Oh, What A Ceiling!

After completing a powder room, 7 ceiling medallions, 4 corbels, a dozen cartouches and many, many feet of crown moulding, we moved on to Dave & Rita's dining room.  The decor is Empire~Louis XIV, which is quite ornate.  It was decided that we would go big on the ceiling, yet subtle.  Is that possible?!  D and R wanted their dinner guests to be seated, casually glance upwards and...ooohhh!  The wow effect.

So...go big or go home...we brought a carpet (in the form of a stencil) up onto the ceiling, filling the 8' x 10' tray, as well as all four corners.  To accentuate the tray, the 4" soffit was gilded.  As well as the medallion.

We applied Lusterstone in a pale, silvery grey on the ceiling.  The medallion and soffit were base coated in black, then gold leafed.  Just this change alone created a dazzling effect!

Next, the ceiling stencils were installed.  We painted 3 layers: a 1/2 tint of the wall color, the Lusterstone, then highlights of gold.

Wow!!!

Although there were many elements to this design, each was important to the end result.  We had to to keep the design well-balanced.  Otherwise, the dining room would have appeared unfinished.  The ceiling is truly bold, yet subtle at the same time.  Our next project is Dave & Rita's master bedroom...yep, you guessed it...the ceiling!!!


Susan & Tracey
FWS