Give your home instant character with a DIY herringbone wood ceiling! This tray ceiling idea is perfect for a modern farmhouse entryway.
Get more modern farmhouse home ideas here and see our favorite modern farmhouse entryway ideas here.
DIY Tray Ceiling Update with Reclaimed Wood
We are big fans of interesting ceiling treatments, from the exposed beams in our current house (including the basement!) to a DIY beadboard ceiling and painting the ceiling as the 5th wall of your room.
Any ceiling can be improved by a facelift, but an inset tray ceiling in particular is a great place to add an accent ceiling idea (like this coffered wood ceiling).
A little rustic or reclaimed pallet wood made the ceiling the star of this beautiful entryway by Kimberly from @Home_Kimprovements. (She shared her daughter’s rainbow shiplap wall here recently, too!)
Pallet wood and other reclaimed wood is great for adding farmhouse style to any room in your home, on a budget — from an entire pallet wood ceiling to a kitchen backsplash or kitchen island, or even a wood headboard or coffee table or wooden TV frame!
Kimberly is our guest today to share how she and her husband installed this pallet wood ceiling in their entryway recessed tray ceiling.
Be sure to see more of her awesome projects and beautiful home over on Instagram, too!
How to Install a DIY Herringbone Wood Ceiling
by Kimberly from @Home_Kimprovements
This project was completely free to do!
We found an ad on Craigslist of a small company getting rid of pallets so we helped ourselves to their pile.
Read more about where to find pallets and how to choose good pallets HERE.
Materials and Tools
- Pallet wood (we used about 10 pallets)
- Nail gun
- Finishing nails
- Air compressor
- Miter Saw
- 1×2’s (enough for the perimeter of the recessed space)
widget with tools
Step 1: Break Down the Pallets
We broke down the pallets and cut each piece of wood into 13” pieces and laid out the herringbone design we wanted.
See Justin’s tips for taking apart pallets (and keeping their character) here.
This is the time to put the best side up and make sure the colors in the woods evenly flow across the ceiling. We did not stain ours but feel free to stain or white wash or color wash, if you prefer.
Step 2: Hang Plywood Backing
We added pieces of 1/4” plywood to fit inside the recessed space so we had something to nail the wood pieces into. These were attached to the ceiling joists (similar to this other pallet wood ceiling tutorial).
Step 3: Install Pallet Wood Slats
We used a nail gun to nail each pallet wood piece into the plywood we installed.
We started around the light hold to avoid as many cuts as possible and worked our way out using the herringbone pattern.
Step 4: Cut Edge Pieces
Once you do all of the pieces before reaching the edge, you will need to cut down all of the pieces to fit the remaining gaps. Don’t worry if there is a small gap next to the wall.
Step 5: Add Frame
We framed around the edge to cover up any gaps using 1×2’s and cutting the edges at a 45 degree angle 📐 to meet at a point.
Step 6: Decorate
Make everyone look up and admire your ceiling by hanging some pretty wintry paper bag snowflakes! (See the tutorial and more here in Kimberly’s IG Stories.)
Thanks for sharing your skills and beautiful photos with us, Kimberly! Remodelaholics, you’ll love Kimberly’s happy and beautiful Instagram feed and be sure to check out her stories about how they made their own custom closet and also installed this gorgeous full-wall brick backsplash in the kitchen.
Click the link to see the story highlight for each project.
More DIY Ceiling Ideas:
- How to Apply Ceiling Texture on a New or Refinished Ceiling
- DIY Whitewashed Knotty Pine Ceiling
- How to Paint a Ceiling with an Interesting Pattern
- DIY Coffered Wood Ceiling
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This diy is absolutely gorgeous. I would love to have this exact look in our hallway. All I can say is WOW!!!
Amen! Kimberly did an amazing job!