What are Gypsum Ceilings?

Commonly used in commercial settings like offices, gypsum ceilings used to consist mostly of solid square tiles interspersed with fluorescent lighting. Today, gypsum ceilings come in all kinds of different shapes, many of which are custom-crafted to fit a particular space. Though they’re made of the same materials, gypsum ceiling tiles are often on the thinner side compared to wallboard, so they’re lighter and easier to hang.

Old-fashioned gypsum ceiling tiles can still be found at hardware stores like Home Depot, but manufacturers like Gyprock and USG make tiles specifically designed for contemporary applications. Fitted to custom-made framework systems, they can be crafted into interesting curves and layered for a collage-like effect that adds architectural interest. They’re still a great way to conceal elements like built-in lighting and HVAC systems, and they can be integrated with other materials like wood for creative results.

How to Create Contemporary Gypsum Ceiling Tiles and Designs

Gypsum ceilings are usually installed below the original ceiling of the room. The process is similar to standard wallboard and drywall suspension systems, but it tends to require more precision and a higher level of finish to get good results. The joints are finished with paper joint tape embedded with joint compound before being treated with a special ceiling compound for the final coats. The surface is then coated with a spray-applied finish, and you can paint it any color you like. All the components are designed to work together as a system.

While a very experienced DIYer might be able to craft their own custom gypsum ceiling, it’s a job better left to professionals, especially when it comes to the framework. The suspension system usually involves attaching hanger wires to the true ceiling, upon which metal crossbars are hung. More complex and curving designs sometimes use a plywood or lumber framework. When working with a contractor to create your ceiling, you can come up with whatever creative designs you can imagine, and they’ll be happy to help you bring your idea to life.

What’s the Difference Between Gypsum and Drywall?

The terms gypsum, drywall, and sheetrock are often used interchangeably. Gypsum is a naturally occurring mineral called hydrous calcium sulphate and is often used to create wallboard. It’s naturally heat and flame-resistant, soundproof, and typically comes in sheets of varying thicknesses from ¼ to ⅝ inch.

Gypsum is also the primary material used to create plaster and Plaster of Paris, which can be formed into decorative appliqués, trim work, and medallions. When applied to flat drywall ceiling surfaces, these ornate sculpted elements are also sometimes called “gypsum ceilings.” Armstrong is one brand currently using gypsum to create amazing ornate plasterwork ceilings.

Drywall, on the other hand, is made by pressing a gypsum plaster core between two pieces of heavy paper and then kiln-drying it to create a rigid material. Introduced as an alternative to labor-intensive lathe and the plaster walls and ceilings of the 1960s, it has since become one of the most popular interior finishing materials in the world. Sheetrock is simply a specific brand of drywall, but it’s come into colloquial usage as a synonym, much like “Kleenex” for tissues and “Band-aid” for bandages.

The post 12 Gorgeous Gypsum Ceilings (and How to Get Them) first appeared on Dornob.

How It Works

Bumblebee Spaces, a startup technology venture, has developed a furniture system of drawers, beds, and wardrobes that is entirely stored on the ceiling using an innovative suspension system. Operated by an app on your smartphone or tablet, the furniture pieces are elevated upwards when not in use, leaving an empty room for you to use as you like.

The Inventor

Indian engineer Sankarshan Murthy relocated to the San Francisco Bay Area from Baltimore to work at Apple, and later, Tesla. He knew the rent prices there was among the most expensive in the world (Silicon Valley rents have almost doubled since 2010), but was still amazed at how small each unit was given the cost. He then started mulling over options with Bumblebee co-founder Garrett Rayner, also formerly employed by Tesla, to address the bay’s oppressively small apartments, eventually landing on the idea of ceiling-suspended furniture.

The Inspiration

Murthy often watched Disney Junior on TV with his 18-month-old daughter. One show on the network, The Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, features a clubhouse that magically changes to accommodate the characters’ ever-changing needs. For example, when Mickey is entertaining, the clubhouse has tables and chairs for guests. When Goofy is getting ready to prepare a meal, the space morphs into a kitchen. Murthy believed that shape-shifting concept could be applied to real living spaces, and thus Bumblebee was born.

