When you’re in the middle of about six different projects at once and you start to get overwhelmed, I find the best remedy is: Start a New Project.
If there’s a half-built bed in the middle of your bedroom, your office has become temporary storage until you can settle on a floor plan, and you have six different fabric swatches hanging from your window because you can’t decide which to use for curtains…
You should probably empty out your entire coat closet, scatter its contents throughout your downstairs and renovate it. Right?
This definitely sounded more logical yesterday.
So we are in the middle of a closet reno! First up, taking down these beauties:
YESSS. Popcorn ceilings in all their early 90′s glory!
Now. To whoever decided this was a fashionable look which should be installed in all homes, I have an important question for you:
WHYYYYY?
Why did you do this to a perfectly good ceiling?
I know, I know.
It covered flaws,
and it is acoustically phenomenal!
But now? Now they must be obliterated!
When we first moved into our house, step one was to remove the popcorn ceilings. We took them out of the entire house, except our coat closet.
I hadn’t realized until then how much light popcorn ceilings suck out of a room. All those tiny shadows make it feel so dark and yucky, but a flat ceiling bounces the light around and does wonders for the entire space.
Luckily, removing them is not hard. Just messy. If you were cursed with this kind of textural sin on your ceilings, here’s a quick how-to for taking those guys right down.
1.
Make sure there’s no asbestos! They stopped using asbestos circa 1977, and since our home was built in the mid-90′s, we knew we were in the clear. Otherwise, this is not a DIY project. You’re gonna want a pro.
2.
Prep the room.
When I say this is messy, I’m not playing. All those tiny little popcorny lumps are about to end up all over your floor and/or furniture and/or self. Remove whatever you can, and cover the rest. In the case of the closet, we laid down a trash bag to catch all that junk, then just tossed the bag.
3.
Wet that bad boy down! In a smallish space, a simple squirt bottle filled with good ol’ fashioned H20 will do the trick. When we were tackling the whole house, we bought a hardcore lawn sprayer because the constant squirting with the squirt bottle was wearing out our arms.
Andy plus squirt bottle
4.
Scrape.
We used a putty knife, and just gently ran it along the ceiling.
Andy plus putty knife
This part is SOOO satisfying!
You get to watch as your home instantly teleports to present times. Here’s the ceiling with popcorn removed:
Yep, just good ol’ sheetrock under there.
5.
Sand, repair and paint.
Flat ceilings. Happy Kelly. Easy job, with HUGE results.
Before and after.
See how much brighter the “after” looks in the pic above? Those two photos are taken under the exact same light conditions and settings. See how much more light bounces around?
FACT: Popcorn ceilings are BEARERS OF DARKNESS.
Okay, that’s a little dramatic. But seriously, this job is easy, fast and provides instant gratification, which always gets a thumbs-up from me.
Have you tackled anything like this recently?
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Hi, I'm Kelly. Glad you're here! This little blog is where I chronicle our efforts to fix up our beaten-down home on a tiny budget. We're not there yet, but here's a peek at the view along the way...
We don't have popcorn ceilings in our current home (THANK GOODNESS!) But, truly, I never realized what a huge light suck they were!
We need to do this too. My husband stepped through our living room ceiling while doing our attic remodel, so its either scrape the popcorn or replace the drywall on the entire dang living room ceiling. Thanks for the reminder.
i want you to come do this in my entire house. i mean, your hubby looks so happy doing, he would certainly be willing to volunteer at my house, right? thought so
I talked my hubby into helping me take down popcorn a few times and boy it is a MESS especially if it is a big room. We laid down painter's plastic and just folded it up and threw it out BUT beware! An 8'x 10' sheet of plastic is VERY heavy when full of popcorn. I have to say though – its all worth it! A lot of work but SOOOO worth it.
Looks like a lot of work but well worth it! We have swirly drippy plaster-ish ceilings (yes, that is the technical term) that I would love to get rid of…but the 2 workers we've asked at Home Depot say it's impossible. :/ Rick says he's going to try your method, anyway!
I never knew how to do this! I'm glad to know that it isn't too complicated. Why did people think this would look good?
We have removed most of ours…still have a kitchen and hallway to do.
It is sooo messy but sure pulls your house into the present. It really doesn't take much time…just so messy, I keep putting it off. Gonna do it this summer, tho.:)
xo bj
Popcorn haters unite! I did this to the whole downstairs portion of my house! Every time I go upstairs I cringe because that ugly popcorn is staring back at me! My downstairs ceilings are not perfect, but flaws and all a smooth ceiling is awesome!
Looks great! Definitely a project worth tackling. Thanks for sharing
Hi Kelly, I came by via Cassie! I just had to see how you removed that stuff. When we bought our house some of it was removed but not all. I don’t know why they stopped! I really want to get it out of our hallway. It does suck up the light! Thanks for the tips!
What type of outdoor hardcore lawn sprayer are you referring to? I need to remove the popcorn in my entire house
Just wondering if this will work on PAINTED popcorn ceiling?? I have heard that if it has been painted you are S.O.L. And just so you do not feel so bad, I have it on the WALLS going to my basement too!
If the popcorn is painted, it’s harder for the water to sink in. You might need to scrape it just a little, then spray it, then scrape it. I’d probably start in a closet or something and try it out first. Hope it works for you!
So I know this is like a REAAALLLY old post in blog-time, but wanted to tell you we banished our popcorn with a neato tool. Here’s a post we did about using it: http://cottageinstincts.blogspot.com/2010/11/score-is-harveys1-cottage-cheese.html
We decided not to patch, but used beadboard wallpaper on the ceilings: http://cottageinstincts.blogspot.com/2010/11/um-score-was-at-wallpaper-2-harveys-0.html
The result:http://cottageinstincts.blogspot.com/2010/11/fireplace-before-and-afterwith-some.html
Love your humor, btw.