Location

First thing to think about when planning for a dome ceiling is location. When thinking about the best location remember you will need adequate room above your ceiling to build your dome ceiling. A dome ceiling pops up in your attic space so keep an eye out for any interference with your roof and 2^nd floor living areas.

Most Popular Areas For A Dome Ceiling:

1. Foyer
2. Master Bathroom
3. Master Bedroom
4. Kitchen

Lighting

Before you begin to build your dome ceiling ask yourself about lighting. You can light your dome ceiling 2 ways. The traditional method is to simply add a chandelier from the center of the dome. But by adding a little extra step you can give your dome ceiling an architectural detail by adding a light ring.

What is a light ring? Inner light rings are an easy way to add indirect lighting to your dome ceiling. The inner light ring creates a 6” trough around the inside of your dome ceiling to add lighting too. 

Popular indirect lighting options:

Rope Lighting: Pro- More Affordable. Con- Not as bright

LED Lights: Pro- Very bright. Con- Expensive 

Build

Now that you figured out where your dome ceiling will be located and how you are going to light your dome ceiling you can now begin to build it. It’s simple! Get a dome ceiling kit from www.archwaysandceilings.com , follow simple instructions/videos on how to install and presto!! Your dome ceiling will be built perfectly and be ready to finish. Watch the “How To” video here: http://www.archwaysandceilings.com/blog/dome-ceiling

Finish

Now that you have your framed dome ceiling in place it is now time to think about what method you are going to apply to finish out your dome. Depending on what part of the country you are from may help you decide on which method works the best for you. We have learned that people in certain parts of the country are more used to using certain methods and these are the 3 most popular ways.

1. Stucco
2. Plaster
3. Drywall

Here in Texas and by far the most popular is drywall. When you drywall a dome ceiling you leave yourself a multitude of options on where you want to take your dome ceiling next. So how do you drywall a dome ceiling? Watch here:

Once you have finished drywalling your dome ceiling it is time to think about the particular finish to add.

Popular Finishes

1. Venetian plaster
2. Slick Finish
3. Spray texture
4. hand trowel textured finish

All of these will options will help create a custom finish giving your dome ceiling its own unique characteristic. Not to mention give you options on how much you want invest in finishing out your dome ceiling.

Paint

Painting your dome ceiling is just as important as picking its location, lighting and finish.

Popular Painting Methods

1. Solid Color
2. Faux Finish
3. Mural or Stenciled art

Trim

The last step in finishing your dome ceiling is deciding on whether or not you would like to add a custom feature like trim to your dome ceiling. Some of customers don’t add any trim at all to the dome ceiling because it looks great with out it but some do. So which is the best option for you? Thinking about your budget and the price level of your home will help decide the best solution. Adding custom features like trim can become expensive but there are several ways to add trim at different price levels.

3 ways:

1. Add a bendable rubber mold to the inside radius of the dome ceiling is the fastest and most affordable way to add trim.
2. Have access a good trim carpenter that can build it onsite for your dome ceiling
3. Call your local millwork shop and have them fabricate the molding to match the radius of your dome.

If you can make it through all of these steps then you can safely say that you will have a beautiful dome ceiling that will be the topic of conversation when prospective homebuyers or guest visit your home.

…..So Remember! We are Archways & Ceilings Made Easy and we make it easy every step of the way.

For more information on Westpoint Homes visit:

www.Westpoint-Homes.com

So why are we fast? Two reasons! 1st from the time we receive an order, we only need 3 to 5 days to manufacture a completely custom arch order. 2nd- Our Arch kits are fast to install. Your averager 36″ wide archway takes only seconds to install. Even better, our arched ceilings like a 6′ dome ceiling for example can be assembled in under 30 minutes for beginners.

So why are we perfect? All of our arched products are preformed in our warehouse.

How afforadable? A simple 36″ archway costs less than $20, and a 6′ dome ceiling costs les than $330. Yep, it is really that afforadable.

Archways and Ceilings Made easy is the fastest arch system in America and Canada. We pride ourselves in making quality products quickly and affordably.

A light well or light ring allows for accent lighting to be added after drywall to help accentuate your custom ceiling with mood lighting or sometimes as a direct light source. See examples below

Adding a reveal to your ceiling is simply completed when you slightly furr in a particular ceiling. When you build your ceiling in slightly you create a unique ceiling that becomes more noticeable.  See example below of how we take a standard cove ceiling and add a reveal. It looks like a giant piece of crown molding.

When you are able to add a light well or a reveal you will ultimately help transform your custom ceiling into an eye popping feature of a home.