Working Out The Glitches

Murthy and a select team of designers and engineers started experimenting with and building the robotic furniture concept in a garage in the San Francisco Mission District. With the input of one of Apple’s leading designers, they streamlined the appearance of the furniture itself and worked on debugging the system. Today, about a dozen apartments have the Bumblebee Spaces system installed in them, with growth potential looking good.

Of course, Bumblebee’s game-changing technology is still undergoing some growing pains. For instance, at least three tenants who have the system in their small apartments admit that it sometimes malfunctions when they attempt to lower the bed. This is because an important safety feature prevents any furniture items from ever being lowered if their sensors detect any objects on the floor beneath them. Unfortunately, these sensors occasionally detect objects that aren’t there. And while the company can override the system remotely in these instances, it’s easy to see how this glitch could be extremely irritating to users who just want to climb into bed at the end of a long, tiring day.

Cost Considerations

Since production has been scheduled on an as-needed basis at this point, the cost for the system and furniture currently lies somewhere between $6,000 and $10,000 per room based on the cubic footage of the space. Software, system updates, and maintenance cost another $200 to $400 a month.

Even for top-salaried tech industry execs, these prices are high. Murthy anticipates that once installation can be subcontracted as the company grows, they will drastically drop, leaving Bumblebee Spaces free to concentrate on quality assurance and cost-effective upgrades.

The post Living In The Upside Down: Bumblebee’s Ceiling-Suspended Furniture first appeared on Dornob.

The monotony of these limited ceiling treatments is exactly why TURF Design was created: to give the world of ceilings something totally different without disrupting existing conventions.

One way to change old habits is to start from a place that everyone can agree on, and the appeal of TURF Design’s products begins even before they are made. More specifically, their ceiling systems are made from 99 percent post-consumer plastic, half of which comes from single-use water bottles. This reduction in waste extends to the way the company controls the inventory of their products, in that they only manufacture on-demand from their Chicago plant.

With sustainable practices at the core of their business, TURF focuses on reducing echos in large spaces using ceiling systems that are both acoustically functional and aesthetically pleasing. Using parametric design, they create systems that make vacuous-feeling rooms a lot more intimate and fun.

What do clients find so interesting in the systems that TURF builds? Among other things, the fact that they can be installed without disturbing existing ceiling panels. No, this system of baffles can be adjusted and reconnected depending on the style a particular space needs. For example, the company’s Switchblade ceiling system is made from 99 percent recycled polyester plastic. Its 9-mm polyester felt boards are held to the underside of the steel grid magnets, which means no major renovation would be needed to alter the ceilings and reduce the noise in the space below. It also gives the space a new aesthetic that looks far more appealing than the one that was there before.

Then there is Swell, a ceiling system that looks like it’s literally growing. As the eye travels down the hall or across the room, the ceiling bulges and swells as if an otherworldly creature were about to pierce through.

Some might find that it looks creepy, but after a while, the wave-like forms that surround diffusers and sprinklers actually feel pretty soothing. This drop ceiling, unlike the typical drywall ones, can be installed easily without taking apart the existing one.

With so much talk of disruption in industry after industry, TURF Design is showing that the best way to succeed may be to avoid disruption altogether.

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“All sliding doors can be shipped nationwide, including Canada. If your product is local, our installation team is available to lend a hand on your door project. Our in house CAD team will be able to pen down all aspects of your design concept to ensure a seamless installation.”

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The house was initially two stories tall and built using brick masonry that had begun to leak and crumble in the twenty years since its construction. High winds, salt water, and sand erosion are no joke! To make the home more structurally sound and protect it from further exposure to the harsh coastal elements, the architects surrounded the original brick in a five-inch layer of concrete.

The design team also noticed that the captain’s house was relatively squat compared to the surrounding buildings and that its bathrooms occupied most of the interior space closest to the ocean—an arrangement that they felt was wasting some gorgeous vistas. To make the most of the home’s seaside location, the architects rearranged its layout so that common areas like the living and dining rooms could overlook the sea and have more access to fresh air and natural daylight. They also equipped the house with a rounded, lookout-like third floor.

