I know what some of you are thinking.

Why would we get rid of that beautiful ceiling?

Simply because.. it wasn't simple enough. We absolutely loved the herringbone while it was up. Truthfully, it did break our hearts a little to remove all the boards because it felt like it was apart of us. We installed it years ago, so you can imagine our style has immensely changed since then. We believe in our home evolving with us. It's actually been 2 years since we started to remove all of the herringbone in other spaces. Different accent walls, cabinet doors, etc. Since 2020, we really tuned into our style and realized, we love a clean and classic look.

Herringbone is beautiful, I'm not knocking it/anyone who has it in their home. I actually still love a good herringbone wood floor! Or a travertine herringbone fireplace insert. Amazing. It just wasn't right anymore for the ceiling. It felt very "farmhouse" here and it was really competing with the wainscoting. Too. Many. Lines.

But doesn't it feel like we're throwing money away?

Not really, it was quite inexpensive for this project. It consisted of hardboard cut into strips and nailed into the ceiling. Hardboard is such an affordable material! We're going to be using it for our new ceiling.

When we first installed this ceiling, we originally painted it grey. It was like this for maybe a year or two? Then I decided to paint it black, which was the best decision! Can you tell? I was very much into the very bright, all white interior. Still super pretty, just not us.

This is the ONLY photo I have of this ceiling during the installation. It was maybe 4 years ago and I rarely documented our D.I.Y. projects at the time. Crazy how things change!

We're installing our first coffered ceiling.

This has been a dream ceiling for us. We've always loved the detail of them and this room will be so perfect for it! We enjoy trying new things. This will be a great learning experience for us. I know some people are sad to see the herringbone go, but I promise the new ceiling will be worth it. It'll be more cohesive with my current style and the wood will bring the most beautiful warmth in this space. We're so excited!

To start, we added more wainscoting trim to bring the walls up higher. We'll paint it Accessible Beige @ -75% .. it has brightened up the room immensely even though it isn't fully painted, yet. It feels so grand already!

We began ripping out the herringbone boards.. which was a little heartbreaking, only because it felt like it was apart of us and reminded us of our older style. Saying goodbye to a certain part of our lives.

These boards, although thin, were pretty dang heavy to transport.

We began installing new hardboard panels to the ceiling. Why? It'll create a smooth surface and cover up all the popcorn. (Our daughter is such a great helper, lol). We'll prime & paint this section!

I know, there are seams.. but they'll definitely be covered up..

..by beautiful, wood beams! We have a long way to go and have already ran into a few bumps in the road. Just like every project, right? That's how we continue to learn. It's going to be great! Stay tuned.