In more than a few renovations I’ve run into some really bad ceilings. Everything from old, crumbling and cracked plaster, to stucco, not to mention some pretty hideous ceiling tiles. A personal pet peeve is when a house has a different ‘type’ of ceiling in every room, ie. one room is ceiling tile, another stucco, etc. It’s amazing how changing it to one uniform ceiling can really unify and upgrade a space.

In this case, when I purchased a rental property of mine (pre-renovation), there was very ugly, dirty and worn ceiling tiles throughout. The tiles were damaged from old leaks, warped and discoloured, some missing tiles in places – not very attractive.

Of course drywall is always an option for covering a ceiling, but that would have meant having the drywall installed, taped, sanded and then painted.

I was looking for a quick and affordable option to cover the ceiling and decided I would try a DIY shiplap on the ceiling. I figured if I had inexpensive boards cut, then I painted it, I could have it installed professionally and I felt it would still beat the cost of drywall, taping and painting. And I like the look of ship lap, adding some architectural details to the white space really helped to elevate the ceilings and gave the whole place a new look.

I have to say I love how this turned out. The new white ceiling boards added texture and character to the space. It was a pretty simple process; I’ll be posting a how-to on this ceiling in the coming weeks. It went from ugly to charming pretty quickly, and was done on a budget!

Before: