Walls and Ceilings - Drywalling up against and exposed beam?

My husband I recently took on our first home remodeling job. We took down the top half of the wall between the kitchen and the dining room to create a bar. We need to put in a support beam that is 8 feet long. We did this and want to face it with a half inch of fur to create an exposed beam look. The problem we are running into is creating exposed woo across the beam and down the side of the inside wall, where it meets the drywall. How do we cover the seam to create a finished look, while still making it look like an exposed beam rather than a wood panel? My husband doesn’t like the idea of molding as he thinks it looks cheesy and heavy. It there a way to round out the edges and fill the seam? Or use molding to create a seamless look?

Welcome to the forums!

I'm having a hard time visualizing what you are trying to do :confused: maybe I put my thinking cap on crooked :eek:

If I understand correctly, you have a beam/header that you wish to cover with fir to dress it up. Is it the joint where the 3 pieces of fir join together that you are concerned with or is it a gap between the drywall and beam?

Ive read this post six time now, and i dont understand what you are trying to convey ? Could you try again and maybe include a photo of the area?

I am at work so can not put pic, but my question is how do I finish the seem between the fir and the drywall? So where the drywall comes up against the beam how do I finish it with out having a gap and it looking smooth? They are even with each other because they are both a 1/2 inch, so when we put the fir over the beam it matches the drywall, except for the thin seem, that won't look so good.
Is that more clear? Please let me know what else I can explain, I am new at this so I may not have all the information I need to give you.

Are you talking about where the horizontal beam meets the veritcal wall. If so, then when the "fir" is applied, does the drywall butt into the fir or does the fir butt into the drywall?

One option is to simply wrap the whole beam in drywall and use corner bead and paint it all to match. I think that's what I would do. Another option is to use plastic j-channel on the edge of the drywall which will give it a clean edge you can finish up to the edge. There's a picture on this page, I would use vinyl though because it finishes better.

http://www.troweltrades.ca/html/products.html

the long edge goes against the studs and the channel wraps around the raw edge of the drywall, then you use joint compound to finish the edge, or you can leave the edge just like it is and paint or leave white.

zip strip (http://files.buildsite.com/dbderived-f/amico/derived_files/derived89826.pdf)

you put it on the edge of the sheetrock and then feather it in with mud. after you have sanded it out, you zip off the small strip that sets against the adjacent piece (in the pic, it is another sheet of drywall but it could be your beam as well.)

It is along the same idea as the J channel suggestes previously but this helps prevent getting mud on the adjacent material (which would be a bear to get off wood)

I need to finish both a vertical and horizontal beam/fir facing. The Horizontal butts into the drywall. The vertical fir meets it at at a 90 degree angle. For the vertical, the fir is on the thin strip of wall that is left from the cut, effectively cutting a "window". It faces "in". The wall is the drywalled part. So where the wall meets the "inside" of the window is where I need to finish the seem.
Thanks for all the great ideas and pictures. We will see what can be done!

well, you lost me on that description but hopefully the info we have given will help you out.

At least I'm not the only one confused :D

It would be nice to see a pic so we know exactly what you mean :)

What I presume you have, or have tried to create the illusion of having, is a horizontal ceiling beam that is supported by one vertical pillar on a wall. You are going to cover this beam and pillar in fir so it looks rustic, and real beam looking. You have sheetrock almost butting up to these, but there is a gap where they meet. You want to know how to fill or cover the gap between all fir and all sheetrock.

Just mud it in or caulk it.

But obviously I think an area of your concern is how do you do it without getting any of it on the fir, so that the line does not look straight and crisp. Right?

Mask off the fir, first. But tape it out just a tad so that the bulk of the tape does not get imbedded by the mud or caulk so that when you remove the tape you pull out what you just tried to fill. I understand that you do not want to use inside corner or quarter round trim and would rather fill it, by the method I explained.

Correct?

Yes , that is exactly it! But I have heard that just putting mud in the seem will crack. Also what about where the drywall and the fir meet at an angle, can I just mud over edge of the drywall to finish it out, then paint it?

It is best to flat tape the edge where it meets the wood, then caulk to the wood after the tape has been finished. This will prevent or minimize any cracking.