Installing a Pine Tongue and Groove Ceiling - Part 2

We did a lot of research and decided to go with tongue and groove planks. During my research, I found Ceiling Ideas from The Lettered Cottage. They used some thin boards, painted white. I loved the "cottage" look and especially liked the painted white planks. Rick was NOT into painting the planks white. He is more of wood lover.

We shopped local home improvement stores and a few lumber yards. We found pine tongue and groove planks with a much thicker feel to them. We finally found what they call "car siding." It had a lot of character, with the pine knots and different markings in the wood. We got an excellent price on it and Rick went and picked up a trailer load of the planks.

So while he was prepping the ceiling, my job was to sand and stain each plank. I decided to do all the staining and sealing before putting them up. I did not want to do that work over my head.

First I sanded them down. Then I applied wood conditioner so the planks would take the stain evenly. Then I applied two coats of stain. This made a big difference. One mistake I made - do not let the pre-stain dry before applying the stain. I did not read the directions carefully. Thank goodness I only did that on about six planks. I had to go back and sand them all down again and start over. Not fun. Once it dries, it does not let the stain absorb.

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 I ended up using the color Golden Oak. I bought approximately ten different colors before finally deciding on this color!

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As I was staining the planks, I panicked a bit because this was not the look I was going for! I wanted the cottage feel like this:

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I called Rick and told him I had decided to paint the boards white. He had a little meltdown and told me if I painted them white, he was not installing them! Ok. I had to compromise. The planks weren't smooth like the ones from my inspiration picture. I did like the character the pine knots added to the planks. I just didn't want the rustic look so much. Or the feedstore look. Or country...get what I mean?

At this point, I didn't have much choice. I knew Rick wasn't kidding about not installing them. I took a deep breath and just applied the stain. And {tried} to lived with it.

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