On Saturday morning, Ellie and I hooked up the trailer and headed to a local lumber yard to buy the ceiling for the mudroom. 140 square feet of the most beautiful cedar came home with us. (Side note: this barn smelled fabulous.)

The inspiration to plank the ceiling came from Matt’s Dad. As we were taking down the ceiling in the pool (which was sheets of cedar designed to look like tongue and groove), he suggested reusing them. (You can get a little glimpse of them in this shot from our home inspection.)

Unfortunately, once the sheets were down and I pulled all the nails, the sheets were a bit too patchy and beat up for the mudroom. (I have saved them in the barn in case I can use them for another project in the future.) But we have new cedar T&G planks to put in their place.

I like that the ceiling will be a reference to the pool and what this space was originally. Natural wood is also a common element in other rooms of our home and it feels farmy to me.

I’m also planning to put vertical planks on the mudroom walls. The walls will be painted, so I’m on the hunt for some MDF V-groove. Pandemic shortages (and price increases) are not my friend right now.

I’ve chosen to go vertical to emphasize the height of the room. I also want to avoid a shiplap look. My reaction to some decorating trends is to actively avoid them, and shiplap is getting that treatment. V-groove feels more casual than beadboard to me, but more polished than shiplap and appropriate for our farm. (Remodelista has an explanation of V-groove versus shiplap versus beadboard and here is V-groove in action in The Grit and Polish’s kitchen.)

Source

The conundrum with the mudroom is the wall height–around 9 and a half feet. I found a few companies that make 4×10 sheets of V-groove, which would be ideal. They’re exactly the size I need and installing sheets would take much less time than planks. But the lead time to order them is 6 to 8 (or even 10) weeks–thanks pandemic.

So I turned my attention to planks. But the planks come in 8 or 16 foot lengths. My vision was for one continuous plank from floor to ceiling. The longer planks would give me that, but I’d be left with more than 6 feet of waste. Some late night sketching and texting with my contractor gave me a solution that allows me to use the 8 foot planks without having to splice them together.

Baseboard at the bottom gives us about 5 1/2 inches (we’ll have to put some backing to lift the planks up from the floor). Then a hook board mid-way up the wall gives us another 7 1/2. The hook board will be wood and feels like a really practical addition as it will be a sturdy surface to affix hooks or support a shelf. Then, any remaining gap at the top will be covered with a small 1×2 or 1×3 board. I think it will look good.

It’s fun to be focusing on the finishing details now, even if it might still be a while before they’re installed.

The framing is done, so the mudroom has been carved out of the garage and we have a new landing off the kitchen. The roof where the old sunroom was has been patched and the garage roof has been extended over the addition. Having the one continuous roof makes such a huge difference to how that side of the house looks. The garage floor has been poured. Electrical is roughed in. This week, tile should arrive and siding install should begin.

It’s exciting to see it coming together.

Do you have panelling anywhere in your house? Are you team beadboard, V-groove or shiplap? Are you pro-wood or paint it out? How do you react to decorating trends? Where would you use panelling?