As one who has struggled with a similar question in a totally different house clear across the nation, a few comments.

1. I don't know woods; what is it? Is it good quality? Special in some way?

2. Someone said here, if you paint it, you can't "unring the bell", or at least it will be difficult to go back. Maybe less so for you given the simple lines of the trim? But that thought had me thinking I would at least try not to paint, and the next time i redo the room, give in then!

3. I have a sneaking suspicion painting all wood white is a trend that is just about to peak, since almost everyone has done it now. Isn't that the way with trends, LOL?

4. I am finding it really hard to work the wood color in to my schemes. I really wish someone had painted mine white so I could go forward without the guilt, LOL!

I could see it either way and love both looks depending on the particular house, so I would think it would depend on your final vision for the space. I would choose the one that would make a cohesive look throughout the house depending upon the walls, etc. If there are a lot of natural wood walls (not just cabinetry) that are going to stay natural, I would keep them in the natural finish.

I love looking at pictures of the MCM homes of California, and I think some have made the change to painted wood successfully and others have not. It just all depends on the feel of the house itself and what it is leading you towards.

Besides Houzz and Pinterest, look at homeshoothome.com and malibulocations.com for further inspiration. These are sites used for home scouting for movies, etc. They have categories for MCM, Modern, and Contemporary with a lot to look at. Also, I think the pictures aren't as contrived or staged as many on houzz are to get the "perfect" photo. These are houses that real people live in everyday and it shows in most of the pictures. Great pictures for most every style of house, kitchens, yards, etc.

thanks for the input -- I am now feeling more confident in my choice! I generally prefer a lighter/airy over woodsy/warm feel. At night it feels warm with the funky light trays, but during the day it feels a bit oppressive.

pesky1, the plan is to paint the walls white. The baths and bedrooms may have some slight color, but it will all be very muted and soft.

mtnrdredux, I'm not exactly sure what kind of wood it is -- it might be Danish teak as some of the cabinets in the house are Danish teak, but the ceiling is a different color than the rest of the wood in the house. It could be different due to sun damage, smoke, or dirt. It is so true that once you start painting, you can't undo it which is what is causing me to really consider this decision. But I'm very drawn to the inspiration photos with all white ceilings and I agree with you that it might be hard to decorate around the wood tones in the ceiling. Currently, the ceiling has sort of a yellowish hue, and I prefer the warmer red or darker brown tones like the natural wood in your beach house. If we kept this ceiling natural, I can't imagine what sort of flooring we'd select to complement it.

louisianapurchase, thanks for those recommendations - I will check out those sites. Some of the MCM stuff on Houzz doesn't feel very livable to me. This is our first MCM house, so we are trying to be careful in drawing up a plan that is cohesive and feels comfortable to us, yet still fits with the architectural style of the house. I've been looking at photos on Houzz and Pinterest for days and my eyes are starting to cross!

Oh my goodness, I hadn't seen the homeshoothome.com site before and I recognize several of the homes by sight and I've been in a few! I'm amazed that they barely clean up the houses. I would be mortified if my home was photographed for this website, for all to see, and it looked like some of these do.

An ideal house for me, the one I hope to build one day, is mid century mod inspired with no painted surfaces so I love that ceiling, especially that it is not a dark, heavy wood. One thing I would consider is adding skylights in some areas and I would not do wood look tile even if the ceiling was painted. Light terrazzo style tile or something similar would look so nice in there.

I do love all of the inspiration pics but all are big, open spaces with a much dif feel from yours, less mcm, more beach house.

If it were my home, I would probably try to leave it unpainted. I love beam ceilings. OTOH, if there is damage to the beams, that might make me consider painting.

I would leave the wood. Not only because of the difficulty of going back, but also because the house has so much MCM feel to it, that I think you need to honor that. In other homes where the styling is less apparent or more messed up, I'd say go ahead and paint. But in this case, the house is so much of what it is, such a great example, I wouldn't mess.

I think too that the color of the wood is a warm and bright honey color that casts a lovely warm glow on the rooms below. If the color were dark and overbearing, I'd think differently. But I suspect the rooms risk going cold and sterile if painted white. With the wood ceiling, you can go as modern as you like and you will still have that built in warmth and texture that keep the rooms feeling good.

