The Tin Man of Utica Avenue
According to The Times, there’s only one store left in New York City devoted exclusively to pressed-tin ceilings. AA Abingdon Affiliates, now located on Utica Avenue in Flatbush, has been around for eight decades. When Joseph Punn, the grandfather of current owner Sheldon Gruber, began lugging his samples around pre-Depression Era New York, tin ceilings…
According to The Times, there’s only one store left in New York City devoted exclusively to pressed-tin ceilings. AA Abingdon Affiliates, now located on Utica Avenue in Flatbush, has been around for eight decades. When Joseph Punn, the grandfather of current owner Sheldon Gruber, began lugging his samples around pre-Depression Era New York, tin ceilings had already been in use for 60 years. (Though we doubt they are original, the ceiling of the back of our parlor floor and ceiling in the hallway of our top floor both have pressed tin ceilings.) One version of history has it that the pressed ceiling originated from European immigrants who stamped sheets of tin with repeating ornamental patterns to recreate the look of molded plaster ceilings like the ones back home. Abingdon currently has 41 ceiling designs (along with 15 cornice designs) that cost as much as $12.50 a square foot. We’re curious to hear whether anyone has ever bought anything there?
Tales Told in Tin [NY Times]
If you want a really authentic old-timey look, install the tin ceiling and wait for a week of low humidity. Then paint it two or three times a day until you can just barely make out the pattern.
I’ve used Abbingdon a lot, for both my house in Brooklyn and upstate. I prefer to buy their painted tin; I find it’s worth the extra money to avoid having to prime and paint it, as long as you want one of the colors they offer. Even if you use it without painting it, a coat of clear shellac will prevent rust. There’s an outfit called American Interiors that specializes in installing these ceilings; not cheap, but pretty fast and good. My favorite place to use these ceilings is wherever you’ve got plumbing lines above. In case of a leak, you can always remove the tin to fix the plumbing, and replace it with little hassle.
FWIW we had tin ceilings installed in our ground floor kitchen and dining room when we bought our house in 1974. We used a now defunct competitor of Abingdon. They look wonderful and, unlike plaster, will never crack.
Almost all the details in my house had been stripped out long before I bought it, and I really wanted a house with a tin ceiling, so we put a tin ceiling in the ground floor hallway (where there probably wasn’t one originally, but oh well). The tin came from Abingdon and my contractor installed it. I love my tin ceiling. Only issue is that it’s become slightly discolored in a couple spots; not sure why. Some day I may paint it white.
Another endorsement without reservation! However, what I did not understand from the NYT article was the anecdote about an installer that used to bring the tin sheets on the subway and the photograph of the guy installing it without gloves. Watch the edges everybody! They’re very sharp!
We are planning to buy from this company. BTW They have a website:
http://www.abbingdon.com/
We used them for a new tin ceiling in our kitchen–they provided the material and did the installation–our regular contractor didn’t want to deal with it.
They did a great job–as scheduled, and they were very neat. The tin is very sharp and requires some special materials to fit and cut, so using their people to install was a good move. We paid around $11-$12 a sf installed, for the ceiling and moulding.
Yes! AA Abingdon is the best place to buy tin. I’ve installed many tin ceilings using their pressed tin. They have all the traditional designs and the detail is sharp. The weight and thickness is right too. Many other companies are using lighter material ( stay away from BOSS pressed-tin ceilings! ). With the lighter material you save on shipping however, this is a problem because the tin bends way too easy. Once you have a blemish in the tin, you can’t get it out! AA Abingdon is the way to go. Great designs, strong material, no shipping charges, you can simply pick it up yourself here in Brooklyn. Great stuff!