Paint a Ceiling

People are so often caught up with painting walls and decorating their house in different fashions, that ceilings are frequently overlooked. Ceilings, however, have rather large effect on the overall ambience, outlook and lighting of your home or apartment. Walls notably carry eye-level color and decorations, but ceilings set the tone for the character and comfort of your home or apartment for you and your loved ones. Ceilings are more difficult to paint than walls, but prudent care and a discerning touch will make this project well worth your while.

Steps

Knowing When to Call a Contractor

  1. If your walls are textured, consider calling a contractor for best results. An acoustic ceiling, better known as a popcorn ceiling, or knockdown ceiling is best painted with spray materials. For this reason, it's best to use a professional contractor who is licensed to do the job.
  2. If you have a drywall ceiling that's in need of repair, consider hiring a drywall contractor to touch things up before going on to painting. Ask the drywall contractor to do a skim coat to smooth out the ceiling; adjusting the coat on the drywall before you paint will make the ceiling sparkle and glisten after the coat of paint has been applied.

Prepping Your Ceiling

  1. Stock up on supplies. For ceilings, specifically, use a thick-nap roller with an extension pole rather than a paint brush. These types of rollers will ensure a smooth layer of paint without bumps or bubbles. Additionally, you may need:
    • A ladder
    • A paint tray and liner
    • A wall brush for covering edges
    • Spackle and a putty knife for holes
    • Caulking and a caulking gun for cracks in corners
  2. Choose your color. Most ceilings are painted white because of their reflective qualities, making a room seem brighter and larger than it may really be. However, you may want to consider which particular shade of white you prefer; specifically, which one will go best with the color of your walls?
    • A standard bright white may play off of a richer wall hue more, causing too much of a distinction and ruining the taste of the room. Look for mellow shades of white or hues of eggshell if you feel that a bolder white might be too much of a contrast.
    • Flat paint is the best type of paint for ceilings because of its smooth viscosity. Flat paint will help hide any imperfections in the ceiling.
  3. Move your furniture and prepare your room. Try to move as much of your furniture as possible out of the way of your work. This may not be possible if you live in an apartment or have extremely heavy and large couches, tables, beds and other pieces of furniture which may not be easily transportable to another room. If you find yourself in that scenario, drape plastic over all of your furniture to protect it from dripping paint.
    • Do not, however, use plastic on your floor, as it will bunch, crinkle and shift, hardly protecting it from paint. Instead, lay thick drop cloth evenly across your floor. Also be sure to properly protect your windows, sills and floorboards with plastic.
  4. Use painter's tape to mask the area around the trim, as well as where the wall meets the ceiling. If you're going to be painting your walls after you paint your ceiling, you won't have to do this, although preserving an even finish by taping may still be your best bet.
  5. Prime the walls before you paint. Priming ensures that you'll only have to give the ceiling one coat of paint. A primer will help stick to the ceiling and absorb the coat of paint, like a sponge absorbing water.
    • For best results, use a primer with stain-blocker. Stain-blockers cover up unsightly stains on walls, such as watermarks, smoke, and nicotine, and keep them from bleeding through into the paint after the primer has been applied.

Painting Your Ceiling

  1. If necessary, cut in along the corners with a wall brush or an angled brush. If you're not covering the edges of the wall with painter's tape, you'll want to use an angled brush to cut in along the edges of the ceiling, where the trim meets the wall. Cover the entire corner of the ceiling before working inward.
  2. While the cut in line is still wet, paint the ceiling with your roller. You paint while the cut in line is still wet to prevent a clear line from forming between the edge and the center of the ceiling Dip your roller into the paint tray and coat evenly, making sure that excess paint has been driven from the roller.
    • Using zigzagging lines, cover the ceiling lightly with paint. While zigzagging with your roller, create "W" or "V" shapes without ever removing the roller from the surface of the ceiling.
    • Never lay too much pressure on your roller, it may cause uneven textures to blot along your ceiling.
  3. Paint in sections until the entire ceiling is covered with zigzags. When you're done with a sections, blend it with the previous section. Don't worry too much about creating a uniform look just yet; you'll blend everything together beautifully in the next step.
  4. Go over the zigzags with straight lines on your roller. This will help even out the paint and create a firm visual appeal. If you've applied a primer coat, you shouldn't need to apply a second coat of paint.
  5. Treat your vaulted ceiling like a wall. Contrary to a flat ceiling, vaulted ceilings can be painted like a wall. Start in a corner of the ceiling and work your way down to the wall in straight-lines, with each consecutive line slightly overlapping the one before. Be smooth and consistent with all of your strokes.



Tips

  • Once you start painting a ceiling, do not quit and restart later. Unlike a layered wall, you will likely notice the different drying spots on your ceiling if you splice your job into different times.
  • Drywall surfaces should be repaired of any holes/tape splits/cracks prior to any kind of paint/primer/topcoat application
  • Areas below the ceiling working area should be taped/tarped and clear of debris
  • All the ceiling areas should be clear of dust/cobwebs prior
  • It is important to ensure that the room being painted is not too warm, or dry, because this will cause the paint to dry too quickly, in turn making it difficult to maintain a wet edge (a constant wet edge reduces the likeliness where you will see stopping points in the final painting product)
  • Lighting is pertinent. Areas exposed to natural light on a regular basis need special attention so that you don’t see stop and go points or roller and brush edges. We often use a shop light when done with ceiling painting to make sure there are no missed spots. (holidays)
  • Allotting enough time for primed and/or water stained blocker to dry is important. (often can only need 30 minutes)
  • Be sure that all paint/primer is new, clean paint
  • Painters should utilize cleaned and conditioned brushes and roller naps for premium finishes
  • Ladders and scaffolding must be clean and safe for workers and customers
  • Final clean up should make sure there is no dirt on the floor or paint drips on the ground/furniture/trim

Related Articles

  • Paint a Ceiling Fan

Sources and Citations

How to Professionally Paint a Ceiling - Sharper Impression Painting

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