You have to be very careful installing a swing in the ceiling. You can damage a pipe, wires, or in worst case scenario, have the swing fall off. Not all ceilings will be reinforced with wood, there are spots in the ceilings that are reinforced with wood and other materials.

Its definitely okay to ask the handy man at the home depot for suggestions. Usually, they will have many great suggestions because its their job. They will even recommend buying extra equipments to reinforce the swing. Just tell them, that its a furniture swing. You should even bring the part that will be attached to the ceiling for them to examine, and they will give you many wonderful suggestions.

Don't be embarrass to ask, I've asked plenty of embarrassing questions, and they have no idea what I am building at home most of the times. I doubt they will know what your doing if you tell them its for a furniture swing, and bring in the part that attaches to the ceiling.

or stronger. A simple 2x4 isnt advised. Do you have any vaulted ceilings?

Hey ASSistant69, How about bartering with a Carpenter type to professionally install it for you?

Just a thought!  I would put it out there that you need some help.  You can send a newsletter to your clients.  I am willing to bet you will get some takers!  

Also, I think you need more than just a stud finder.  To my knowledge studs are only 2"x4".  I don't think they are sturdy enough to support your swing.  I think you need to hang it from a header or something like that.  I am not sure.    

Best of Luck!  Betty xoxo

I actually thought this through when I remodeled a master bedroom and came up with a very novel approach that guarantees that the house will fall down before the swing does, and it won't even be obvious to visitors or a future owner.  If the ceiling can be accessed through the attic, this works great.  There was 2x4 truss construction in the ceiling, and I took a short piece of 4x4 that fit between the trusses against the ceiling and drilled it out (and down thru the drywall, of course) for one of those metal threaded sleeves that has the sharp tabs (you often see these on the bottom of table legs to allow for threaded feet adjustment, but pick one with 3/8 threads and as long as possible) and the wide flange of the sleeve was on the top of that 4x4 so it couldn't pull thru. I then took the rest of the 4x4 (about 6' worth), centered it on the small one and bolted and glued it to the smaller one to capture that sleeve in place to let it span over several trusses to spread the load.  A few screws from that new beam to the trusses locked it in place.  Then I mounted a smoke dectector over the hole in the ceiling.  All you see even after you pull down the detector is a little finger sized hole in the drywall.  Then you use a long eyebolt, extra large fender washer and locking nut when you want to mount the swing.  When done, unscrew the eye bolt, put the smoke detector back up and it's all totally hidden.  If you have a ceiling with 2x8 or larger joists (another floor above you), then finding the exact center of the joist, predrilling and using a lag type eye bolt with at least 3" of threads (or some type of bracket arrangement screwed to the joist) will work great, but I wouldn't suggest unscrewing the bolt every time, the wood hole might get loose from too much screwing, LOL.