Painting beams

[TheGreenNinja]

We have dark beams in our lounge. I'd like to paint them (actually I'd like to sandblast them but don't have the money!) I think but can't quite decide. The lounge is a relatively new extension of an old house, so they're essentially fake beams to make the lounge in keeping with the rest of the place.
I'm painting the walls a soft grey-green colour but can't decide whether to go white for the beams or paint them a colour to still stand out from the ceiling but not be so dark. And if a colour, which colour? I'm thinking grey, but would that date quite quickly?

I think I'd paint them the same colour as the ceiling rather than make a feature of them. Or consider removing them.

I would paint them white or the same colour as the ceiling x

Thanks for the views. We can't remove them at the moment without needing to repair and replaster the whole ceiling so that's out because we don't have the money for it.
I'm veering towards painting the whole lot an off-white I think, much easier to paint if it's all the same colour.

Oh God. I have these. In fact, the previous owners painted over an actual structural beam in the old part of the house then stuck up a load of 2'' timbers in the new part and stained them dark brown.

We have removed most of them but in the kitchen they had only plastered up to the fake beams (why?? just why??) so we're going to paint them white. If yours have been stained with woodstain, give em a good sand and prime with Zinsser BIN first.

Also if the previous eejits nailed them in, you might want to nail punch the heads and go over with some woodfiller.

Sounds very similar! The ceiling in between is rough-textured which is in keeping with the old bits but means it'd be a huge job to replaster if we took them down. Good point about nail holes, the small beams are nailed so will fill those. We also have a massive beam down the center which isn't nailed so that could be a real structural beam or at least a cover for an rsj or something.

Oh gawd, it sounds exactly the same. I am patching up the dodgy plastering in the kitchen just now and they are a real spiders web magnet!! Thankfully we have a power sander, so hoping to take some rough edges off when I do it. Forgot to say, make sure you ventilate well if you use the Zinsser bin, it is shellac based and will give you a bit of a headache otherwise.

you will have to take a before and after pic tremolo! I've got the first coat on the walls today (yes I know should really do ceiling first) and I have to say the beams don't look too bad against the new paint.

Just wanted to add, we have this too although our beams were added to the 1850s part of the house to match the 1920s extension when that was built. The PO papered the ceilings with woodchip between every beam I'm in the process of stripping the bloody stuff off and have finished one room with another partially done. The finished one we've painted in a light creamy white, beams and rest if ceiling the same......looks a million times better!

Rest of ceiling

Here's a few pics of ours. First two are breakfast room before/after. Third kitchen during. Few cracks but not enough to warrant covering with the devil's own decorating material in the kitchen ceiling that can easily be filled!

Raphaella, great work! Any top tips for stripping woodchip off ceilings without blowing the plaster? I hate anything to do with ceilings but we have anaglypta on our sitting room. Weirdly they had all the walls skimmed then put this shite over the pristine plaster. I hate them.

Thanks Tremolo! Woodchip/textured paper on ceilings is a total pig! I've just been scoring it/trying to scrape the surface of the wood chips off with a scraper or Stanley knife and spraying with hot(ish) water in a plant spray bottle, then allowing it to soak in before removing. Keep getting water dripping down my sleeves......grrrr!

The kitchen ceiling took about six attempts before it was softened enough to remove , but I plan to get a paper tiger (think that's what they're called!) to score the surface more evenly. Think I read somewhere - maybe MN - about using eucalyptus oil in the spray bottle.

Your ceiling looks great raffaella.
You can get a chemical wallpaper remover that works really well, I got it from b&q and you just dilute it and spray on, leave for 15-30 mins and the wallpaper comes off so much easier. I've got a paper tiger too, would recommend them.

Ah great. I have a perforating roller. Does that wallpaper stripper chemical work much better than regular soapy water then? If so, I will invest as I have metres and metres to remove.

Loads better IME. I stripped a huge room and ran out of the stripper on the last wall or two so used soapy water and the difference was huge. With the chemical stripper the paper just peels off. You do need to soak and leave it half an hour ideally.

Thanks Ninja, that sounds way better than my method so will get some next time I'm in 'been & queued'

Meanwhile I've been stripping woodchip on the landings today. The bastards previous owners way back in the mists of time elected to apply a glossy type paint over the lining paper which has then been emulsioned before hanging the woodchip which has copious coats of emulsion over that.........the glossy paint is proving nigh on impossible to remove - makes my blood boil!