Plastering a Popcorn Ceiling

With the exception of the livingroom and the hallway, all our rooms have plain, smooth plaster for the ceiling.

The hallway has a textured wallpaper which, now we’ve painted it, doesn’t look too bad. It works well enough for us to keep it for a while at least.

The livingroom, however, is a different story.

Ceiling from head height
The popcorn ceiling texture

The popcorn ceiling it quite ugly. Not only is it an old fashioned style, but it’s also stained brown and has several cracks running along it. Due to the texture it’s difficult to clean and paint, so we’re going to get it skimmed with a fresh coat of plaster instead.

This image has been edited to bring out the colours more strongly. You can clearly see the staining from the nicotine. Also visible is the mesh which has been placed over the cracks.

A mesh net has been secured to the ceiling over the existing cracks so that they don’t come through the new plaster, and it has been cleaned as well as it will ever be. Hopefully the nicotine won’t leak through like it has done in the bathroom (a story for another time…)


Yesterday, the plasterer visited and completed the work in a few hours. There were no issues, it all went well, which is always nice. After sealing the existing ceiling, the plaster followed. Here’s the finished product!

The finish is very smooth. Shiny!

The plaster is not yet dry, but once it is the paint will be coming out.

We’ve got a lot of work on the walls to do still – the sticky residue from the wallpaper, plenty of cracks and peeling paint to fix as well as some old mold to clean up. It’s messy work, but it’s the last room! So close to getting our flooring I can almost taste it.

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