Custom Trim and Carpentry
Coffered ceilings in Lancaster and Chester County, PA
A coffered ceiling is the piece of trim that turns a box of a dining room into a room people remember. We lay the grid out to the room so the beams land evenly and the chandelier sits in a coffer, build the beams on site from paint-grade stock or stained wood, run crown inside each coffer, and paint or stain it.
How a Coffered Ceiling Is Built
The grid is drawn on the ceiling first: how many coffers, how deep the beams, where the light fixtures land. The beams are built as boxes from poplar or MDF for paint, or from stained hardwood, and fastened to blocking in the ceiling, with the panels between them flat, raised, or painted a second color. Crown molding runs inside each coffer where the beam meets the panel, and the whole thing is caulked, primed, and painted on site. Dalton spent years at a trim-only company, and this is the work he was trained in.
Choices That Shape It
- Beam depth and width: a shallow grid reads modern, a deep one reads traditional.
- Number of coffers: three by three in a dining room, a long run in a hall, a single large frame in a bedroom.
- Paint or stain: white beams with a colored panel, all white, or a stained beam against a painted ceiling.
- Lighting: recessed lights centered in the coffers, a chandelier in the middle one, or lighting hidden on top of the beams.
- Ceiling height: a coffered ceiling takes a few inches. In an eight-foot room we build the beams shallow or use a flat applied grid.
- Tray ceilings and faux beams: a stepped tray with trim and lighting in the step, or hollow box beams across a flat ceiling, for rooms that want the look without the grid.
Ceilings We Have Built
The Chester Springs foyer below is a two-story coffered ceiling with the panels painted teal between dark bands and white beams, under a branch chandelier. The same house has a nine-panel coffered ceiling with a painted geometric pattern in each panel, and a stair hall with a gray coffered ceiling over a white railing.
Questions
Questions We Get
Can a coffered ceiling go in a room with eight-foot ceilings?
Yes, with shallow beams, about three inches, or a flat applied grid that reads as coffered without taking height. We mock up a corner so you can see it in the room.
Can the lights be moved into the coffers?
Yes, and they should be. We lay out the grid around the fixtures or move the fixtures to the grid, before the first beam goes up.
Paint-grade or stained?
Paint-grade poplar or MDF gives a seamless painted ceiling. Stained beams in oak, maple, or walnut are a different look and a different price. Both are built on site to the room.
Process
How We Work
- We visit, measure, and talk through the scope before anything is priced.
- You get a written proposal, and we build to it.
- Where the work needs a permit, we walk you through it every step: the application, the drawings the township asks for, and the inspections.
- We are on site from the first day to the last, and the house stays clean while we work.
- We walk the finished job with you, fix anything on the list, and clean up.
Custom Trim and Carpentry
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Service area
Where We Work
Based in Christiana, we work across Lancaster County and Chester County.
Lancaster County
- Christiana
- Gap
- Quarryville
- Strasburg
- Lancaster
Chester County
- Parkesburg
- Coatesville
- West Chester
- Kennett Square
- Downingtown
- Malvern
- Chester Springs
- Frazer
We have had Kings Remodeling do two previous inside projects. Very particular in regards to craftsmanship. Most recent project was removal of a fireplace mantle (builder grade). Our new mantle is a solid wood beam with handmade wood corbels. Looks great!
— Bruce BrennerCustom mantle with handmade corbels5 stars on Google
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