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I’m in the process of revamping my recently purchased house which echoes of the 70’s/80’s. Ongoing projects include installing recesses lighting, wood flooring, resurfacing walls (and replacing walls with termite damage), and painting. The one area that I’m not sure about is the drop ceiling in the kitchen/dining room which then opens up to a greatroom with 14′ beamed ceilings. I’m thinking of replacing the 12″x12″ acoustic tiles (ugly) suspended on furring strips with 12″ wide aluminum flashing done in a “basket weave” pattern. This pattern would be achieved by first running long strips side by side (and securing them to the furring) until the whole area is covered, then “weaving” flashing in and out every 12″ to produce the desired effect. Pressed tin panels are out of the ball park in regards to cost and I would be adding accents to the flashing to give it some charm. I don’t see any reason why flashing could not be used for this purpose but that doesn’t mean a whole lot. Any opinions?
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Why not! Try it on the floor to see how it looks before nailing it up. And, be careful that you don't get kinks in it, which will occur really easily with that stuff.
What are you going to do at the corners? You cannot get adjacent rows to butt together, so there will be an opening there. How about a small rosette, like those plastic things used to hold a mirror. That would also be the place where you hold up the strips, and the nail would serve as a nice uniform spacer.
(Oh yes--just as with pressed metal, you need a proper plaster or drywall ceiling there first.)
Or even better--that aluminum is ductile. Make your own pressed metal by finding a pleasant shape and rub/tap the aluminum against it. Forming metal that way for decorative purposes has been around since the Egyptians discovered copper.
*Let me know when, so I can buy stock in BandAids! I see only one problem....the cut edges. You going with an un painted stock? If painted....thinkin' the edges will look bad. I guess you could leave it unpainted for the space age look...or paint it all when done. What's the finish to be. This is either gonna look real cool....or real dumb! And I don't think you'll know till the last piece is up! Good luck, Jeff
*Good stuff to consider before I jump off the edge of the cliff. I really like the rosette idea. For some reason (shear stupidity) I overlooked the corner gap aspect. As far as pressing the aluminum, I have to cover over 500 sq. ft. So I'm thinking I better not press it (my luck that is). I did consider that in the beginning but since this is a "do-it-yourself" project and because I'm doing several other projects, I decided to keep it as simple as possible. As far as the outside edges (yes, I'll have many boxes of bandages but don't think I'll invest right now), it looks like I can butt them against the wall, secure to the furring, and finish with molding. Since the flashing isn't as thick as the existing tiles, I'm going to have a small space between the top of the wall and the ceiling. Molding will be necessary to cover the discrepancy. Yeah, maybe some cool "space age" molding. I do think I'll lay out a sample area to see if it looks the way I hope. I'm also thinking about belt sanding the flashing strips lengthwise so when I do the "weaving" it will produce a "crisscross" line effect. Gotta experiment with that technique. Thanks for the input!
*Just a thought...Could be noisy- may reflect a lot of sound and echo especially at high frequency. Flick an aluminum cookie sheet with your finger, then do the same with the acoustic tiles...now think about that aluminum over your whole ceiling...I dunno, just a thought...
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I'm in the process of revamping my recently purchased house which echoes of the 70's/80's. Ongoing projects include installing recesses lighting, wood flooring, resurfacing walls (and replacing walls with termite damage), and painting. The one area that I'm not sure about is the drop ceiling in the kitchen/dining room which then opens up to a greatroom with 14' beamed ceilings. I'm thinking of replacing the 12"x12" acoustic tiles (ugly) suspended on furring strips with 12" wide aluminum flashing done in a "basket weave" pattern. This pattern would be achieved by first running long strips side by side (and securing them to the furring) until the whole area is covered, then "weaving" flashing in and out every 12" to produce the desired effect. Pressed tin panels are out of the ball park in regards to cost and I would be adding accents to the flashing to give it some charm. I don't see any reason why flashing could not be used for this purpose but that doesn't mean a whole lot. Any opinions?