Here are some ideas for your next project:

Many Homes have long hallways and are often over looked, but this is a great place to add a series of groin ceilings. A groin ceiling will add character and bring that old world feel to any home. With a little planning up front, most hallways can incorporate a groin vault detail. The hallway below is an example of taking a normal boring hallway and bumping it up to the next level. Also, these particular groins will have columns built underneath them to accent and capture the true old world architectural design.

Domed Ceilings are another popular detail that can be easily incorporated into most homes. Often you can find these ceilings in foyers, master bedrooms and bathrooms. One place that can be overlooked is over the stairs. In this particular case, the home had unwanted roof rafters that would leave the home with hard funky lines when finished. So in order to avoid this, we domed the top of the stairway not only to add a little design but also to hide the pitch of the roof.

Note: The Archways & Ceilings Product can be easily modified and custom made to any home. See the example below of how we adjusted the dome rafters to go up and around the window.

Another design element that can be incorporated in most homes, would be the barrel ceiling. The barrel vault is great because it has more leeway for a home. What I mean by this, is the rise of the arch can easily be altered to fit the needs of any room. The barrel vault can either be a full half circle, elliptical, or a soft arch. For example, if you have plenty of ceiling height then a half circle barrel is often preferred, but if you do not have a lot of room to work with, then a softer barrel would be preferred. Not to mention the barrel vault can easily be intersected with conjoining archways. See example below.

Finally, pop up ceilings are most often overlooked and left square or rectangle in shape. The cove ceiling is a perfect fit for these particular ceilings. The cove will bring a subtle curve to your boxy ceiling and add a softer look. The cove ceiling is great when accompanied with accent lighting.

So remember, take a little time and plan plan plan. With a little planning, your next home will look like it should be on the cover of a magazine. Whether you add a groin ceiling, domed ceiling, cove ceiling or barrel vault the finished product will help take your home to the next level.

Dome ceilings historically have been very expensive to achieve given the extensive labor and material required. For example, if you were to build a 6 foot dome ceiling, you could safely wager that this would take two skilled carpenters eight hours to build at about $60 dollars an hour. So, labor alone would be just shy of $500. When you look at the lumber bill needed to build this 6 foot dome you would be close to $600 at a minimum. However, if you used a dome kit from Archways & Ceilings, the kit itself would run you $329.95. This is almost half the cost of just the materials. Secondly, our 6 foot dome kit would install in less than 30 minutes. Yes, we are not exaggerating. We have an you tube video of a local framer installing in less than 10 minutes. We have simplified the construction process so drastically that if you can pull the trigger on a nail gun and paint by color than chances are good that you could install our dome kits. Let’s recap. You can either build a dome ceiling on site at a minimum cost to you for $1,100, OR you can buy a dome kit from Archways & Ceilings and install for less than $400.

If saving nearly 70% isn’t enough, then keep this in mind that you have the ability to customize the size of your dome to the nearest 1/8” for the same low prices. All our dome kits are built to your measurements. Furthermore, our quality is unsurpassed. I think it is fair to say that we are living up to our “Made Easy” motto. We have made the choice easy for you easy to make. We will save you time, money, and improve your quality. Now that’s a dome ceiling made easy with an Archways & Ceilings Dome Kit.

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Watch How Quick & Easy Archways & Ceilings Dome Kits are:

Brian then mentioned he wanted a jaw opener! I quickly replied, “We can do that!”

Well, Brian and I immediately began pushing ideas back and forth until he finally decided on creating a domed ceiling for the main sitting area and a double groin vault for the entrance. Due to the configuration of the room, we ended up making the domed ceiling elongated in shape to help occupy the rectangle shaped ceiling. Hence the domed ceiling for a rectangle is called an, “Elongated dome.”

Note: An Elongated Dome is created when you cut a dome in half and put a barrel vault in between each domed half.

Once we nailed down the design and dimensions, Brian pulled the trigger on the project. We began making the ceiling kits and delivered them 5 days later at his house.

“SSSShhhheeeww! Brian the hard part is done! We delivered your kits!!!” I jokingly stated.

With a CAD and detailed instructions we began installation of the 2 different ceilings.  After4 hours of easy labor we were done! All that was left was to sheetrock and paint! We were Done.

A few weeks later we checked in with Brian to see how things were coming along and all I remember hearing was “You have to check this out!!!”

- so here are the pictures for you to check out! and I will second Brian’s statment. “You have to check this out!”

*For more information about Brian Hugghins or H Customs Audio.Video visit www.hcustoms.com