How to Paint a Popcorn Ceiling

Popcorn (or acoustic) ceilings were popular in residential home construction between 1950 and 1980 for their noise reduction qualities. Functional? I guess. But I cannot imagine why anyone ever found them attractive. And they are a major pain in the rear end to paint or remove. Let me interject here that if you are considering removal and your house was built prior to 1977, you will need to hire a professional. Those ceiling may contain asbestos. Definitely not something you want to DIY.

Unfortunately, we inherited some pretty manky looking popcorn ceilings when we purchased the House of Awesome. Streaky, dirty, and completely grey where they met the wall. Removal is not something we want to tackle so it was clear that they would require a paint job.

Awesome was not too happy when I insisted that they must all be repainted. But  would you look at that grimy seam. Horrible! In the end he agreed that we needed to take the time to give attention to all the little details in each room. So we strapped Isla into the car seat and headed for the Home Depot.

My mom is a ceiling painting veteran and won't use anything other then Behr Ultra White ceiling paint. It covers splendidly and is a nice bright white.

I remember her using a roller with a nice thick knapp, but still having a difficult time getting paint into all the divots. We were standing in front of a wall of roller packs, considering our options and repeatedly asking Isla to "put that back", when an employee showed us a thick foam roller with slits in the foam every 1/4 inch. She said it'd be perfect for painting popcorn and we decided to give it a shot.

Armed with paint, roller, brushes, paint tray liners, and an extended rolling rod, we headed home to get Isla down for a nap and begin our FIRST improvement project on the new house.

Awesome remove the fan and vent cover and set about rolling on the first coat. I have to say that special roller worked like a charm. It really got down (up?) into the crevices and layed the paint on thick. Awesome, still slightly irritated at my victory in the should-we-paint-the-ceiling debate, complained (a lot) about all the paint splattering on his face. Next time I am getting him a face shield.

While he rolled I worked at the seams. Rather than taping off the walls and trying to avoid getting paint on them, I get a nice full brush full of that Behr Ultra White...

And press my brush right up into the seam where the ceiling meets the wall.

 I want a lot of paint to make sure it gets into all the divots in the popcorn. But that means it globs onto the wall.

 That's OK! I actually want to paint a little bit onto the wall. It makes cutting in a whole heck of a lot easier when you get to painting the walls. Just make sure to catch and spread out the drips

 

Look at that beautiful bright white ceiling!

Here is that icky before shot one more time.

A fabulous transformation! We were both so glad we bit the bullet and painted the ceilings. The fresh coat really brightened up the room and it was definitely worth the time and effort.

Don't worry about that ceiling paint on the wall. In the next post I'm going to show you why it makes cutting in so much easier.

Have you painted any ceilings lately? Did you use any of these materials or techniques? Do you wish you had?