[Modern Living Room[(https://www.houzz.com/photos/modern-living-room-ideas-phbr1-bp~t_718~s_2105)

And normally, I'm into painting wood...

Now that I've read everyone's comments, I am looking more closely at your home....

Perhaps what is bugging you is the vast amount of the yellowish hue in the home. The grasscloth, the ceiling -- it's too much of one tone.

Is your intention to paint before you move in? That would make the job much easier -- but it's true that you can't undo it.

We had looked at a MCM home last year and it not only had the wood ceilings, but wood floors and paneling! Talk about closed in. However, the FR had white walls and I would have kept it that way.... (and not have painted the ceilings -- but only the paneling -- brightening up the floors with area rugs...)

Keep looking at photos with the wood ceilings and bright walls.

I can see how it would be tempting to paint as your inspiration pictures are so lovely. I just painted my sons beamed patio ceiling white and the room seemed to triple in size ( had an over thirty year dark baby poop stain and it about killed me). However, his is no comparison to the nice wood of your ceiling. I would feel horribly guilty to paint yours when the home is such a nice example of its style. Is there a little closed off room somewhere where you could get your white ceiling fix without messing with the main areaâÂÂs?

Pipdog:

Look at this recent post....

While I can appreciate what this homeowner did - it is an amazing transformation and hardly looks like the same space -- I think what you have is something really special. Choosing the right paint and flooring will tone down the yellowish hue you are having an issue with. If it were really dark like this one - I'd say go for it -- but it isn't.

I guess I was looking at your inspiration photos more than your own space, which is easy to do.

Hmmmmm -- looking at your home, now I'm truly leaning toward leaving the ceiling alone.

Here is a link that might be useful: recent post

I'd leave it alone. All of your inspiration pictures have planked ceilings and yours looks like a type of plywood. And I think the painted plywood, while light, would look unfinished.

What marti said: Your inspiration pics have wood planks. You have larger surfaces of smooth wood.
Aside from that, while I really like your inspiration pics, there are lots of rooms that look like that. I think your house is unique and so worth it to retain that uniqueness.

Painting teak is a sin. If you want to have a painted ceiling, remove the wood and just replace it with common drywall. Then you can have a home like everyone else.

I think part of why anyone would buy the home in the first place is that it is so original. If that's not what appealed to you, then I'd have to ask why you would buy something so original in the first place? Why not buy something that someone else had already "modernized". That too is a dirty word when dealing with homes that haven't been remuddled.

Just adding my 2 cents: I would keep it. And I'm the one who replaced my plywood paneled ceiling that was a deep cherry red and normal neight-- because it was a 60s add-on that was out of character in a 1930s home. Yours is beautiful, original and beautifully suited (and sufficiently light, with high ceilings) to the home.

Another vote to keep it. It just fits the character of the house so well.

Some great points above -- you all are right in that this is paneling as opposed to planks/shiplap in my inspiration photos -- so they would look different if painted.

The issue that I'm stuck on is that the color of the ceiling is not a pretty color to me and it is not in good shape. In person it is yellowish, faded and the ceiling shows fairly significant damage in some spots. The patches that were done over the years to repair the ceiling/paneling were done poorly and do not match the older wood. So leaving it "as is" is not an option - it either has to be painted, torn out (which is not an option for us as we love the texture it brings) or re-stained.

We intend to re-finish the original kitchen cabinets, all the doors, and built-ins a richer, warmer tone with less yellow. Some rooms have a significant amount of wood, like this:

We would never touch those beautiful cabinets and doors with a paintbrush, but they do need re-finished. They haven't been touched since the home was built and have seen quite a bit of wear and tear - some of them are scratched at the bottom due to damage from a dog.

A white ceiling would certainly provide some contrast to the all the warm wood tones. But I don't want the home to feel sterile, and I don't want to strip the unique character from the house. I'm still not 100% sold on painting it, and am taking all of your thoughts and comments into consideration, so keep them coming!

This post was edited by pipdog on Tue, Oct 8, 13 at 12:59

If the ceiling's damaged & difficult to repair well, sounds like painting might be the way to go. But how about another color besides white? Perhaps some light neutral.

I think you want to paint the ceiling. And given the fact that it cannot be left as is, I am going to say --- paint it!
There are still plenty of elements that are true to the style. Why spend money staining it when you want white.

