Ceilings
First up - the ceilings. My folks came to town to stay with me while Adam had a business trip. Since my dad likes to stay busy with a project when he visits, I proposed two options - help me with the laundry room or paint the ceiling of our sunroom (which is super high). Dad chose the laundry room and he may have regretted it because it ended up being so much more work than we thought (I wanted to complete the room and surprise Adam when he got home from his trip).
I knew I was going to go for a shiplap style treatment on the slanted ceiling. As I mentioned in a past post, this room was probably a porch at sometime that was eventually closed in and the boarded ceiling gives a nod to that. I had looked for inexpensive options (like ripping plywood down into planks) but because of the humidity and moisture created by the dryer, my dad and I agreed solid wood boards would be a better choice. I went with 6" wide pieces that I cut down to length. Because we were nailing above our heads, we also did pilot holes to get the nails started (I do pilot holes for everything now! Makes hammering so much easier and faster).
Even after carefully picking through the lumber yard for the straightest boards, there was still some variation, which we evened out by installing some trim on either side. This part really puzzled my dad (he's super handy and does projects around the house all the time). We tried so many different things to try to push and pull them into perfection, but by that time I told him "done is better than perfect" and used caulk to pretty it all up. It is a farmhouse after all!
My mom and I painted the ceiling with just one coat to let some of the character of the wood come through. I used Chantilly Lace from Benjamin Moore in an eggshell finish for both the ceiling and walls (they took 3 coats!)