Painting Ceilings – 6 Tips and Tricks for Different Ceiling Jobs

Painting ceilings isn’t always as easy as just doing a normal dining room or bedroom ceiling. Various problems or situations can come up. Here are 6 types I deal with as a painter.

1.) Popcorn ceilings – use a popcorn roller cover or you will have the popcorn texture coming off. A popcorn roller cover is a large foam roller with thin slices all the way through it. It safely rolls out paint onto the textured popcorn ceiling without the popcorn texture pulling away. It’s best to wait 24 hours before re-coating.

2.) Smooth ceilings – you want nice looking, flat finish surfaces not having any lap lines or streaks. It takes a long time to find a nice ceiling flat paint that does a good job. I like Porter Blanket PP-1129. It’s a flat white primer that lays down a solid white finish in two coats. (For kitchens and baths see #4)

3.) Textured ceilings – the easiest of all when it comes to painting ceilings. I use a 3/8-inch nap roller cover on these. You can use ceiling paint or wall paint and get a nice even finish.

4.) High ceilings – I use either my 16’ or 20’ extension ladder for high ceilings. I will cut it in all the way around the room using a paintbrush to cut in and a 7-inch roller with a small extension screwed into the handle for longer reach.

The 7-inch roller is lighter than a full 9-inch size roller for hand rolling. I will roll out as wide of an area as I can while standing on my extension ladder against the wall. I even have a stabilizer bar attached to the top of the ladder to get me out into the ceiling further. I will roll out the rest of the ceiling afterwards using my roller on a longer size paint pole.

5.) Kitchen and bathroom ceilings – the key here is washability as well as looking good. I like to use a paint that will wash good for these types of ceilings. Matte, eggshell or satin or whatever you use on the walls will work well on the ceilings as well. I use a high quality, shed-resistant roller cover.

6.) Excessive stains from heavy smoking, grease or water spots – I once had a whole first floor of ceilings to paint in someone’s ranch-style home. Bedrooms, bathrooms, kitchen, dining room, etc.

The ceilings all looked like whoever painted them last used one coat of so really cheap grade paint. Because I was new at painting I didn’t realize that the ceilings were stained because the lady was a chain smoker. As a matter of fact, she always had one burning as if they were incense.