Has anyone painted a drop ceiling? I'm giving serious thought to painting my train room ceiling black, a la CSX Jim and others. But my ceiling is 2x4 drop ceiling panels with 2 rows of fluroescent lights installed. Would I do better leaving the tiles in place and using an airless sprayer, or should I pull them out first and do the panels separately from the frame? Your thoughts?
Chris
LVHR
PS Here is a shot of my room. Pardon the mess. I was putting the layout back together after a show.
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I would paint them separately. If your paint them in place and them move them only slightly at a later date, you will see the white coming through at the edges. I've seen it in a number of restaurants where they paint the ceiling as part of renovations and then taken the tiles out to run wires and everything doesn't line up.
Just my opinion. Others may vary.
Chris,
Usually the black treatment is used to hide unsightly ceiling clutter such as open floor joists, ductwork, etc. I don't see any reason to hide that nice finished ceiling. I wish I had one like that. It would make photographing my layout a lot easier.
Also consider that you will need more lighting to produce the same overall brightness in the room without a white reflective ceiling. The white ceiling also tends to diffuse light and even it out over the layout surface. Without the white ceiling to bounce the light around, you may notice distinct differences in brightness over the surface of the layout with hot spots and darker areas unless you install additional lighting.
Jim
Chris,
I fully concur with Jim, above. I also have a white suspended ceiling, and it looks fine. You can see pictures of my layout via the link, below.
If you were going to paint yours, I would most definitely remove the tiles and spray them elsewhere, and paint the grid with a brush. But again, all this work does not seem necessary.
Just my 2 cents.
Alex
I've done this. Take the panels out and paint them one at a time with a roller. Pretty simple. When yer done with all of them, it's time to back to the first one for the second coat.
Chris,
For what its worth I agree with Jim and Alex keep the white ceiling tiles white "as is". If possible add abit more lighting. Painting the tiles to me is more work than what its worth. From the photo it looks like you have a fairly high ceiling height. I think it looks good as is, just my opinion.
For what its worth, the ceiling in my train was painted dark brown before I moved in and its too dark in there. I would not do it.
Rob
I agree too I would NOT paint the ceiling tiles. BUT maybe a soft sky blue but not black.
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