The third story is undoubtedly one of the renovation’s most spectacular additions. The textured concrete of the room’s vaulted ceiling beautifully contrasts with its wooden floors. Up a small ladder, this new area houses a loft that the family can use to gaze out over the land or sea, unobstructed by the roofs of neighboring houses. Vector explains that the balconies on the each end of the vault tie the home to two drastically different worlds: “one being the serene sea [and] the other one being the noisy port.” The roof’s rounded shape encourages rainwater to run off the sides of the house, reducing the potential for leaks. More symbolically, the arched ceiling simulates the feel of a temple, in which the captain’s religious family will be able to meditate and pray. Of course, the space has been left relatively open to accommodate changing needs and is also ideal for working out, playing games, and entertaining guests.

Downstairs, new concrete window frames that protrude from the house have been installed as part of a “window-furniture” system. Aside from being windows, these extended areas can also be used as couches or lounge chairs and contain several cabinets for storage. Plus, the overhang of their concrete envelopes will help prevent water and unwanted wind from entering the house. In the living room, family members can climb into one of these padded window seats to read, draw, or daydream. The master bedroom even hosts an extra-deep windowsill that doubles as a desk!

“At dusk, the gentle light comes out from the[se] translucent glass blocks,” read the architects’ project notes. “We hope the house gradually becomes the carrier of emotion for the captain’s family, and gives deserved dignity and decency to the daily life of ordinary people, which is particularly meaningful under the current circumstance of China.”

The post Renovation of a Captain’s House: Unusual Seaside Home Design first appeared on Dornob.

This strangely central bed in an old London townhome occupies an interstitial space in an open-plan loft, hovering between floor and ceiling, connecting interior rooms and outdoor areas. The hanging loft bed isn’t just a practical way to solve the problem of too little floor space; it’s an eye-catching design feature in its own right that makes the apartment much more memorable than it would be otherwise.

A private home discovered by JJLocations, the apartment features a bedroom (if you can call a bed in the middle of a room such) with a view of most of the interior, but is also the platform from which the occupants can move via two staircases from the main flat to the bed then onto the spacious 500-square-foot rooftop deck above. That makes it a brilliant interstitial space taking the place of a boring old staircase on its own.

A sliding skylight separates the interior and exterior, providing a bright wake-up when left uncovered, but also a nice and easy way to step out into fresh air first thing in the morning if that is your inclination.

The steel frame structure supporting the bed blends with the black I-beams around it, becoming an extension of the existing structural supports both physically and visually. The result is a feeling that the bed was ‘pulled down’ from above to reveal a void leading back outside to the roof.

About JJLocations

“JJ Media is made up of a vibrant group of people who aren’t afraid to make noise, work hard and have fun. We’re a dynamic brand with an experienced team of innovative thinkers, and a hunger for the future. Using our many talents, vast knowledge and expertise we can offer seamless services to aid the creation and completion of your unique project. We have staff ready to help you select the right equipment and services for your project.”

The post Hanging Loft Bed Saves Space in a London Apartment first appeared on Dornob.

This smallish cabin comes in at under 600 square feet, but its cleverly-integrated drop-down bed saves a great deal of space in style.

Vincent Kartheiser‘s small Hollywood studio (designed by Funn Roberts with images by Joe Pugliese) is not what one might expect from a famous actor, but then again the trends have been shifting toward small-space living for some time now.

The bed in particular is a wonderful piece of multi-functional furniture. When lifted, the light beneath it becomes a ceiling lamp and the bed frame its housing. Set on the ground and the indirect illumination is more suited to heading toward bed at night.

A three-hundred-pound counterweight offsets the suspended bed, making it easy to lift and lower as needed by grabbing the cleverly-left empty space between the bottom and top of the frame. Centrally located under the slanted roof, it takes maximum advantage of the ceiling height to retract up and out of the way.

The home was actually divided up into small rooms when Vincent bought it ten years ago. Removing the walls makes the space feel considerably larger, and all the thoughtful handcrafted details, like the sauna ceiling made of 2,500 pieces of wood, give us lots of things to look at.

