Wooden ceilings in the apartment: the pros and cons

Wooden ceilings will harmoniously look not only in the country or in the bath, but also in the modern interior of the apartment or country cottage. The main rule of using natural wood for finishing is the correct combination of design of ceilings and walls, as well as with other materials. It is recommended to mount wooden ceilings in rooms with low humidity and standard room temperature. Therefore, you should not make the finish in the house, which is not heated in winter.

Advantages and disadvantages

First, consider the advantages of the material itself and the ceilings of it. They are obvious:

natural material whose aroma has a beneficial effect on health;
excellent heat and sound insulation, wooden surfaces "breathe", normalizing humidity in the room;
wooden ceiling can be varnished, stain or paint, giving the desired shade;
ease of installation with nails or screws;
wooden coatings add coziness to the room.

But there are also disadvantages:

difficulty in care (requires regular antiseptic treatment of rot and mildew);
flammable material (requires a special means of ignition);
high price of natural finishing material;
wooden ceiling reduces the height of the room, so you should not use this type of finish in low rooms.

Finishing options

Installation of a wooden ceiling in the interior can be done with or without exposed beams. Since wealthy people often choose natural finishing materials for the decoration of country villas, today finishing with expensive wooden beams is a peculiar sign of luxury. Beams can be both bearing structures, and be their imitation.

If the beams are a full-fledged supporting structure, they perform, first of all, a practical and functional role. No less popular is imitation, when beams perform the role of exclusively decor. For this, conifers with an elegant pattern are usually used or beams are imitated with dyed polyurethane and foam.

There are other options for finishing the wooden ceiling that can bring a real comfort and a homely atmosphere to the room.

Can be used clapboard trim, which is affordable and conveys the effect of natural wood.
Another popular option is batten ceiling. The ceiling rail is actually “lining under a bar”, which is wider than a regular lining (13-20 cm) and has a length of 3 to 6 meters. Such a wooden surface resists mechanical damage and temperature changes. Do not refuse to use special impregnations to protect the ceiling from moisture.

There is a division of lumber for finishing the ceiling into classes:

extra is a smooth board without knots using expensive tree species (oak, red, cedar);
Class A and B materials have minor defects;
Class C includes low-priced timber with encountered bumps or knots.

Pay attention to the fact that it is better not to use expensive top-class wood in humid rooms, in the living room it is ideal.Of the particularly complex elements on the ceiling can be noted wooden caissons from a solid array.

There is also a more unpretentious, but unnatural version of imitation wood. If you choose the right lighting, such artificial panels can not be distinguished from the present wooden coating. As an imitation, you can use MDF panels, which very realistically copy the natural texture of wood, while the price will be much cheaper than the original. Installation of such panels is easier, since MDF weighs much less wood.

To paint or not?

After installation of wooden ceilings and processing of their protective compounds raises the logical question of further painting. Wood does not combine well with oil coatings; moreover, it has a number of advantages precisely when it is not painted, for example, it can absorb excess moisture from the air or, on the contrary, fill it with natural aromas if it is a matter of coniferous and resinous trees.

The ceiling should be painted only if there are frequent fluctuations in temperature and humidity in the room, as a result of which the boards may crack. It turns out that a layer of paint is able to protect them from deformation.

Also, instead of paint, you can use the following protective clear varnishes:

polyurethane for the prevention of yellowing;
alkyd, forming a waterproof film;
acrylic-polyurethane, protects against the negative effects of the environment.

The tone and color of such structures may also be different. For example, wood looks great in combination with white walls, and textured paint for walls will do.

An interesting fact is that designers use the ability of wooden surfaces to diffuse light, this creates the effect of natural shading when decorating a room using a wooden ceiling.

Styles

If there is a task to make the space more voluminous and wider, you can use the walls and the ceiling of wood painted white in the interior. And in these interior styles, designers most often use wooden ceilings:

high tech (the pronounced geometry of the objects and the clear boundaries of the wooden planks on the ceiling fit perfectly into this style);
Country and Provence (it is simply impossible to imagine these “village” styles without the use of natural materials and a wooden ceiling);
modern (this style combines natural and artificial materials, the main thing is not to disturb the general harmony);

chalet (dark shades of wood prevail here, for example, Bordeaux and chocolate);
eco style (it provides for the use of extremely harmless materials, while the wood texture must be clearly visible, the style is also characterized by spacious rooms, high ceilings and good lighting);
Japanese style (The main materials in the decoration - stone and wood of dark shades).

Examples in the interior

The wooden ceiling is not a “legacy of the past” at all, but a fashionable trend in the interior. Designers often use imitation when the beams are not bearing and perform an exclusively decorative function.