I say white white white.

What's going to make you happy and smile when you walk in to the room? What's going to make you feel comfortable and enjoy your space, whatever it is, do that. So what if the house/ceiling is original and an example of MCM style, if you feel oppressed by the darkness of the room during the day and are unhappy with the color of the wood ceiling, you're the one that has to live in the home.

From your comments, it seems like you want to paint it, so if that's the case, then I would paint it. Seeing some of your past decorated rooms, you seem to like light and bright rooms, so I think the inspirations pics make sense and painting it white, makes sense too for what you like. You could always add planks to the ceiling before painting, if that was something you really liked about the inspiration photos.

Before you make a decision I'd ask 2 things of you: Find out with certainty what the wood species is and get better pictures - of the paneling in general, the problem areas specifically and zoom in on a few areas where the paneling sections meet. If it is teak (I'd be surprised but anything is possible) painting will be problematic because it's an oily wood. If it's ash, which would be my guess, then I'd have it cleaned, lightened and white washed. That will even out the patching differences and lighten the feel without hiding the wood. It's a beautiful finish, especially on that type of wood. Then, if it's paneling, there will be butt seams where the sections meet - are they visible? If so, that should be addressed whether you paint, stain, whitewash or even leave it alone - irregular openings like that are like eye magnets - you can't help but look at them and not in a good way.

I'd paint I tried living with yellow wood for years and it was painful so happy now that it is painted. I am finally at peace with my home.

What if you compromised and painted the ceiling panels which is where the damage is, and at least leave the beams unpainted?

I would find out what would go into re-staining it before painting it. Actually, I would probably not buy a house like that unless I could commit to restoring the ceiling. But that's me.

I live in a mid-century not nearly as nice as yours that has an open beamed ceiling in an almost fumed oak dark stain, on the top floor. Of the four houses built exactly like this, I think it might be the only one left. The ones on each end are drywalled and they look so ...generic. They could be anyhouse anywhere. One of the houses has been so systematically stripped or updated with "traditional" details that it has nothing left that makes it attractive.

Were I building this house new, I doubt I would have done the open ceiling exactly the same way-- or so dark --but it's what I was given, so it stays. The worn out cheap bathrooms will go, things will be upgraded, but it won't be turned into something else.

I agree with roobear. Why live in your house to preserve it for somebody else, who might go paint it anyway! lol The photos of painted ceilings look great. If you like the light rooms, then these will feel dark, dreary and oppressive to you, even if someone else loves them. It doesn't appear you will be ruining the house by painting it out, just giving it new life. Please show progress and transformation photos!

Dlm2000 has some great idea's! You could possibly have a bit of both...a lighter ceiling but still see some wood. That is "if" your ceiling is a nice wood.

If you paint it it will look like an enclosed patio. Okay, it won't, but many of your examples look like what you get when someone walls in a screened porch or patio. It's what MY patio would look like if I walled it in.

If it can't be rescued, yeah, paint it. But I'd try hard to fix it first.

Pipdog, I think that since you even bought a house like this that you at least understand that you can't turn one thing into another thing, and maybe you will make the best decision taking all factors into account.

I am also coming out of self-imposed lurking because I have an idea for a new blog:

R E M U D D L E

"Do what YOU love it's YOUR house, don't preserve anything for some future owner!" (The capitals are very important)

Cheap easy ways to strip any house of whatever vestiges of character it's managed to hang onto for 50 years, and turn it into a mind-numbingly dull but "updated" house that looks just like an ad from Lowes!

I know who I will be asking to contribute regularly.

"Do what YOU love" would probably be good advice if it didn't usually involve dumbing down the design and turning it into a generic drywall box that looked like the person's who's giving the advice own house.

I know you and DH bought the property to save it from being torn down and have a developer build some ginormous house that has no inherent style. Google "famous MCM houses Southern California" and Curbed LA will come up with the topic of MCM tear down vs. rebuild as the lead page. Though most of these discussions are about just that "tearing them down" it might give you more insight in helping to make the decision on the paint and other remodeling questions.

As only a temporary keeper of the home, I would be inclined to keep its predominant features the same. Those are what make it what it is and why you wanted to save it in the first place, right?