“I had this really terrible wooden front door,” Vincent told Dwell. “And Funn was like, ‘We’ve gotta get rid of it.’” They did, eventually, replacing it with a steel-and-glass one, of Roberts’s design, to match what Vincent describes as the ‘Japanese-industrial’ style of his home.

“What often happens in our relationship is I come to Funn with an idea and then he makes it into something that’s actually livable,” said Kartheiser. “Because I have these thoughts that seem really interesting, but they’re not really good for real life.”

Vincent ultimately sold his tiny Japanese-style home, originally built in 1912, for over $800,000, presumably moving into a slightly larger space.

The post Ceiling-Suspended Bed Doubles as Chandelier first appeared on Dornob.

Think a ceiling fan can never be attractive? Then you’ve never seen this one by Drii Design. Rather than being purely functional or overly gaudy, it’s a minimalist air-moving dream with an attractive silhouette.

A lovely legible design that also saves space when shipping, this simple-looking ceiling fan is explicitly the sum of its parts, and that is the beauty of it.

Like IKEA but with perhaps a bit more class, the components of the B-Fan by Drii Design are made to be assembled on-site by the end user, but require almost no instruction as it is clear how they piece together.

The four bamboo slats are themselves flat, but naturally tilted when slipped into the black metal circle that joins them to the central spinning element in the middle of it all, which, in turn, locks them into place where they overlap.

“Concept: The B-fan is a Ceiling fan which made by bamboo. The four bamboo sheets twisted by the inner and outer circular component. and the twisted curve is suit for the fan’s rotating. Moreover, the for bamboo sheets cross in the center just like a flower’s stamen.”

Project specifications:

Title:四分
Type of Work: Ceiling Fan
Material: Bamboo . Metal . Electronic Component
Size: 70*40 cm
Year:2011

About Drii Design:

“Drii was original named tek-sia design studio (founded in 2009), setup by design director Camo Lin , and changed his studio into Drii design company in 2012. Through presentation of their masterpiece in countries such as Japan, France and Italy, Their work has been influenced by the cultural interchange between the East and the West. Drii design is working in their speciality field of lighting, as well as product, furniture, interior design, and based on craft material. From their design studio in Taiwan, Drii collaborates with some of the foremost Taiwanese and international craftsman, and presents the most gorgeous design craft product.”

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As much art as lighting, this suspended sculpture uses shadow and scale to mimic roots and trees inside spaces, recreating a forest effect for home interiors.

Designed by Hilden & Diaz, it was “partly inspired by [Darwinist] Ernst Haeckel’s (1834-1919) detailed plots from nature” and “is mirrored around it’s horizontal central axis and forms a circle 360 degrees around the light source.”

When not illuminated, the object at the center of the projection is attractive yet relatively small and unremarkable, making it a source of not just light but also surprise when it is turned on.

Though originally developed as a one-off, thanks to overwhelming positive feedback, the designers are now also planning to put the project up on Kickstarter to fund further development and deployment.

“The Light sculpture Forms in Nature resembles Darwinist Ernst Haeckel’s drawings . Using a simple action, such as intensifying the brightness at the center of the artwork, the light transforms the space and adds character, as the work throws oversized shadows onto walls and ceilings in the space in which it hangs.”

“The light sculpture Forms in Nature is partly inspired by Ernst Haeckel’s (1834- 1919) detailed plots from nature and is a further development of Hilden & Diaz’ fascination with mirrorings, as they have previously applied in other artworks.”

“Forms in Nature is a artwork with a light source surrounded by a dense and unruly tree and root system created in miniature sculpture. The forest is mirrored around it’s horizontal central axis and forms a circle 360 degrees around the light source and thereby leads one onto the notion of a real world versus an underworld.”

“Interestingly, the roots are those elements of the forest that are the most visible. Thereby the sculpture is not only mirrored, but also turned upside down in Hilden & Diaz’ artwork. As the intensity of the light source increases, the room changes and the space slowly becomes more and more fascinating and unheimlich.”

The post Branch Chandelier Casts Forests on Walls first appeared on Dornob.

