31 January 2009

Check out these ceilings from Valley Tin Works




Valley Tin Works is a Pennsylvania-based company that prides itself in being the last company left that makes traditional, stamped tin ceiling panels. They are also the only company in the US that restores original tin ceilings.


Tin ceilings don't show up very often in my part of the world and when I do see one, it's invariably a plastic fake gracing the ceiling in a home where a tin ceiling has no place. I don't care how cool you think it looks, a tin ceiling has no place in a Florida ranch house. However, some of the older buildings here had them back in the day and it's good to know that they can have them again should the need and the impulse arise.


But in looking over Valley Tin Works' website, my Yankee roots began to stir. I loved going into an old storefront or home when I was a kid and seeing that they still had tin ceilings. There's nothing quite like them and I know from having lived in the Tin Ceiling Belt as a kid, that dealing with them when they need to be repaired can be a character builder.


Tin Ceilings gained popularity in the US in the 1880s as a less-expensive replacement for the exquisitely detailed plaster ceilings that were popular in Europe at the time. At the height of tin ceiling craze, there were about 45 companies in the US that made the stamped tin plates. The depression and two world wars sounded a death knell for the tin ceiling. Over time, such tin ceilings as there were either fell apart and were removed or they turned into the ultimate do-it-yourself project. So from the ashes of history, Valley Tin Works arose in 2004 with a master metal smith at the helm.


Valley Tin Works makes traditional tin ceiling patterns and makes them available either unpainted or finished with their signature, multi-step, lifetime paint finishes; a handful of which I'm displaying here. Valley Tin Works doesn't shy away from finding new uses for these stamped tin plates either. Their tin panels can be used as kitchen back splashes, as wall cladding or as art.


Check out their website, there are photos galore of the work they do and have done. BravoValley Tin Works, bravo.




4 comments:

  1. Did you check out their website? These guys do some really amazing things.

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  2. Paul,
    I love these - I am going to feature this and your pewter counter link on my blog on Monday! OK?
    -Gina

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  3. I'm pretty amazed by this stuff too. Please, mention anything you'd like Gina.

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