Different Types of Coffered Ceilings and Designs with Costs

Last Updated: 2021-08-12By Steven H.

What is Coffered Ceiling?

Coffered ceiling is architectural design feature for house ceiling that adds character with small separations and moldings. In other words beams are attached in certain area of ceiling and covered with moldings to make it look as finished product.

There are many types of coffered ceilings in the world and most popular we are listing below to discuss and give our readers better ideas of what they are trying to achieve in their homes.

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Types of Coffered Ceilings and Designs:

Traditional – to follow the traditional style of homes with crown moldings and wainscoting patterns, coffered ceilings are made with the same style of edges and molds. White color is used for paint and 5 to 8 inch moldings are attached to beams.

Modern – newer homes are sticking to new designs, which now have to be complimented with creative ceiling designs. Open concept modern homes need slick coffered ceilings with sharp edges and preferably unique color. You can even cover them with veneer or accent material to stand out.

Venetian – luxury places that require additional feature with antique look can definitely use charm of coffered ceilings. This custom work requires tons of details and shapes to be added to beams on ceilings. Images and colors are often complement sides or flat part of drywall. You simply will not get away with just moldings and expect to pay out of this world costs for Venetian coffered ceilings.

Wooden – homes that have wooden interior finishes for casings, baseboards and even wall panels should also have wooden coffered ceilings. Same material or stain color is better on the beams as the rest of the wood. Home offices often have these ceiling details.

Commercial – in office spaces if coffered ceilings are installed, they are almost always the simplest you have ever seen. Some managers go far and try to mimic industrial look with metal coffers, but overall we see only straight shapes with sharp edges that have no significant compliment to it.

Prebuilt – cheapest way out to create similar design on your ceiling is to purchase prebuilr product for coffered ceiling. There are few options on the market that are similar to custom made features, but not quite the same in originality and size. Prebuilr coffers are usually thinner due because they are non-structural.

Purposes of Coffered Ceilings Installed

Originally coffered ceilings were installed only in homes of wealthy people. Back then every additional feature would be considered extraordinary and average home owners just did not have money for it.

Long time ago, when materials became cheaper and average citizen had some money to spend, this method of design was used to cover level deficiencies on ceiling. Nowadays it is more of luxury feature for custom homes.

If your home already has coffered ceilings and it suits your style of finishes it is logical to keep it and refinish once in a while. Newly build homes do not have any intent to hide deficiencies with coffered ceilings as drywall and plaster can do the job for fraction of costs.

Most Common Areas for Beam Coffers

Be it house or a commercial space, the ideal place for installation of many types of coffered ceilings is open area with feature items and high ceiling. In commercial areas these are lobbies, large sitting or luxury private office areas. At home common places for coffered ceilings are main entertainment and open areas such as dining room, living room, kitchen or private office.

Rarely but sometimes can be spotted such design items in bedrooms or to be more specific in master bedroom. Of this to happen the house needs to be completed in specific style with wood accents or wall panels and ceiling height in the bedroom has to be at least 9 – 10 feet.

If the entire house originally does not all coffered ceilings, than we never see them in closets, bathrooms and other narrow areas.

Main Things to Consider Before Installing Coffered Ceilings

Main things to consider before building coffered ceiling

Antique looking wood beams on ceiling.

Height – Coffered ceilings do not look good in homes and buildings where ceiling height is lower than 8 feet. Your place needs to have clearance for installation. On Point Remodeling suggests optimum height of 10 feet for regular celling feature.

Open Area – It does not make sense to stuff already closed up spaces. The place of installation needs be wide open to catch the beauty of coffers with first look. There is not minimum standard but in our opinion it should start from 400 sq ft.

Size – Depending on ceiling area the size of coffers may change. If the plan is to cover 1000 sq ft of open ceiling with coffered ceilings, the size of coffer boxes and beams may be larger than in smaller areas. Average of each box is 3 feet by 3 feet.

Thickness – The beams are installed mainly for structural support but it holds only small load of moldings and drywall. Your thickness illustrates style and has to be big enough to fit moldings or side feature. Usually coffered ceilings are between 6 and 10 inches thick.

Style and color – This you need to decide from the beginning. Coffers with beams have to match the style of the building. There are tons of types and colors to choose from. Literally you can do anything with custom molding and painting.

Prebuilt Products Available

The alternative for custom built coffered ceilings there are manufacturers that pre-construct them from similar materials. The market is not that big and cannot be customizes once installed. Prebuilt coffers are not structural and are lighter in weight.

Although the quality is not the same, the benefits of purchased ceiling features are affordability and time. You can save more than half of costs by purchasing ready to installed materials and can install it within a day or two.

As this ceiling design became popular, small private stores and even large franchises like Home Depot started selling coffered ceiling systems. The regular models sell in straight and cross sections with average cost of $10 – $15 per linear foot. Suggested size boxes in 600 sq ft room will have 400 linear feet of coffered ceilings, which makes the cost of materials $12 – $8 per square foot of ceiling (materials only).

Coffered Ceilings Installation Process

Newly built home with white custom coffered ceilings.

