Is A Ceiling Medallion What you're Looking For?

Adding a ceiling medallion, it is one easy and affordable way to liven up your ceiling.
Taking advantage of this architectural element, you might see a possible increase in the value of your home, and definitely it will add a touch of elegance.

Although they're often used to surround a flush mounted light fixture, a chandelier or a ceiling fan, you can get a simple beautiful accent and focal point even if it's used alone, as a piece of decor.

There are so many shapes and forms to choose from, when you're thinking of buying a decorative ceiling medallion.
It all depends on your taste, and of course, your need.

With or without a light fixture around it, there is more than one way to display a medallion, and provide richness to your house:

you can have one medallion in the center of the room

one big centerpiece where the light is to bring the focus to the center of a large room, with smaller medallions in the four corners.

one row of smaller medalllions placed parallel with the walls of the room

If we're going back in history, we can find out that first medallions were used as a piece of decor in the seventeenth-eighteenth century in the grand houses. The ceiling medallions of those times had to match a world of grandeur and opulence, so there is no surprize they were extremely ornate, big and very detailed.

One of the popular material of those times was wood. Needless to say they required complicated way of attaching to the ceiling, they were heavy , hard to maintain and repair as the time passed by.

Then, plaster came as the material of choice. Better than wood, but still heavy enough to make it hard to install, they were installed anywhere from a Colonial style house to a Victorian one, being seen as a sign of wealth.

Nowadays there so so many materials: light and easy to install, they make the job so easy, even a regular homeowner can finish decorating their ceiling! The ones made out of urethane are lighter than those made of plaster. Urethane medallions are not as fragile as plaster ceiling medallions, and therefore less prone to damage. They are much more easily installed than plaster medallions because not only they are lighter, they also do not require you to use any special anchoring.

The high quality ones are molded in steel molds, so they can have the same crisp and impeccable details as the plaster ones.

Like we said the installation is easy: you need polyurethane adhesive around the perimeter of the ceiling medallion, and to help it hold in place for the adhesive to set, you can use some small fasteners.

They come primed and painted in white, but definitely if you want to change the color, you can do so, and match it with the color scheme of the room.

Some companies started to manufacture medallions made out of 2 pieces for easy installation. So there is no need for you to take the light fixture, or ceiling fan out so you can fix the medallion in place

Be prepared to maintain proportion between the medallion and the size of the room and the size of the light fixture:

As a rule of thumb, you don't want your medallion to be too small compared with the size of the room, or it will be overpowered by its suroundings.

The medallion should have approximately the same diameter as the basic diameter of your light fixture: preferably a little bit larger for a bedroom or a dining room, but a little bit smaller than the light fixture for a samll hallway.

The higher the ceiling, the higher will be the size of the ceiling medallion. For example if you have a 2 storey hall (high ceiling ) you would need an approx. 35" diameter medallion.

Quick tips:

You can get a medallion with either a 4", 1" or no center hole at all. The hole is to accommodate the light housing to the ceiling. A 4" hole is most often used.

Use a 2 piece ceiling medallion if you're renovating your house: you won't have to take the light fixture out! If you're getting a totally new home, you can use the 1 piece medallion: you can do it before putting the light in place..

For a variation of the ceiling medallion, try a molded ring. They come also in different diameters, widths and patterns that can be mounted on the ceiling.

The same with the ceiling medallion, the ceiling ring can be used to suround alight fixture, or on its own.