How to whitewash a pine ceiling

We have made a lot of progress on the cabin ceiling these last few weeks! After the insulation, the next step for the cabin ceiling was to install the tongue and groove paneling, and whitewash the pine ceiling.

Tongue and groove pine ceiling

Installing tongue and groove boards is not a very difficult job, but doing it on a ceiling by yourself is pretty difficult. I tried to do this job by myself, but it didn’t take me long to realize I should just ask for help. Tony and I spent a few evenings over the last week, and together we threw up the ceiling pretty quickly.

We got all our pine tongue and groove boards from a local auction site, but you can find the same product at any hardware store. To install pine tongue and groove paneling, first you cut the boards down to length. You want the joints to line up on the roof rafters so it gives some support to the cut end. As the name of the material suggests, all you do is slide the groove of the board onto the tongue of the previous board. If everything it lined up correctly, it should just slide in beautifully.

We used a 16 gauge air nailer and put a nail in the tongue of each board, at each rafter. Tony added a small piece of trim after the last board to cover the gap between the board and the highest beam.

Our main reasons for whitewashing the pine ceiling were to protect the wood, neutralize some of the orange wood tones, and add some contrast to make the ceiling beams really pop.

To do a whitewash, all you need is a white latex paint and thin it with water. I chose to go the cheap route and found a can of paint I had in the basement. It was primer, but it worked just fine. A good ratio for a whitewash is 1:1 paint to water. However, since I had primer, and after doing a few test pieces, I decided to do a ratio of 2 parts primer to 1 part water.

I used a 3″ paintbrush and painted the entire ceiling by hand, making sure to get into all the cracks.

The whitewash is pretty subtle, but I think it accomplished what we wanted it to. I’m still undecided about whether or not I will do a second coat. I wouldn’t mind it if were a little whiter and brighter, but it took me over four hours to do the ceiling, some of that was in precarious positions, and I’m not too anxious to do it all over again. What do you think? Does it need another coat? Or leave it as is?