I would focus on repairing all of the things that need mending and bringing them back to their original glory while making some changes to the functionality of fixtures, etc. If needed, an example would be the lights around the ceiling perhaps changing the bulbs to a more current color temperature...again only if needed.

I would most likely paint the walls that are sheetrock in shades of off white and greys keeping all of the background natural and neutral and let my furnishings and art be the sparks. Again, my feeling would be to repair and enhance what's been placed in your care for future generations.

I will be closing on a house next Tuesday that has no true design direction other than being a 50's ranch, and I would have loved to have found a house that already had its mission statement put out there for me.

I didn't know that you bought the house in order to preserve it.

Since you have more of a custodial relationship with the house and are acting kind of as a steward, I think this changes what you should be comfortable doing to it somewhat. I think you raised the bar a bit. If you are going to save it, save it. If you had just bought it because it was in the right place and was the right price, it would be a bit different.

Duplicate post

This post was edited by ineffablespace on Wed, Oct 9, 13 at 18:51

Pip, here is a blog by Tom Tarrant, who now does remodels and flips in the San Diego area. He does a pretty good job of balancing the architecture of his projects with updating for resale. One of his SD projects was a MCM. Photos and a video at the link.

Hope the GW traffic doesn't bog down his site!!

Here is a link that might be useful: MCM remodel & flip

It is a beautiful home. I would stain or whitewash the ceiling rather than painting it, unless the damage is too severe to make that feasible. Painting it will really change the character of the home.

We have a similar vaulted wood ceiling (Doug Fir) in the 1960 California ranch we bought 3 years ago. A PO whitewashed the ceiling at some point. We would have preferred a natural wood color, but the cost and mess of sanding and staining were too much for us. We originally hated the ceiling color because it seemed pinkish or yellowish at different times of the day. Once we replaced the tan carpeting with tile and painted the walls in soft white (Fossil by Dunn Edwards) and shades of grayish blue, the ceiling color looks so much better. It now looks appropriate for a coastal home.

While I love wood floors, they would have been too much with the wood ceiling and wood furniture in our house. We also have a pool and 2 young children, so tile seemed smarter. We went with 24x24" Keystone Iron tile (by Emil) in all the public spaces of the house. It looks very similar to silver travertine, with swirls of gray and cream and hints of blue or green in some lighting. As a single tile, the pattern looks busy, but in a large space it works. Keystone is the best "faux stone" porcelain tile series I have seen; the technology has improved so much recently.

If you are worried about having too many brown wood tones, you might consider a light gray stain. My designer suggested that as an option for our ceiling, so that it would look a bit like driftwood or grayed teak.

Here is a link that might be useful: Keystone Iron tile

thanks everyone. I don't have time today to respond individually, but just want to clarify that we didn't buy this house to preserve it. We outbid a developer that was planning on tearing it down but we intend to live here.

I've probably "remuddled" many homes -- I put arched doorways in a 1950's cottage-style ranch; added marble to an inner city warehouse loft; decorated a turn of the century Victorian house with Asian influences and painted over dark wood paneling in a Craftsman bungalow. I'm sure purists would have their own thoughts about many changes I've made to my previous homes. And the MCM police might arrest me for wanting to paint these ceilings. But in the end it's our home and we're simply not fans of dark wood ceilings, especially yellow wood with moisture damage. What is "dumbing down" to some people is "lighten up" to others.

I'll keep you all updated as to what we decide. Thanks for the input - very helpful to have all your thoughts and suggestions in making our decision.

chispa, great video -- that shower head is awesome!

pipdog, I am not worried about *you dumbing it down. I don't think people who would really be interested in that would have thought the house worth saving to begin with, and you obviously did.

But there are probably a number of people who don't think the house is worth saving to begin with who would be more than happy to encourage you to mess it up.

Pip,

In my earlier post, I was in no way trying to offend you but just give a hearty opinion of the other side. It is very easy for me to give that opinion as I am not close to the property emotionally, fiscally, physically, or otherwise. But sometimes it is those opinions that can offer some food for thought that has not otherwise even been considered because of the said closeness to the project by the homeowner.

I just was just wanting you to peruse all options before committing to one so definitive. I am not sure of your age, but I have noticed that as I have gotten older things that I would have once done (design wise included) without blinking an eye at one point in my life I tend to mull over longer now and take (or attempt to) all options into consideration. Mostly for the fear of deciding later that I had made a mistake (this has happened on several occasions).

