project
gallery
highlights from finehomebuilding.com
Overhead
inspiration
Coffered
­c e i l i n g ,
­p e r f e c t e d
Self-taught woodworker
Alfred Spitzer has spent
more than 30 years practic­
ing his craft but thought
he was going to have to
sub out his client’s request
for a coffered ceiling—
until he read “Perfecting
coffered ceilings” (FHB
#158 and online at Fine
Homebuilding.com) and
decided he could tackle
the project himself. He
built the coffers of poplar
crown, baseboard, finger-jointed trim boards, 1⁄4-in. birch plywood, and custom MDF
trim. He used a Copemaster coping machine for all the inside-corner joints. After dryassembling all nine coffers in his shop to test for fit, Spitzer labeled, delivered, and
installed the ceiling, beginning with the center coffers to ensure that all would fit as
they had in the shop. Any variances were dealt with in the perimeter box beams. The
entire process took about four days.
Design, construction, and photograph: Alfred Spitzer, New Hampshire Accents Fine Crafts,
Manchester, N.H.; www.nhawoodworking.com
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FINE HOMEBUILDING
O u t s ta n d i n g o u t d o o r s
Grand
­e n t r a n c e
“Wow, a dome would
really open up this
­area” was the first
thing Rob Peterson
said to his real-estate
agent when he walked
in to the house he
would later buy. The
original foyer ceiling
was flat and 18 ft. high.
Peterson added the
dome, which arches to
a peak 25 ft. above the
entry floor. He built a
structural dome in the
attic to support the
roof where he needed
to remove trusses. He
then worked from two
temporary floors, one
10 ft. from ground
­level and the other in
the lip of the dome
about 19 ft. up, to
reach easily into the
dome to do the finish
work. Asked to explain
his fascination with
working on ceilings,
Peterson said, “There
is a certain freedom
you get with that space
that you don’t get with
floors or walls. Floors
are two-dimensional by
design, whereas a ceil­
ing, assuming you have
the headroom, can
take a hard right into
that third dimension.”
Design, construction, and
­photograph: Rob Peterson,
Great Falls, Va.
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FineHomebuilding.com.
There’s no rule that says great ceiling details have to be
indoors. The existing deck on this North Carolina home
had no covered space for protection from the elements
and was inadequate for the large parties the homeown­
ers enjoyed hosting. In keeping with the theme of the
interior, Warth Construction designed and built this
large, rustic, yet elegant porch complete with stone fire­
place and sitting, dining, and cooking areas. Most of the
structure is cedar, but to defray costs, the ceiling was
made of 1x6 tongue-and-groove pine. The heavy cedar
timbers’ iron brackets were custom-designed and fab­
ricated by Warth. The ceiling height is 16 ft. at the ridge.
Design: Danielle Warth, Warth Construction, Highlands, N.C.;
www.warthconstruction.com Construction: Warth Construction
Photograph: Gil Stose, courtesy of Warth Construction
Co f f e r s a n d c lo s e d c u r v e s
Woodworker and builder Michael Belzowski designed and built all
the trim used to transform this dining room. The ellipse in the cen­
ter of the ceiling was derived from the shape of the homeowners’
dining-room table. Using a formula he found online, Belzowski cal­
culated the ellipse’s dimensions and plotted a one-quarter segment
on a piece of MDF. From that, he made patterns to complete the
parts of the ellipse. He also used MDF for the flat part of the ellipse.
Except for flex trim used to form the ellipse’s curves, Belzowski and
his crew milled poplar for all the woodwork used in the room.
Design, construction, and photograph: Michael Belzowski, Belzowski Homes,
­Michigan City, Ind.; www.belzowski.com
B e a m i n g i n t h e b ay
To enhance the breakfast bay of this kitchen, woodworker
Justin Mahone built an octagonal beam in the center of
the space, with beams radiating from the centerpoint of
each side. Because this eating area is not itself an octagon,
another beam was installed on the ceiling to finish the
transition where the breakfast bay meets the kitchen. The
beams were assembled from poplar and stained to match
the kitchen’s cherry cabinets. Mahone offers this tip to oth­
ers contemplating an intricate beamed ceiling: Measure
and draw the lines for the beams directly on the ceiling. This
will help with calculations and with visualizing how the final
installation will appear.
Design and construction: Justin Mahone, Mahone Custom Woodworking,
Richmond, Va., and Joe Thomas, Richmond, Va. Photograph: Justin Mahone
www.finehomebuilding.com
june/july 2012
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