It’s that time of year again when we are starting to prepare to hunker down for winter and cozy up inside our homes. In contemplating hibernating for the winter, I started to turn my eyes inward to search for home projects to spruce up our living areas. After a summer spent fixing and tidying up the outside, I was ready to start tackling the outdated ceiling tiles, circa 1962,
in our home. We called on Brother’s Electric, a Corcoran neighborhood business, to come and wire in a vintage chandelier. They asked me more than once if I understood that they were going to need to tear up my ceiling, and I assured them that I was ready to see these outdated ceilings go! I was actually quite happy about this because it forced us to re-do the ceilings quickly! And my hubs couldn’t say no to me adding to the honey-do list! So, they went to town wiring in my vintage chandelier…and putting two big gaping holes in the ceilings to run the wiring through.

Then onto the repair! The best part about this project is that we fixed our ceiling for $150…and we did it ourselves! I really was hoping for pressed tin, but that happens to be out of our budget. Yet, good ol Amazon.com came to the rescue. (And did you know that if you purchase through smile.amazon.com instead, amazon donates a portion of your sale to your non-profit of choice!) We purchased vintage inspired Styrofoam tiles for $2.50 a piece. 

They are made to look like the antique pressed ceilings and there are hundreds of designs to choose from in all different colors and price points. Now, I will admit, the Styrofoam scared me at first. I thought it might come out looking “cheap”, but I was thrilled with results. We used liquid nails and a kitchen knife for cutting and before you knew it, our dining room was like brand new! (It also didn’t hurt that my husband is 6’7’’ and could simply reach to press them up…he was the handiest tool in this DIY project). If it wasn’t for patching up the holes before laying the ceiling tiles, we could have completed the project in just a matter of hours. We now intend to do the rest of the ceilings as an easy indoor DIY project this fall into winter. I hope this inspires your inner DIY spirit too!

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