The ceiling may not be the first place you look when you begin styling your space, but there are reasons why you never want to forget the ceiling when designing a room. Ornamental plasterwork on ...

Q Am I right that when sections of plaster break away from the lath, an accepted repair technique is to roughly fill in those gaps with drywall and then drywall over the whole wall or ceiling? — M.H., ...

Q: My house was built in 1887 and is still in good shape except for the ceilings. They are all horsehair plaster, with many cracks that I tried to patch with a hard-setting Spackle that did not work, ...

Dear James: One room has recurring cracks in the plaster ceiling. Instead of more repairs, is it wise to add a dropped tile ceiling to use it as a home theater? — Gary K. Dear Gary: Once cracks start ...

Ken Wildes crouches next to a cardboard box and plucks out a rose hand-formed from clay. He holds the rose in his fingertips and points out the flaws. See how the petals are pressed together? A ...

Q. We just bought our first house, an American Foursquare, dated 1917. It has been vacant for several years and the interior is not in the best condition. We'd like to gut it to get rid of the sagging ...