[Neuner]

Does anyone have any part of their basement ceiling exposed & painted black? If so, would you please post them?



I am constructing a Media/Bar room in my basement. I'm going for an Irish/German Bar feeling in the bar/lounge area of my room. I want the Theater/seating area to have a real nice finish w/ drywall on RC since my bedroom will be directly above, but the rest of the area I want to have a different feel about it, a little more "rough". Since my ceilings are low anyway's ~7' 3" I've opted to just paint the exposed flat black with small low level lighting dangling in strategic spots to help mis-direct the view & give the impression of higher ceilings. Half the walls will be drywall, the rest will be brick (I'm still researching on how to create a brick arch with brick pillars to encase my I-beam.


Any additional pics w/ similar style is most appreciated.

 

[Steve James]

the wife and i have thought about this as well for the ceiling. we were going for the same look, the pub look. I have seen pics of the joists stained, and it looked real good. my two concerns are the amount of sound traveling upstairs, and how to treat all the metal air ducts throughout the basement.


Steve

 

[Neuner]

I re-routed my ducts so that is not a problem. I was going to soffit them with dark stained wood.


The duct ran down the middle of my basement and I moved it so that it snaked along the wall. This really opened it up & was the best move so far.


I didn't think about staining the Joists. That sounds really cool to.


I'm also not worried about the sound going upstairs. I will have the drywall & RC channel for the ceiling where the bedrooms are and the rest is under the great room & kitchen. Sound traveling up will not be a problem b/c if there is noise it's due to everyone being downstairs or a large gathering. My parents had an exposed ceiling & you couldn't hear anything upstairs or down. It was always a joke in our family that our Mom had to stomp her foot on the floor hard in order for us to know to come up for dinner. If she yelled, we couldn't hear her & visa versa.

 

[Steve James]

you can take a look at my pics and see what i'm working with. the theater area is only 7'5" high, the rest is a ft higher. we have a lot of pvc pipes as well, but they can be painted black. we were going to put track lighting in between the joists, and maybe put the 7.1 surrounds there too, but using smaller bookshelf speakers instead of in-walls. we're almost done framing, but have done anything to the ceiling yet...

 

[Neuner]

Whoa, you go from 7.5 to 8.5'? If I had the 8.5' high ceilings, I probably wouldn't be considering the exposed ceiling


Same thought on the track & speakers. My surrounds won't be up in the joists since that area will be drywall, but I was going to get small black bookshelf like you said & hide them inbetween joists for ambient music. The lights I was going to try & keep to the side & below the ceiling to give it the illusion it was higher. I've seen this effect in bars & restaurants & it works really well. They have the lights along the side wall & almost pointed at you. Even though they aren't very bright, the glare then conceals what is behind them.

 

[Steve James]

well, i have alot of valves and pipes up there, i hate suspending ceilings, and i'm 6'7" ;-) I've looked at ceilingmax, but it's pricey.

 

[eameres]

I did a ceilmax grid with black tiles, you can check out my gallery.


Eric.

 

[Michael_Crawfor]

I removed a drop ceiling that was in my basement and painted everything - joists, duct work, etc. - black. I love it BUT the only issue is the sound traveling upstairs. I think the poor people in the living room get more bass shaking then people watching the movie!


I took some photos awhile back that I'll try to get posted tonight.


Michael

MWC

 

[Spydrman]

Some friends painted the unfinished ceiling (+pipes n stuff) in their basement, (teenagers BD) it had an industrial look, some restuarants/bars do the same thing. I kinda liked it.

 

[Steve James]

that would be awesome if you could post pics. what type of paint did you use?

 

[Neuner]

I've attached a pic showing my *Current Conditions*

You can see my HVAC I've snaked around the wall & all of the numerous joists.


Also in the background you can see where my main sewer line drops down in the sweet part of where my theater will be: Ugh!! What a pain to move!

 

[hankey01]

I painted the ceiling a dark grey. You can see it in my pics. It actually turned out prety good. An idea might be to run rigid foam insulation between the joists and paint it the same color. I did this at the ends to cover the pink insulation. That would help with warmth and sound travelling upstairs.

 

[Steve James]

hankey,


great idea about the rigid foam insulation. also, did you use a paint sprayer?


thanks,

Steve

 

[hankey01]

I painted it all by hand. It was a couple of frustrating nights...seemed to take forever. I applied 2 coats. I would totally recommend a sprayer!

 

[CptnRandy]

Interesting idea and I like the look, but what about the acoustics?


Randy

 

[hankey01]

It sounds pretty good to my untrained ears. My room is fairly small (16' x 9'), so maybe in a larger room there could be some problems, but I would think a smooth ceiling would have more echo than the 'open' style.


But I am no expert. It sounds great to me!

 

[Steve James]

my problem is the ceiling of my HT area is right below my family room with hardwood floors, so anything i can do to stop sound transmission upwards is a good thing. does anybody know if painting the rigid insulation would pose any fire concerns or totally negate the sound dampening properties?