You hired a contractor or decided to do it DIY, the mind is set on which rooms will be worked at. Carefully measuring and properly designing types of coffered ceilings is the key to success in installation. Measure each line that will be installed to calculate required materials.
For all custom work there are beams installed first that create square shapes on the ceilings and hold everything that will be attached to them. Beams can be structural or nonstructural and this can be verified by architect.
Raw wood is covered with typical to your area construction material. In some cases it can be MDF boards and others will be covered with drywall or plaster that needs to be taped and sanded to hide edges.
Imagine at this point you have ceilings with perfectly square boxes that lack character. Contractors install moldings that match your house. They are made out of wood, MDF, plaster and even PVC. Some modern ceiling features don’t have moldings.
Even though most of finish product is painted white, there are home owners that want to create different styles and shades by painting with different colors. Wooden products are stained.

Types of Coffered Ceilings and Costs Involved

The main question home owners have is always about how much it will cost them for such feature. Every one of us has budgets in our minds to spend for specific remodeling projects in our house and before considering anything we need to know how much different types of coffered ceilings can cost.

We wanted to separate few styles and after careful research On Point Remodeling team came up with average costs for coffered ceilings:

Custom Coffered Ceilings Cost: $28 per square foot

Wood Coffered Ceilings Cost: $36 per square foot

Prebuilt Coffered Ceilings Cost: $10 per square foot

More complicated spaces that require same types of projects have higher costs. (e.g. Manhattan penthouse, office space with night time work only, less populated areas with lack of supply)

Other factors that affect costs can be uneven rooms, some demolition prior to installation and structural changes on the project.

Materials Used By Contractors

To understand what materials are needed for installation of different types of coffered ceilings in homes we have to go back to process of work and to styles that are selected.

In custom work all the parts are installed separately and beams are attached to the ceiling first. They are made of some type of wood or metal. Interior work does not require any specific type of material or pressure treated wood.

The covers of beams are made with several materials and they differ mostly because of regional weather and how these materials will react to temperature and humidity.

Cheapest material to cover the beams is PVC and MDF. They are used for shelves, trims, boards, and can be purchased in all hardware stores and all contractors have worked with them for one or another purpose.

More detailed and complicated materials are drywall and plaster that are used for installation in between skeleton of the house and beginning of finishes.

Actual moldings can be made with MDF, PVC, plaster, gypsum or wood product. And to cover all that there are primer products, paints and stains.

Conclusion for Different Types of Coffered Ceilings

Not everyone is a fan of coffered ceilings and most home owners prefer to have their places without it. This decision can be made due to costs for custom work, limited space and height that restrict installation or simply not liking the types of coffered ceilings.

Complimentary lighting can be attached to ceiling feature for even better effect and stylish look. Overall there are tons of options how you can design coffers and have it your way, but remember everything costs.

Average carpenter contractors can be unfamiliar with this type of work and may not know all the details for proper installation. We suggest hiring professionals that do specifically coffered ceilings as their primary work on daily basis.

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Each building has some sort of driveway or at least should have. The main reason is for vehicles to come closer without need to walk all the way. Some homes are residential with small driveway for their car to come in and park before garage or front entrance, and others can be large commercial buildings with loading docks, delivery entrances and casual parking entrances. On Point Remodeling was asked for suggestions on residential driveway for new home construction, and we decided to write detailed article for all our readers. Using this guide you can select the material for your driveway and see what works for your budget. Here are the materials for driveway we will be discussing in our guide:

Asphalt
Concrete
Paver Stone
Crushed stone
Brick
Seashell
Gravel

To find good contractor for your driveway, you can either ask our team by email or try to find someone local that worked with neighbors or nearby buildings.

Installation process of any material surface on your driveway

a) Demolition and Excavation – Before anything is done, your contractor will get heavy machinery and scratch off old layer of driveway. They need to go down at least 5-6 inches to insure proper layering before your final layer of material is installed. b) Material Purchase and Delivery – At this point your contract is signed and you already know how the surface will look. Contracting company purchases necessary materials and delivers them to site. Double check if material is correct and not damaged. c) Preparation of Sublevel – Whatever you place as final material, it cannot just be installed directly on top soil. Gravel is the first choice of material that goes down at this stage. Other preferred material is screen sand that can go on top of gravel and works better with stone and bricks. d) Compaction of Ground – To prevent your driveway from moving and changing shapes, all the layers from bottom up have to be properly compacted. Do not leave any spot untouched while doing this or you can get small holes and cracks in driveway after installation. E) Final Installation – This is when all the magic happens. After all preparations and dirty work the final installation is made literally within hours and you can enjoy new driveway. Stone and brick is set up by hand, while other materials require some sort of machinery with manual labor to even out surface.

1. Asphalt

Probably the most used material for road top surfaces as well as driveways is asphalt. This is a mix of gravel and sand that is mixed in and combined by asphalt cement with crude oil. Pros of Asphalt Driveway

Very popular and easy to find materials/contractor
Completed in 1 day and you can drive on it after
Patches and small holes can be fixed fast

Cons of Asphalt Driveway

Easy to damage and cracks appear in few years
Almost everyone else has same surface
Oily surface and chemicals used in mix

Prepared for asphalt driveway will cost you around $5 per square foot to finish. The contractors that take care of entire process from taking out old driveway surface, install subsurface and compact the ground with new asphalt on top, will charge on average $5500 per regular size driveway at single home property.

