Can I use staple gun to affix matting to drywall?

[Dolchas]

Greetings all!

I am finishing off a room in my basement as a type of tiki-lounge themed billiard room, and will be covering the ceiling (which currently is just drywall...taped, but not textured) with lauhala matting. In case you don't know what lauhala is, it is the woven fronds of the pandanus palm, not unlike those beach mats you might be familiar with.

Anyway, I don't have tons of experience working with drywall, so I am not sure how to affix the lauhala (which we are buying in 4'X 8' panels) to the 5/8" drywall. Can I affix it using a staple gun? I know this would work if the ceiling were plywood, but can I effectively staple into drywall, or will the staples just pull right out? Since these panels will be hanging on the ceiling, there will be a certain amoung of gravitational pull downwards.

Thanks in advance for any advice!

Chuck

[Wayne Boatwright]

[e-mail] (Dolchas) wrote in news:ea7605b9.0312212224.2150a244 @posting.google.com:

No.

[AJScott]

Far be it for me to look askance on anyone's interior decorating schemes, but ... well, since you asked:

My only comment in relation to this question is: In 2 or 3 years, will you still be digging up on the whole kahuna-tiki theme to involve permanently stapling palm fronds and coconut-husk crap to your ceiling? It might work all well and good for Jimmy Buffet's tour this year (and even there, even Jimmy'll be sick of it come June), but will it necessarily work for you as a permanent attraction? I'm not inclined to think so -- but then again, I don't have an interior decorating show on HGTV, either, so what do I really know about taste anyway?

Personally as a cheap-ass boozer from way back, visitors would be happy crawling around in a watery, slippery mud pit in the middle of someone's garage if free booze were involved. But since proper people tend to call during the week, you may want to think of something more mainstream that gives you the basic and temporary *aura* of the tiki lounge in the way of not nailed-down furnishings (hula dolls, coconut-head candy dishes, big Polynesian murals painted on grass mats that serve as room dividers, etc.) that you can either easily hide when proper company comes to call or pitch altogether for a new theme when the whole tiki-lounge thing gets old in, like, 9 months or so and you decide retro maritini-bar might be kinda cool instead. Lots less stapled-on crap to pull off the ceiling.

AJS

[Art Begun]

How about a net with the leaves sitting on top. Attach the net at 4 corners and take it down when not in use.

ceiling?

someone's

dishes,

dividers,

[wahitaw warrior]

I would buy some of those 1 by 2 furring strips and screw them to the ceiling making sure to hit the joists and not any wires or plumbing....use screws long enough to penetrate about an inch into the wood. The staple the mats to this wood.