style for a room. Today we will share with you tips on how to play up a beam on the ceiling, making it the highlight of the interior.
The first photo shows how paint can be used to visually hide a problem area. Neutral walls and several color transitions on the ceiling beams will also look original, and all this can be done with your own hands.
How to decorate beams in the kitchen
If your house is empty attic floor, you can give it to your student daughter, who will occasionally come to visit her family. Gray-pastel colors are what you need to relax after a stressful session.
You can fit beams in different ways, highlighting them as accent details, or vice versa, making them as invisible as possible. The finish of these elements can go well with the floor and wall wood panels or other finishing.
And this is exactly the case when simplicity is not without guile. At first glance, the interior is very simple, although it contains many colored spots, however, textiles and small decorative details decorate it even more.
Simple bedside tables made of lacquered wood, beautiful textiles, pastel shades, flowers and an elegant white floor lamp - cute, tasteful. The beams, although not clearly highlighted, are still noticeable.
The room is ideal for girls or ladies who adore Jane Austen. The problem of scarcity daylight devoid of mastery - everything in this room is subject to the laws of the indicated style.
These are echoes of knightly times, when stone castles had large fireplaces and light penetrated through wide windows. The ceiling is built in the form of a lattice of massive beams with lintels located at different levels.
In the center of the photo there is a wall decorated artificial stone. The mountain landscape outside the window cannot help but attract attention. What’s surprising is that to create coziness in this interior, it was enough to throw an old woolen carpet on the floor, which had practically no color.
A very interesting chandelier was used, without lampshades, and dotted with light bulbs. The absence of many decorative elements implies the creation of free space.
White smooth walls, a shaggy gray carpet, the same sofa with white decorated pillows and even a blanket - this romance “pulls” towards Norway. A dark color with a glossy finish completes this look. They are the ones that go perfectly with the snow-white ceiling and flooring.
Of course, the interior of this dining room does not look like a full-fledged mud hut with a working stove and whitewashed walls, but the feeling of Western Ukrainian or ancient Polish ethnicity is still present. The designer decided to “dilute” the interior with the help of simple lamps that clearly hint at modernity.
The beams look unprocessed, in full view of their naturalness and naturalness. Mosaic masonry on the floor made of small multi-colored pebbles and massive wooden furniture complete the transformation effect of this room.
In the West, there are designers who decorate rooms for the holidays. This is not practiced in our country, as it is more part of a family tradition. Decorate the Christmas tree with the children and prepare the house for New Year's holidays- a sacred matter.
However, our designers did not rack their brains over how to complement the beam on the ceiling when the main Christmas color is red. Almost cold winter room they brought the joy of the holiday by decorating the tree with red balls and hanging them on the wooden beams. Stylish, bright, original.
If you look at several documentaries, then you can see catacombs paved with old bricks. The design of this room is based on light brown shades. Wooden beams painted in dark color, making them stand out against the background of the lighter reddish brick.
Advice! Interesting solution– this is the relief of the masonry, which forms the roundness on the ceiling, its “waves”. There are video instructions on the Internet showing how to pave a half-brick ceiling.
Here are some more tips:
We hope that this article will help bring richness and originality to your interior. Experiment and enjoy creativity!
/ Ceiling beams - how to hide them?
Owners of houses with often try not to use this structural element, and hide it to get an even and smooth ceiling. There are several ways to do this, as well as turn beams into interior decoration. Therefore, next we will consider how to beautifully hide it or give it a more presentable look so that it becomes part of general design rooms.
The simplest and inexpensive option decoration will disguise these details of the house design. In this case, there is no need to get rid of the floor supports and hide them under the cladding. You just need to give them beautiful view and to solve this problem you can use various solutions and materials.
All these methods are suitable in cases where there is no need to completely hide a given structural element. If you need to get exactly a flat surface, without protruding parts, you will have to resort to another work scenario - complete camouflage.
If the load-bearing parts do not look very presentable or there are other reasons for creating flat surface, you can use one of many solutions to completely hide the ceiling beam.
In all cases, after finishing you will have a smooth and beautiful coating, which, depending on the chosen material, can be assembled independently or by involving specialists, as is the case with tension structures.
