Painting popcorn ceilings
11/03/2008 03:52 PM by Gretchen Schauffler
The white popcorn ceiling! It sits above beautiful faces, gorgeous wall color, and new furniture like a dingy pilled blanket. It stands out as a strange texture among all the other surfaces and fabrics in a room. A common ceiling technique used in the 1970’s for acoustic purposes, experts at the time said that you could keep it clean by dusting and vacuuming the ceiling once in a while and that would continue to make your popcorn ceiling look brand new. Over the years, the lack of enthusiasm for cleaning the ceiling, along with the dust-collecting grooves and pockets, makes popcorn ceilings look like an upside-down dirty white Berber carpet.
Popcorn ceilings stop being stiff and cold, and become warm and soft when you paint them a neutral color. The room feels more complete when you blend a ceiling with a neutral color that goes along with the wood, carpet, granite, and fabric colors in a home.
A great neutral on a popcorn ceiling will hide the dust and dirt so much better—like a rich carpet—so you don’t have to clean it as often, if ever. That’s what I call beauty and function!
You know the denial is totally gone when you choose drama to overshadow a popcorn ceiling with a dark rich neutral. Congratulations, you are now fearless!
Popcorn ceilings are often 8 ft because that was a standard 1970’s wall height. If you have the right tools and your popcorn ceiling is in good condition, painting will go quick. You need a 4-8 foot expandable pole, a 1 to 1.5 inch knap roller cover, and a flat brush. When painting a popcorn ceiling you will have a lot more splatter plus some debris from the popcorn. Tarp the area you are painting underneath well. Roll straight and use a brush to edge.
Use light pressure on the roller, as if you were icing a cake. You want the frosting to be in between. Keep a wet paint seal between the roller and the popcorn. If you push or roll to hard the popcorn texture will come off the ceiling and fall down onto you and the floor. Begin rolling close to a corner and paint in sections. Work across the room and try not to roll back and forth. Over applying or over working the paint can lift a lot of the texture off the surface. Roll as close to the edges as possible. Cut-in with a brush by using a light dabbing motion.
I recommend using our Foundation Primer tinted in the color of choice as the first coat if the ceiling has never been painted, followed by a second coat of our Devine Canopy Ceiling Finish.
If the ceiling was previously painted, use Canopy only.
Devine Canopy: our version of FLAT, Canopy is recommended only for ceilings to hide imperfections by absorbing light with its almost dead-flat sheen.
Washability: Dusting only
VOCs: less than 50gm per liter
Sheen: 2.5-3 at a 60° angle
| Textile Help | ||
Painting walls and ceilings with lots of angles
Painting Bull-nosed corners
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