More to pressed tin than just ceilings

Dulling my nerves between viewings of edgy and often violent screenings at the remarkable Telluride Film Festival, I would escape for a sip of vino into one of the town’s many western saloons. Dark, woody and with scuffed tile floors, each establishment inevitably produced a pressed tin ceiling of astonishing intricacy.

The detail of these ceilings was often disguised by years of paint and smoky sediment. But what was revealed was a one-time industry, breathlessly inventive and widely prolific. Even though they were pierced by a plethora of recessed lighting and sprinkler heads, fans, chandeliers, track lighting and exit signs, these metal marvels were a sight to behold.

Everything you wanted to know about pressed tin

So now on to a bit of information and history about the unique decorative material.

On his website, tinceiling.com, expert Brian Greer says that “Tin ceilings, consisting of painted, rolled, embossed tin (actually tin-coated steel) are almost uniquely North American. Although they were introduced into Australia and South Africa in the late 19th century, they are virtually unknown in the rest of the world.”

And according to Jane Smith, a contributing writer for ehow.com, “Heavy ornate plaster-cast ceilings were popular in fine European and Eastern seaboard homes, but for the American consumer, tin ceilings provided a cheaper, fireproof, and more economically transportable alternative.”

Companies that mass-produced this product—especially from the 1840s through the 1920s—were located along railroad lines primarily in New York, Pennsylvania and Ohio, which made shipping to contractors in the western states a breeze. Two United States-based companies—Abingdon, out of New York, and W.F. Norman Corporation, out of Missouri—still have their original dyes and presses and still produce tin ceilings.

On the This Old House website, mas

ter carpenter Norm Abram says that tin ceilings of yore were “installed by homeowners or handymen.” But let it be known that real skill is required to properly install a tin ceiling. First, you must strike a grid of chalk lines on your ceiling, equaling the dimensions of your tin plate. Then you must nail up a grid of wood furring strips that also must level the ceiling. Then you nail up the panels, caulk and paint.

Pressed tin panels and crowns can give detail to an otherwise lifeless drywall ceiling. And besides the industrial practicality, clean-ability, wipe-ability, fire retardancy and moisture-proofing, tin ceilings deliver a decorative wallop when painted high gloss or left in the raw form. When painted gloss, the relief stands out dramatically and offers up a clean, crisp effect, which can sometimes be quite formal.

I grew up vacationing in Harbor Springs, Michigan, a Midwestern summer escape chock-full of 19th century cottages. Our dining room and living room ceilings had two magnificent (white gloss-painted) metal ceilings whose elaborate crowns joined dramatically to white gloss board and batten walls. The overall effect was clean, clarified, crisp elegance like the lakes and birch forests and clean air around us.

Out of the box uses for pressed tin

Depending on which metal base is used, pressed metal ceilings can vary in effect. For instance, the raw tin lends a slicker industrial sheen, especially if you want to counteract the medium’s prettiness of pattern. Despite what the catalogs say, the natural tin will darken with age and will produce (in highly wet environments) corrosion. To counteract this, an outdoor sealer can be used.

Tin’s natural state is stunning for bathrooms, outdoor porches and kitchen ceilings. For a more raw, farmhand-type styling, nothing can beat the pressed zinc, especially if you use a wonderful polished zinc countertop below.

For a formal Cotswold stone house powder room, I once installed a dazzling pressed brass ceiling. Uplit and tarnished by time, this ceiling melded perfectly into this rustically elegant manor house.

Copper ceilings will mellow into a warm brown and fit beautifully into period-style media rooms and butler’s pantries. Of course, the designer or contractor needs to explain to the homeowner that this almost plastic-looking copper surface will mellow and patina. Time is copper’s best friend.

Pressed metal patterns should not be thought of as the sole domain of ceilings or crowns.

Because it is not flammable, I have used pressed tin as the facing of a fireplace. The repetition and dimensional pattern lent great interest to an otherwise plain mantel.

Because of its light weight, pressed metal panels could be inserted into wooden frames, which hinged together could create a wonderful, movable folding screen.

I have used this material as interior panels of radiator covers. Once again, this non-flammable material also allows for the transfer of heat.

Pressed tin is also an effective kitchen or bar backsplash. It’s highly affordable and easily installed without all the germ-hiding grout lines that tile backsplashes harbor.

In high-traffic hallways and stairwells, pressed metal is an interesting alternative to wood-paneled wainscoting or bead board. It certainly protects against bumping and scraping of vacuums, basketballs, tennis rackets, suitcases, etc. And it is a viable option to introducing pattern texturally as opposed to a disquieting wallpaper.

As inserts in interior paneled doors, pressed metal offers lightweight and visual interest. So many closet doors are simply boring! Imagine these metal patterned inserts atop your bedroom closet door panels.

These highly collectible antique panels can inexpensively decorate a vast wall, especially for some of our East End homes, which suffer from extended acreages of sheetrock. As a wall hanging, some of these antique metal panels with a rich patina mounted on a thick backboard of wood are just the ticket.

In Telluride, I spied a shop, The Sunday Mercantile, which had collected extraordinary panels from a brothel in New Orleans and several turn-of-the-century banks in Arizona. Highly figurative, these panels were reminiscent of Greek bas-relief, replete with a recumbent Bacchus, a satisfied nymph, a winged cherub and an entire mythic tale, fully illustrated. Many had been stored for years in a barn by a western artist who had saved them from the wrecking ball. And several appeared to be fabricated with a French influence around the 1880s and certainly lacked nothing in quality.

Though I am a bit weary of the overly western cliché of these pressed tin panels being used in every kind of furnishing possible, if particularly beautiful, the pressed metal sheets make up into a striking guest room headboard.

The medium of pressed metal has been much maligned, forgotten or used poorly. In recent times, it has been relegated to the near sole domain of Victorian cottages and moldy Western bars. But it is a much more exciting medium than the naysayers would have it. And in the hands of creative homeowners, contractors, designers and architects, these pressed metal panels could effectively and inexpensively produce a terrific design presence.

Marshall Watson is a nationally recognized interior and furniture designer who lives and works in the Hamptons and New York City. Reach him at 105 West 72nd Street, Suite 9B, New York, NY 10023.