Help please, brilliant A2k painters and decorators!

What, AGAIN?!



(just kidding, just kidding, Deb....)

I'm by no means an expert in these things, but would you get the same effect painting an outdoor ceiling dark, as painting an indoor ceiling dark?

It might make a small space a little oppressive. Sort of close it in.

My instinct is something lighter & matt, keep it airy ... but as I say, I'm absolutely no expert, so let's see what the experts say.

My first instinct is to elaborate on the pipes. Maybe in close paint colors.
Light ones, given that they're overhead. The pipes are there, eh! Give them angelic bodiment, similar very light.

Dark black? I've nottin' to say.

That (pipe) idea sounds good, osso!

A bit whimsical, perhaps?

That is not the way I want to go at all. The balcony has a Balinese sort of feel. Plastic pipes are not what I want to feature.

C'mon....concealment...I know you have ideas!


I was kind of thinking of a deep blue....very deep.

How about a trompe l'oeil of the sky. The pipes could be painted to blend in with the background.

I like your idea of the fabric. I'd pick a fabric I really liked - and the good thing about fabric is it's ready-stenciled - so say if you wanted it to look like the sky (which is how I always wanted my porch roofs to look, so every porch I've ever had I've painted a sort of robin's egg blue- but they were wooden slats with no pipes), you could pick blue fabric with clouds or stars. Tack it up in each corner and then in the middle and you could hang a sort of light fixture or lantern in the middle. If it were me, I'd give it sort of a moroccan feel- you might like something different. Then you could put a hammock out there to sleep on and feel like you're sleeping under the stars in the summer. That's what I'd do.

That really appeals to me, Ceili.
Let's see what Deb thinks.

Eh! I think what I think. I'm still a what is there is there sort - use it.

Don't think I am talented enough for that! It's a lovely idea, though (I thought about it for the walls.)

This fabric would need to cope with really being outside...sun, some rain.

What kind of fabric can cope with that?

Also, how do you fasten?

I thought it would be shielded by the balcony floor above you (to which the pipes are attached) and the side walls of your balcony- maybe I'm not getting the picture- I certainly didn't picture it openly exposed to the sun and rain.

At any rate - even if you had to replace it once a season - I often buy yards of material or even sheets that I like to use as wall coverings or even a sort of canopy. They're fairly cheap (around the same price as a can of good paint) and you can use small upholstery tacks to literally just attach them to your surface in whatever way you want to achieve whatever sort of drape you're looking for, making them easily removed and replaced and very economical.

If the ceiling is concrete - you can go to a hardward store and find out what you can use to penetrate that - probably some sort of special drill or screw.

And even if it's exposed to sun - in that case - I'd go lighter so you don't notice the fade as quickly - but if it's exposed to rain - no material wouldn't work unless you got some sort of tent canvas.

I must have misunderstood the basics of your situation.

It would get some rain blown in on the bit nearest to the opening.......

It'd have to be attached to metal...so I guess if I went with that option, I'd have to have some hangers put in that would be there permanently.

Looks more like paint.

It is so hard without photographs, Deb!

I'd love to see your gorgeous new bench, too. To see how everything might fit into the space.

I can't get my damn iPhone to download!!!!

A Balinese feel? (Lovely)

I think I'd look at bamboo window shades stretched across the ceiling: You can buy huge ones but depending on the size of your space you might need more than one.

Oh! Thatch!



You'd probably just need a couple of supports to lay the thatch across. The largest maker of thatch panels just happens to be in Australia: http://ourhouse.ninemsn.com.au/ourhouse/factsheets/db/gizmosandgadgets/04/437.asp

the fabric part is really the easiest part if you're interested in this approach.

you can buy lengths/bolts of the fabric that garden furniture is made of - the stuff's already weather-proof