Condo Blues: How to Frame a Tin Ceiling Tile the Easy Way

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

How to Frame a Tin Ceiling Tile the Easy Way

I framed two tin ceiling tiles from the 200 year old church where Husband and I were married. I gave them to Husband as a token of my love.

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The frame ceiling tiles hang above the banister in our living room

The tiles were removed to repair a leak in the ceiling in the church parlor. Do you believe that a man on the repair crew wanted to throw these gems away?! Fortunately there was an antiquer among the volunteers working on the project who knew how valuable these sweet babies are and convinced them to not to toss them aside – whew!

I’ll take two please. Thank you.

I cleaned the tiles with a mild soap and water solution and removed the chips of paint before it had a chance to flake all over the carpet. I didn’t want to take any chances of Blitzkrieg sniffing out and possibly eating paint flakes. Bad, bad, bad.

Building the frame was simple. I went to an art supply store and bought canvas stretcher bars in the dimensions of the tin tiles. I assembled the frame, glued it together with wood glue instead of the stapling it together as you would if you stretched canvas over the bars in order to paint a picture. I filled the corner channels with wood filler for an even finish.

Once it was dry, I painted the frames red to play off of the red and white curtains that hang in the living room and in front of the kitchen patio door.

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Some people buy t-shirts as souvenirs when they go on vacation. Husband and I buy curtains at Ikea.

I bent the rough edges of the tiles back on themselves with a pair of needle nose pliers. I drilled pilot holes in the tiles and screwed them to the wooden frame with leftover screws from my toolbox.


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I screwed in two large eyes into the top of each frame so I could hang the tiles back to back in from hooks I screwed into a ceiling joist.

A discreet loop of wire keeps the tiles standing back to back standing at attention over the stairwell banister.


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Husband loved his gift! It has extra special meaning because his parents were married in the same church. Awwww….


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6 comments :

Kathleen W. said...

That's beautiful, and of course the sentimental value is much more. Thanks for sharing!

Rachel (Hounds In The Kitchen) said...

I have a 'thing' for tin ceiling tiles. Our house is too small for them to work on the ceiling but I never thought about framing them as artwork.

Sarah Eliza @ devastateboredom said...

Love it! That's so cool...

Unknown said...

What a beautiful way to show off the tin your salvaged. I LOVE the old telephone too! Great Blog!

Robj98168 said...

What? No Saccharin warning on this post??? It is too sweet! Like how the tile came out.

Delightful Dwelling said...

What a wonderful thing to have and it looks so pretty too.

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