2. Concrete

What we call concrete is a mixture of Portland cement, aggregate as well as sand with gravel. Suggested thickness of concrete for driveway is 6 inches. The mixture needs to cure without being touched or driven on top for several days. Pros of Concrete Driveway

Durable material for large weights
Long lifespan if installed properly
Winter and summer friendly

Cons of Concrete Driveway

Has marks and stains over time
Hard to repair without replacement
Super hard to DIY

To hire contractors for concrete driveway it will cost around $7-$9 per square foot. This will include site preparation with gravel spread and new concrete installation. They will order full truck of concrete (or several for larger driveways) to pour inside forming. Smoothening and curing is required after installation.

3. Paver Stone

The most luxurious material that you can use to create driveway path with is paver stone. It is made out of natural stone with uneven rough shapes that have different line patterns. Paver stones are very heavy and are perfect for weights on top of them. Almost every city in Europe has roads and walks made out of stone that were installed centuries ago. Pros of Paver Stone Driveway

Creative designs can be done
Personal looks, can match the house
Can replace single stone in minutes

Cons of Paver Stone Driveway

Weeds growing through
Stone can move over time
Most expensive material

There is wide selection of stone that can be purchased for your driveway. On average we recommend settling with $17-$20 per square foot for stone with installation included. Working with this material is very intense labor and we recommend hiring professionals that do this type of work every day.

4. Crushed Stone

Our readers sometimes mistake crushed stone with gravel, but this is not the same material. Crushed stone material is achieved when machine is mechanically crushing larger pieces of unused stone for this specific purpose. It is larger than gravel and can have smooth finish. Crushed stone can also have a mix of colors, which is much pleasant to eyes than gravel. Pros of Crushed Stone Driveway

Low maintenance required
Fits rural area style
Can be reused for other purposes

Cons of Crushed Stone Driveway

Gets very hot during summer
Can be messy after many drives
Hard to remove snow and ice

Buying crushed stone and installing it on your driveway is as easy as it gets. Similar to other rough materials discussed in this post, only small tools like shovels, dolly and buckets are required to spread it on the road. The cost of crushed stone driveway is between $4 and $6 per square foot from professional local contractors that can finish the job in several days.

5. Brick

The same brick we see being used in wall construction can be installed as top driveway surface. Brick is manufactured by compressing clay with plastic mass. It is heated to extreme temperature and dried up to become as solid as you know it. Pros of Brick Driveway

Variety of selections in shapes and shades
Bricks are recyclable
Slip resistant with rough top part

Cons of Brick Driveway

Needs regular maintenance
Change color over time
Old fashion looking

Installing brick on driveway costs $10 per square foot, which is not too far from masonry brick laying as part of the wall. To save money you can use or purchase old brick, that was part of a wall before. Do not mix these two jobs and contact landscaping professionals instead of masonry contractors that work with bricks.

6. Seashell

This material is popular on the coast line where shells can be found near the water. Construction companies use seashells to add in other materials as well as spread them on driveway in rough condition, without adding anything else. It usually comes in white or pearl color and darkens within year because of mixing with sand and dirt. Pros of Seashell Driveway

Environmentally friendly
Has natural drainage
Creates worm vibe of beach house

Cons of Seashell Driveway

Break and crack under light weight
Sharp and very hard to walk on
Gets stuck in shoes and tires

To deliver and spread seashells on driveways costs below $4, which is only slightly more expensive than rough gravel. As you go further from coast line, cost of material increases due to delivery. This material is elegant and very soft. We recommend adding edge lines with darker color landscape material to create visual path.

7. Gravel

This material is used in other construction mixes and underlayment systems. It’s literally fragments and small crushed stones that are put on top of soil. It is easily spread out by hands and anyone can do it. Pros of Gravel Driveway

Cheapest of them all
Easy DIY Job
Can install another material on top

Cons of Gravel Driveway

Needs to be graded very often
Will mix with dirt and leaves
Washes up with heavy rains

It is rough material and can be purchased in bulk (by metric tons or cubic meters). The cost of driveway with gravel should not exceed $3 per square foot, but you can save tons of money by purchasing materials and doings installation by yourself. You do not require specific tools or heavy equipment for the job and delivery of gravel can be arranged directly to your project.

Conclusion

To properly finish any and all of these driveways requires skills and experience. There is no way you can complete any of these projects without heavy equipment and tools that regular home owner’s just store in their garages. Most of those who will read this post will prefer to install asphalt driveway, because of its popularity and low costs. We want to encourage home owners to go for personal preference and what matches your house, rather than getting the most affordable and popular items. Driveway jobs have to be completed fast; otherwise you will need to park elsewhere while the project is running. To not overpay, ask us for quotation sample on material you prefer in specific region where the work need to be done and our team can provide some numbers.

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