Tuesday, February 06, 2007

Pine ceilings and amber shellac

We now have half of the tongue and groove pine ceiling up. I know, half seems to be the theme... half the ceiling up, half the floor down. We spent the first part of the weekend finishing the boards on the ground, and then Sunday was spent putting them up. Matt was a little worried about the shellac, nothing like the word "orange" to strike fear into the heart, but it turned out really nice.
The pine itself is really knotty with a ton of character. We got it really cheap, so we've been having to pick through it quite a bit as a lot of it is either unusable or at least portions of boards are unusable. But all in all, I think we still got a great deal and we love the feeling of warmth.
As I mentioned earlier, we used amber shellac, or what was formerly known as orange shellac. We chose it because it has been around for ages, so it gives the wood a much more antique type finish. It dries ridiculously fast, in about 30 minutes, which is great when you have a couple hundred boards to finish. And its all natural, non-toxic and comes from a completely, renewable resource. Oddly enough, its actually made of resins excreted by the Lac Beetle. But, we like bugs, so it works for us!
Our halfway point. Matt is going to build barn doors for the loft up there. One day we might come back and finish it for a library/office/reading nook space.

And, in other news, we finally received out shipment of everything we bought at the Expo Design center back in November. Now that it is all stacked up in the garage, it doesn't seem like all that much. But low and behold, what you see there will soon be transformed into everything that goes inside our house that makes a house a house and not a shell of a building. Lights that light, toilets that flush, fans that spin, dishwashers that clean...

4 comments:

Poppy said...

wow the ceiling looks fantastic. You'll love it. We love ours. Ours is oak tongue and groove and you're right it gives the room such a warm and cozy feeling.

BTW I'm heading downstairs to do some Devine paint sampling...I'll post pictures tomorrow when the light is better.

Katie Nicoll said...

That's a high ceiling alright! The looks of that cottage gives off a cozy and homey feeling that is reminiscent of winter days with people flocking around the furnace to warm themselves up. But I think when everything is finished the place will look ten times more awesome!

gulfcoastwindows said...

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Unknown said...

Hi Laura,

My name is Wes Wyse and am the design/builder on a simliar project. Your looks amazing, by the way!!!! We were having trouble finding a finish to get the knotty pine ceiling to look rich and warm like yours. Your appears to be a little darker than I would like???/

Do you know hat products and processes you guys used to make it look that great???? Any insight would be greatly appreciated.

My Email is wysedesign@gmail.com or you can contact me at 412 608 3230..

Thank you in advance and GREAT job!!! LOve it, Wes