Thursday, September 8, 2016

The Last Popcorn Ceiling

 Popcorn is meant to be warm and buttery or salty and a little sweet.
Popcorn is best when it is warm, gooey and has been slathered in caramel.



 Popcorn does not belong on a ceiling.
Aside from the cost savings to builders, I fail to understand why anyone sprayed "popcorn" onto ceilings.



Imagine for a minute that it is 1972 and you are looking groovy in your bell bottoms. 

Tom: "Joe, look, a bean bag chair just exploded in our build out."
Joe: "I have an idea. Let's put all those little static cling pieces in with some paint and blow it all over the ceiling."
Tom: "I really don't think that is a good idea."
Joe: "It will be fun and it might look good, like that time that Hildi from Trading Spaces put hay all over the wall."
Sometime later after popcorn shenanigans...
Tom: "That really doesn't look good. Look at how it makes the ceiling look gray and have shadows everywhere.
What about in a kitchen when grease and dust can cling to it and leave weird dingle hoppers hanging down in front of where people want to cook?"
Joe: "Listen, Tom. This is brilliant. It is a terrible look but it is costing us less money. 
We will just convince the homeowners that this is the "in thing.""


There you have it. 
The gross dingle hopper was an actual reality in my kitchen and I swept at the ceiling with a broom to get all the gross dingle hoppers off. 
Disgusting.




 We had one ceiling left...
We had one ceiling with dusty and gross popcorn.



A few weeks ago, I was enjoying my morning coffee on a warm Saturday morning.
Bill got up at the crack of dawn, so he'd already been up for 5 or 6 hours.
Kidding-not kidding. 
He finally had the energy to tackle the last of our popcorn ceilings. 
Oh, there a few closets that could be done but that is not going to happen. 
This had literally been hanging over our heads for a year. 
No amount of hinting was going to get the painter out here to have it professionally done.  
 


This room is really three spaces. 
There is the main game room. 
There is the entryway ceiling and then there is the ceiling over the stairwell. 
I needed Bill's help with the plastic drop cloths because there was so much draping to do.


 I could not figure out how to reach the stairwell and the entry way to remove the popcorn over these spaces.  
I finally figured it out one night as I was trying to fall asleep. 
If I can't sleep I will mull over projects that need to be done. 


I finally figured out that I could tape the scraper to our telescoping paint pole. 
It worked like a charm. 
It is so wonderful to have this ceiling done. 
I touched up the paint instead of repainting for the time being. 
I hate painting ceilings. 
It looks so much better. 
It's amazing how dirty popcorn looks. 



We got a new ceiling fan from Lamps Plus. We had them figure out the power and speed for this space. 
It is not only cute but it is amazing. 



I took a quick spin of the paint roller and coated the walls with Gray Owl by Benjamin Moore. 
It's a perfect gray. 
The only job left to do is hang the t.v.  
That is it for now, friends. 
I'm thrilled the popcorn is gone.  
Happy day! 
Katie 




7 comments :

  1. You are so resourceful! I still have bad memories of staring up at a popcorn ceiling when I was a preschooler and my mom wanted me to take an afternoon nap.

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  2. You amaze me! I can sleep better knowing the dingle hoppers are all gone from your gorgeous house. They did not belong there.

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  3. So nice looking Katie. What a great change. Who ever did think popcorn ceilings were a good idea?!!!! All your hard work looks great.
    Kris

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  4. We have them in the whole house! A big job, but I bet you are so happy to be have it finished and beautiful!

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  5. Looks good and i'm sure it feels good too. We had glittery stuff in our popcorn ceiling back in 1964. We sure thought it looked pretty when the fireplace made it sparkle at night! I was a teenager and my parents bought a brand new house with avocado appliances and rusty orange carpeting. WOWZER!

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  6. My whole house has popcorn celings. They're fine now but I know I'll be scraping it off in a few years

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  7. Katie,
    You are one brave soul doing~it~yourself, dear friend!
    "Mr. Ed" and I are pretty good DIY~ers, but we're not tackling the popcorn ceilings!
    Your new ceilings look amazing!
    One thing I do agree upon though is this statement. . .
    "Popcorn is best when it is warm, gooey and has been slathered in caramel."
    Fondly,
    Pat

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