I’ve got a customer with a fairly-well restored 1842 house.  The last part of the last 16 X 16′ room to redo has a ceiling of 1 X 10 T&G painted planks.  They are severely cupped (as much as 1″), but otherwise in good shape.   They have ALL the layers of paint still on, but really peeling because of a (fixed) roof leak. 

The room is otherwise finished, and they don’t want to wreck the room by stripping the paint off the ceiling, it’s too irregular to sheetrock over, too low to strip over it for new rock, and the darn boards are historic – it was the surveyor’s house who laid out our town in 1841, and is of course on the highest spot.

SO –

I had this thought of “wallpapering” directly over the ceiling (as is) with wallpaper paste and a heavy cotton duck (fabric) – almost like a fiberglas repair with only one layer.  The neat old wavy contour would remain, the cracks would be bridged, and a good surface for paint would be created, all in a way that was reversible.

Has this been attempted by anyone before? does it ring any bells?

Thanks – Forrest