Installing cornices can seem like a daunting job. We have recently installed a new ceiling in an inner west homes’ bathroom. The old bathroom ceiling was well over 100 years old and looked it! The ceiling was sagging and had a couple of 10 cm wide holes in it. Rather than taking the ceiling down which would also entail taking down the loads of dust and debris that had accumulated on the ceiling over the years we constructed a ‘false ceiling’. This entailed building a timber framework about 25 cm below the original ceiling. This frame was dynabolted to the rendered brick walls. Once the framework was in place a water resistant gyprock was installed over the frame. next came the cornice work. Using a gyprock mitre box we cut the cornice to length and then mixed up some cornice cement. This cement is carefully troweled onto the back of the cornice and then pressed into place. Tip: use nails, spaced about 50 cm apart to hold the cornice in place while the cement dries. Tip 2: Wipe away the excess cornice cement while the cement is still wet! It dries very hard and is much easier removed when wet.