Again, it is easy for me to make the call on your house but nearly impossible to make decisions on the house we are closing on next week. My inability to make these decisions is for several reasons, one being the closeness, among others. I am sure there are others on this board that could come in and definitively make those decisions in two seconds and be fabulous. The other reason being that my "new" house has no definitive style other than fifties ranch and it could go about fifty ways in relation to design!

no worries pal and lousiana... i didn't mean to come off as sounding defensive (looking back at my post it sort of comes off that way, even though that was certainly not my intent). I appreciate your comments, humor and thoughtful responses in this thread -- all of this has gotten me thinking differently about things and that's why I love coming to this forum because of all of the creativity and collective ideas that swirl around here.

Last week I was pretty confident that we were just going to smear the ceiling with white paint, now I am thinking that we will live in the house for a while before committing to anything and deciding whether we will paint or re-stain. I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed to make any big decisions right now -- especially one that will alter the look of the house so drastically.

I'm so confused. . . so by encouraging someone to do what would make them happy or feel comfortable in their own home (whatever that may be), it most likely means someone is encouraging them to re-muddle/mess up their home, and cheaply strip all the character in their home, making it look like an ad from Lowes? It also means that the person who gave this advice most likely doesn't believe a house like this is worth saving and owns a generic drywall box home themselves?

Did I get all the assumptions above correct there or am I missing something?

I can appreciate the reasons to keep/restore the ceiling for the historical architectural value of what it is, but I can also appreciate a right to choose a less popular/less expected option in favor for someone feeling better in their environment and finding a solution to their damaged ceiling taking into consideration their possible time and money constraints. The question wasn't what I would do, it was what should she do, and my opinion was simply that she should do what she wants (whatever she decides). After Pal's post, it sounds like that was dangerous bad advice.

So my confusion, and honest inquire is what's more important, someone's own happiness/design preferences in their home environment and making it their own, fitting their specific needs, wants, budget, etc.or making sure a home is kept in perfect historical architectural original quality? Do these "rules" only apply with certain houses, certain design issues? If you find yourself not a purist with your own home's style (assuming it's clear and obvious) or don't find yourself a purist to your home's original condition (if you happen to live in a time capsule home), but choose to live there for other reasons like location etc., should you just "live with it" or move, or what? What about when it's style is not clear and obvious, maybe more of a mix of styles?

This post was edited by roobear on Thu, Oct 10, 13 at 10:50

I'll answer before I disappear again.

I think the answer is "Yes, sometimes" I think people are encouraged to essentially ruin the interior of their houses by doing something that is popular, trendy, and current, but not necessarily appropriate.

And "No" because sometimes they are given advice that encourages them to make changes that are well considered, taking the house from time capsule status into the present but still fit with the house.

People accept that there may be clothing that is beautiful but not appropriate for a 70 year old, but is for a 25 year old and vice-versa. Why can't they accept that same idea for a house?

And "yes" I think the "do what you love" advice is often advice to mess things up because, strangely enough it is often very trend conscious, because doing what you love often seems to be shoving a square peg into a round hole and saying "I don't really care how it actually looks".

But this is why I don't really post anymore because I am apparently a terrible person for having this opinion and expressing it.

And, luckily a lot of houses are pretty mixed and can take change pretty well.

I agree that the ceiling may need to be painted if doing something else would be too expensive, way too dirty or actually dangerous. It seems like house fires during restoration are sometimes related to wood stripping and restoration.

But I think it needs to be considered, and I would try to leave the beams natural since they are not damaged.

A option that hasn,t been mentioned yet is to paper it with textured wall-paper. My daughers school is very simular to this home and it has large white tiles between the beams. So its not like the white between the beams hasn,t been done within this style. Thats not the only place I have seen it done that way. Textured wallpaper would be the only option that would cover the damage for now while still leaving the option of repairing it later. Okay ducking for cover for mentioning wallpaper now;)

I thought my advice was based on the reaction to the environment the ceiling was causing her and the condition of the ceiling itself, not the fact that the ceiling was to some "dated" or that a white/lighter ceiling is more "current" somehow, but perhaps it wasn't.

