How to Create a Faux Coffered Ceiling

coffered ceiling
  • 10-30 hours
  • Intermediate
  • 250-2,500
What You'll Need
Chalk
16 pieces of 15 foot long timber
Table saw
Plywood (5 squares of 4x4-feet)
Nail gun
Nails
Construction Adhesive
Measuring tape
What You'll Need
Chalk
16 pieces of 15 foot long timber
Table saw
Plywood (5 squares of 4x4-feet)
Nail gun
Nails
Construction Adhesive
Measuring tape

A coffered ceiling adds beauty to the interior design of any area, giving it a unique and elegant look. As the word, coffer refers to a recessed panel in the ceiling that can be rectangular, circular, or polygonal, and faux literally means fake; a faux coffered ceiling is, therefore, a construction using faux beams enclosing a recessed panel.

Step 1 - Deciding the Pattern

The easiest to build is the square grid pattern. Draw the outline of the structure first. Use chalk to draw the outline of the frame onto the ceiling. Also, mark the center of the beams to create perfect right angles for the grid strips to be placed onto.

Step 2 - Cutting the Timber

With a table saw, cut the timber into the necessary dimensions. Ceilings usually measure 15-feet, so use 2 pieces of 7 ½-foot timber for one entire length. Create eight such 15-foot long pieces, 9x2-inches thick, and call these outline layers. Cut 8 more of such 15-foot long pieces. These are your grid strips. Let these strips be 3x9-inches.

Step 3 - Creating the Outline Layers

Attach the timber with a nail gun to the ceiling so that it borders the entire ceiling. You are forming one large hollow square from end to end. This is square A. Attach another such layer of timber 6-inches below the first one onto the walls and not the ceiling to build square B. At this point, you should have two layers of wall-to-wall timber, one below the other.

Step 4 - Creating the Grid

Using the nail gun, attach a grid strip right under any one length of A. After a horizontal gap of 4-feet, attach another grid strip to A which will now be running across the length of the room. Attach two more grid strips 4-feet apart and you will automatically reach the other end. Repeat this step by attaching the second layer of the grid strips to the first layer. These will be perpendicular to the first grid layer, spanning the width of the room. You will notice that the entire grid pattern is placed within the 6-inch gap you left between A and B, which act together to support the grid system.

Step 5 - Attaching the Boxes

Create 5 boxes out of plywood, to place them alternately in the 3x3 grid pattern. The measurement of the square will be 4x4-feet. The thickness should be 10-inches or more if you want it to protrude from the grid. Apply construction adhesive between the sides and also screw them together. The box may or may not have a base, but it should be open from one end. By driving screws through the boxes, attach them to the grid strips already in place. If there is a base, attach it directly to the ceiling.