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Some of us go to great lengths to forget how drab it is outside our home on a rainy day, but for those who want to celebrate the sunless sky, this device brings the weather to you. Developed by experimental Swiss studio Micasa Lab, the Nebula 12 is a cloud lamp connected to wifi that produces its own puffs of steam to mimic the weather outside.

Of course, it works for daylight-lovers as well, in its way, changing color over the course of our daily solar cycle to the transitions from reddish sunrise to purple sunsets.

“Nebula 12 can, like a natural cloud, change in color and brightness and thus can be used as a variable source of light for romantic evening meals, when doing homework, when reading or just chatting.”

Tapped into the outside world via wifi, The Nebula 12 remixes liquid nitrogen and hot water, then uses suction to keep it in place. And for those who wish to mix things up a bit, it can be manually controlled as well, or tied into the news (good for sun, bad for clouds) and so forth, too.

“In the standard mode, Nebula 12 predicts the weather for the next 48 hours. A threatening low-pressure area is announced by a red cloud, and sunshine is shown in yellow. At the same time, the user can adjust the settings and define the source of information themselves. And the best is: regardless of how dark the cloud is, Nebula 12 never brings any rain. At least, not within one’s own four walls.”

One has to wonder how it affects the feel of your home to have a cloud of liquid nitrogen steam hanging out all the time – could it produce humidity issues? But as a novelty, it’s pretty creative, and a fun way to impress your guests.

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There are many high-end lighting fixtures that use expensive materials to moderate the light and shadow of a luxury space, but few can boast such elegant effects from so cheap a material. Designer Shelly Spicuzza has envisioned a way to use something that we’d normally toss in the trash without a thought, and turn it into something magical.

A central plug-and-play sphere lets you screw in old plastic bottles of whatever color you might choose to create unique visual effects while illuminating a room.

Better yet, the creative upcycling process is simple enough to DIY – and inexpensive enough to deploy in all kinds of creative ways, from hanging fixtures to strung stacks that reach from floor to ceiling.  

“In each square shown in the extrusion cross sections is where a recycled soda bottle can be screwed in. At the sight of each soda bottle insert is a series of LED lights that will cast light across the soda bottle.”

Spicuzza also came up with some creative ideas for lamps using molded plastic hands, which can interlock together so the user can arrange them in endless ways, and branches, for an organic effect that casts interesting shadows.

“The hands are all completely independent from each other, they’re flexible so you can make them grip things or have them intertwine with one another. The hands are made of moldable plastic with battery operated LED lights inside.”

“This lighting system is a perfect home accessory for the urban dweller. The purpose of this light is to give the room the affect of natural sunlight shining through tree branches. The images above are options for the bottom view of the lights. Made from aluminum. The units would be hung from the ceiling. The user has the option to hang as few or as many of these units as they please.”

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This schizophrenic space goes to show just how much contrast plays into our understanding of a place, balancing eye-busting graffiti with stark white, divided by an (in)visible line drawn right down the middle.

The room is located at the Au Vieux Panier hotel in Marseille, France, one of a series of artistically redesigned accommodations.

This particular work is known as ‘The Panic Room’ – and really, its binary extremes are a shock to the senses worthy of the title given it by its makers: Tilt (images by Big Addict).

Walls, mirrors, bed, ceiling, floor, nothing is sacred or set apart in this extreme interior design project.

Check out this video tour of the room!

“The hotel Au Vieux Panier asked me to design a room, I first told them that I wasn’t interested doing just decoration in the room but I wanted
to create something that will look more like an installation,” says the artist.

“I thought about it also as a huge canvas where I needed to think about the composition and play with the empty white part of the room to accentuate more the idea of Chaos on the other part. Then I asked my friend Tober who gat a great old school style for tags, Grizz who is also the man behind the camera and Don Cho who is a Hip Hop singer from Marseille but who used to be a tagger from my home town Toulouse.”

“It took one week to do the whole thing cause the idea was to exaggerate what you can usually see in some abandoned places. Too much tags, too much drips, too much sentences, too much throw ups … What I also wanted to show is that people can appreciate any type of graffiti, even the more basic, it’s just a matter of point of view …”

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