I know I'm still lost on what a trend/non trend actually is and in what context, as it seems to be so subjective from person to person, region etc. I actually thought painting the ceiling white in this case was the unpopular/less expected option. To me the expected, traditional popular option would be to leave it/ restore it, considering the home as a whole.

So what would one do when you have an emotional reaction to an element in your home (like feeling oppressed by a wood ceiling) that some would consider inappropriate to change for the house? I've run into this situation myself with my own home.

I wondered why you weren't posting as much anymore, I use to enjoy your thought provoking threads, it's a shame you're just lurking more now. I don't think anyone is a "terrible person" for having a difference in opinion and expressing it, otherwise the world would be boring. How one is perceived because of it (fairly or unfairly), may be more about the delivery of it than the difference itself.

This post was edited by roobear on Thu, Oct 10, 13 at 12:59

We recently bought a home that wasn't exactly the style we were looking for, but it had quality construction, beautiful windows and an amazing landscaped lot.
I know exactly how you feel, because before we moved in, I definitely did not like the Brazilian cherry floors. I wanted to tear them out. Then I thought how nicely the wood flowed and decided to live with it awhile. I must say they have grown on me. They don't collect as much dust as I thought they would. They are warm, and I think we will just refinish them. The wood in the kitchen is in the worst shape (deeply scratched and I still haven't decided whether to go to tile.)
We have also installed Armacost lighting as a wall wash to lighten up the dark tile back splash and we love it. We also changed all our recessed lights to LED and leave our lights on more which brightens the whole area.
Good luck on your decision. If you dislike your ceilings, they are your ceilings now and you should paint them. I think they would look fine and I don't think ceilings should be the focus in your home.

When I gave my opinion, it was in regard to the look only. But if all the wood makes the house seem dark, low and depressing, by all means change it. But, I'd do it now, before you move in .

I'm speaking from experience as we are currently redoing the ceilings in the master bedroom, hall, living room (vaulted) and kitchen. And it is such a pain to have everything out of those rooms and shoved into other rooms. The painter is here today and we should be back to normal by next week. But it's wearing on my very last nerve.

If I had a negative emotional response about something that was "essential" to the house, some key feature that would be difficult to change without significant expense, or if it was something that really couldn't be changed successfully, I would probably not buy the house, in all honesty.

I would not reject a house out of hand for having bad wallpaper or paint colors I didn't like, or even granite countertops I didn't like. But, if I didn't like the wood beamed ceilings in a house, I would probably pass on the house. Or there would have to be something so particularly perfect about it in some other way , that I could live with them (probably as is or with minor changes) .. But I don't know that there is such a shortage of houses that I would be forced into buying something I really didn't want.

A modernist house is usually particularly "pushy" about what it is, and I think that is one of the reasons a lot of people don't like them. Most people are pretty vocal about hating them. (And don't seem to think this is at all insulting to the people that own them.) They are inflexible. They don't adapt as well to change as a non-commital generic-transitional kind of house. Those are actually pretty easy to remodel and redecorate and to change.

No amount of crown moulding or chair rail or windows with muntins would turn the house in question into anything traditional-looking and believe me, people try to do this often. And that's where the euphemistic "do what you love" often comes into play. Because it often means "disregard the hand you were dealt". Most of "do what you love" is an outgrowth of not liking the house they are giving advice about.

I know we are not talking about crown moulding and chair rail specifically here, but we are still talking about changing a Major element here in a way that will be pretty much irreversible here and Much harder to undo than restoring them would be from this starting point. It's a significant dilution of what the essence of this house is. It may absolutely be necessary. But it should be given more than a cursory "go ahead, it's yours".

My delivery is pretty abrupt and to the point, but the people who get on my case about how insulting I am kind of miss the whole aspect that I don't really give advice based upon what I like or don't like as much as I give advice based upon what the existing conditions are telling me what is probably the best thing to do. I guide people through a series of choices I would never pick for myself all the time. That's really irrelevant. What is relevant is what there is already there to work with.

