Painting a Stippled or Popcorn Ceiling

We all detest them but many of us have them. The stippled ceiling. The recommendation is to remove the stippling to get the clean look of a drywalled ceiling but often times this just isn't an option. Time constraints or the possibility of opening a whole new can of worms...builders not priming before applying the offending stipple being the two most often quoted reason for not eradicating stipple from a home.

If you want to freshen the ceiling with a coat of paint there are one or two steps you must follow first.

1. With a spray bottle, wet an area of ceiling. If the stipple absorbs the water (it will become soft to the touch) you will know the stipple was not primed. In that case, proceed to step number 2. If the water does not get absorbed but remains on the surface of the stipple you've gotten the go ahead to skip step two and go straight to paint the ceiling.
2. If you've determined the stipple is absorbing the water you must prime the ceiling with an oil based primer before painting.
3. When priming and painting the ceiling make sure to use a high nap roller specifically for stippled ceilings and paint in (at least) 2 directions perpendicular to each other in order to cover all surfaces of the stipple.
4. When you calculate the amount of primer/paint you need...double it. There is a lot of surface to your stippled ceiling!

Happy Painting!

Dane Caldwell is the Lead Consultant with Toronto's 2 Hounds Design + Home Staging.

2 Hounds Design recommends green products to clients undergoing extensive home renovations, simple updates or interior decorating and design projects.

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Color (Colour) Theory 101, Some Basics on TAUPE and Paint Selections

As I visit open houses which have been staged I see mistakes with paint color selections 99% of the time.

Errors can be made for a variety of reasons. Some examples would be lighting, direction of natural light entering the room, the colors present in the room (flooring, cabinets) but the most frequent mistake I see is due to no formal training in color theory. More on this later!

First the primary colors...I'm about to blow your mind here!

• Yellow, Magenta and Cyan: are a more accurate reflection of the artists color wheel than the 'red, yellow, blue' we where all taught in primary school.

Taupe and brown are in the same 'hue' or family of color.

Take a look at the color wheel...notice true 'taupe' and 'brown' are NOT on it. They are part of the neutral hue or family; from the centre of the wheel.

White, black, grey, brown and tan are not colors on the color wheel but are made up of varying percentages of the primary colors.

• Definition of HUE: color (in color 101!)
• Taupe and Brown are a combination of the 3 primary colors
• Contrary to popular belief, the primaries combined in equal parts do not make black but a neutral brownish/black color. Neutral being a key word here.

Taupe does not show grey but red, orange, green hues as undertones. Taupe has more tint than a brown.

• a tint means: the value of colour is lighter (English please? White has been added)
• a shade means: the value of the color is darker ( English please? Black has been added)
• a tone means: the value of the color is mid-range between tint and shade (plain English: Gray has been added)

A friend of mine in the States was recently told by a stager she hired not to use taupe's on the walls as they usually show grey.

As you can see from the brief lesson above, my friend's stager was wrong. Not surprising, turns out she has no training in theory only practical in staging.

What follows is some tips on adjusting an undertone you were not expecting!

What to do if your taupe shows:

• 'pink'. 'peach' or 'red' (your' and my eyes see the undertones slightly differently)? Add GREEN to neutralize the red or red/yellow undertone coming through.
• 'green' add: red!
• 'grey' add: personal choice - Decide where on the color wheel you'd like it to go and adjust with the appropriate primary colors.

If you are wondering what the variations would be my suggestion is to break out the paints (primary only) and experiment. BTW, this is the best advise you'll ever get. By experimenting you will be learning much more than you'll ever learn from reading.

Paint selection can be daunting so a professional should be consulted to avoid the feeling of something not being right with the color and having no understanding of what the problem is or how to fix it.

Dane Caldwell is the Lead Consultant with Toronto's 2 Hounds Design + Home Staging and is a professional Decorator with a background in Design and Styling.

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