Painting Tips For The Perfect Ceiling

When it comes to painting a house there's nothing that makes people cringe more than the thoughts of painting a ceiling. You just know you're going to wind up covered in drops of paint - no matter how much you cover your arms, face and head. On top of that it's just a plain old awkward place to get at and you never know quite what the surface finish of the ceiling is like until you get started. So how are you going to get the results you want with your ceiling painting project?

The first place to start looking is at your tools and choosing the right paint for the job at hand.

Obviously the first big item on your shopping list is paint. You need to know your paint types. You can choose from the two main categories of oil and latex paint. Then you need to look at the type of finish you want to achieve. A gloss paint will help you reflect a lot of light around a room. Matt paint will give you a more subdued look which will suit some rooms more than others.

Outside of your day-to-day paints there are some special types of paints that you would only use on specific types of painting jobs. There are paints for covering textured ceilings and even specific paints for coating acoustic tiles.

If the ceiling you're about to paint is textured then you'll have to say goodbye to rollers. These simply won't work with a textured stucco-type ceiling. You'll have to look at spraying and this means plenty of ventilation and a certain level of skill - which if you don't possess you'll have to hire somebody in instead. Otherwise you're just going to make a huge mess which is the last thing you really want in your home right?

To prime your walls or not to prime your walls? Well the simple answer is more often than not you will need to. There's far more reasons for applying a coat of primer before you start painting. First off most surfaces need to be primed - especially if the walls are porous or damaged in any way - recent touch up jobs on cracks for example. You'll also save a small fortune by only having to apply one or two coats of actual paint - if the surface is primed you're just going to get a much better finish. Otherwise you'll be applying one coat of paint after another and you might still wind up with streaks or dark patches - especially if the original wall color was dark.

If you want to cut down on the mess you make while you're painting your ceilings then make sure you've mixed your paint properly. To test the consistency of your paint try it on a small patch of wall. If the paint isn't thick enough it will run down the wall. That's not what you want because that means lots of drips from the ceiling so you know you need to check the consistency.

One of the most useful items in your painting toolkit is an extension pole for your roller so that you're not damaging your neck and shoulders. It will allow you to effectively paint ceilings - especially the higher types of ceilings. While painting try to keep the pole at an angle - this will help stop you getting covered in splatters of paint and keep the major stresses off your back, neck and shoulders.

So now know how to go about painting a ceiling - go ahead and start choosing your paints and color scheme.