Pal, I have never thought from your posts that you were insulting to anyone. People have actually said that to you? I would hope that you don't let those people (a very small minority here) drive you away into lurking exile. I think most of us appreciate what you have to say and most of us understand that asking for advice on the internet will get you a wide range of answers that one can use or ignore.

pal, I enjoy your input, too so please don't let what others have said drive you away. I agree in part with a lot of what you said and this discussion has made me really think about this decision. While I've always admired mid century modern homes from a distance, I've never felt a burning desire to own one. But when I walked in this home, I knew immediately it was our next home. Not because I felt so connected to the architecture or the MCM style of the home, but for a multitude of other reasons: the location, the view, the privacy, the openness of the home and the fact that it felt like it was specifically built to raise my family in. It was the totality of all the elements that made me fall in love with this space. Honestly, I was so thrown off by my blinding infatuation with this house to even really notice that the ceilings were in such a bad state and that the color was a dull yellowish wood. I didn't have my negative emotional reaction to them until we did the inspection, after we were in escrow.

roobear, I agree with you that since it's our house, we should have the ability to make whatever changes we see fit to customize it to our tastes. But something about the decision to paint the ceiling white was nagging at me. Even though I love the idea of a soaring white beamed ceiling and the openness it would create, painting it white would definitely alter the fundamental MCM essence of the house. The wood has remained unpainted for over 50 years. I felt somewhat uncomfortable to be the one that painted this virgin wood. I've made a lot of random changes to houses in the past that arguably stripped the house of some of its essence, but this one was really weighing on me. A 95 year old lady lived in this house for nearly four decades (and died in this house) and I kept envisioning her ghost standing in the corner screaming "Nooooooo!" as we started to paint the ceiling.

So, the paintbrush is going to be put away for now. I'm researching stains -- something along the lines of this, which I think would be a good compromise for me -- it brings lightness to the space, yet still retains the character of the home. I'll post what we decide to do and really appreciate your thoughts.

This post was edited by pipdog on Fri, Oct 11, 13 at 10:42

Pal, exactly my thoughts...if the house was more generic then it is open to being almost whatever you want. But when the architecture and styling so permeates the house, it is foolish not to accept it for what it is and let it be what it wants to be.

It's like a plain shift dress...you can wear flats and go casual or you can put on pearls and heels and go dressy. But if it is already sequined fabric, draped back, full length, it's going to look silly with running shoes and a jean jacket.

And stop all this coming and going...just stay, add your insightful contributions, and if a blind few can't see the value in it, that's their problem.

Many moon ago, my folks had a cottage with a vaulted and beamed ceiling like this one that was open to all the rooms in the house, like this one. But the energy bills were through the roof, literally, as the roof was uninsulated. So dad put up styrofoam panels as insulation between the beams. It made a tremendous difference. They didn't mind the white between the beams, it lightened the look, but kept the vault and could have been easily undone. (Doesn't matter now as the house is long gone.) They do make fiberglass bats that are finished on one side as well, I believe, or you could investigate other similar options that might add functionality and efficiency, lighten the look, and not be so irreversible as paint.

I'm wondering if something like the Owens Corning basement finishing system could be adapted to that purpose...it is finished and textured and I believe comes in colors....

This post was edited by AnnieDeighnaugh on Fri, Oct 11, 13 at 9:57

I love that last picture pipdog and I can't wait to watch as your house progresses!

I feel out of the loop, not sure what happened with Pal. :(

(sorry for the hijack)

DH and I have decided that we will move in the spring. We did not anticipate kids when we moved here and my youngest SS is graduating HS. So if we can sell our house we will move to an area of NJ with much smaller homes and lots. Time to purge purge purge! the schools are great and it is much closer to my office. Anyway, my point is that I am in love with this house (which is excpensive and needs work, and wont be available I am sure when we are ready, and it priced a bit high)

{{!gwi}}

{{!gwi}}

It has nowhere near the architectural interest that Pipdogs has. Why am I mentioning this? I have fantasies of buying it, being able to afford Pal as my Interior designer, convincing him to at least once hop the train to see the space, then helping me somehow put tiny bits of my nuttiness in this space while not messing it up and making it look great. :) Don't tell DH that is the kind of stuff I am daydreaming about lately. ;)
I hope Pal still stays around! I love your advice.

Pipdog,
I like your last inspiration photo. You would lighten up the ceiling, but still maintain the wood look. It looks very original, even if it isn't!

that is a great house boopadaboo! What's up with that weird blue sky photoshop job, though?? Just bad.

Check out this MCM blog I found about restoring MCMs - she does a lot of tours of homes on the market in Southern California.

Here is a link that might be useful: MCM remodel