The oak paneled walls, dark cedar beams and dramatic stone fireplace could have worked beautifully in this Ellicott City home if only the ceilings had been higher. As it was, the heavy beams and walls left this spacious family room feeling dark and oppressive. Designer Lynn Jordan of Columbia, Maryland based Design Classics, Inc. came up with a beautifully contemporary color scheme involving nothing more than replacing the carpet with new lightly distressed engineered walnut flooring, adding area rugs to play off the fireplace and having us paint the walls Colonnade Grey with a creamy white trim. Working closely with Lynn and the homeowners, we developed a faux finishing technique to match the cedar beams to the new flooring. The results? A luxuriously open and airy space using the exact same furnishings.
Working with our mentor and friend, Peter Kosterich of Perau Associates, we started by removing the beams that ran around the perimeter of the room to help open up the room and visually raise the ceiling height.
Unfortunately, we discovered that the builder had cut numerous openings in the oak paneling behind the perimeter beams - 19 holes to be precise.
Peter filled the holes with new oak boards, custom milled to match the paneling and we applied restoration epoxy and wood filler to smooth the transition so it would disappear completely when painted.
From there, we installed a simple clamshell moulding to make the transition from wood paneling to ceiling as unobtrusive as possible. Using a combination of rollers with back brushing to eliminate texture, we applied two coats of shellac based primer to seal the residual finish on the oak paneling and ensure paint adhesion under a top coat of Benjamin Moore's top-of-the-line Aura matte finish paint.
After experimenting with a variety of faux finish techniques, we all agreed that rubbing a thinned Colonnade Grey into the grain of the wood over a light top coat of Rustic Taupe would lighten the remaining cedar beams enough to open up the space while still tying in perfectly with the distressed wood flooring.
To be honest, we were stunned by the extraordinary impact the new color scheme combined with removing the perimeter cedar beams and lightening the remaining beams had on the space. Now, the ceiling seems so much higher and the room feels so much lighter, airier and more open - it's a truly remarkable change!
