Painting ceilings: choosing color and sheen, and avoiding roller marks

Most ceilings look best in flat paint, which hides flaws and cuts glare, in either a ceiling white or a lighter tint of the wall color. To avoid roller marks, keep a wet edge and roll in manageable sections. Fix leaks and prime stains first, and have older popcorn ceilings tested for asbestos before disturbing them.

A ceiling is the largest unbroken surface in most rooms, and window light skims right across it, so every flaw shows. Here’s how to get color, sheen and technique right overhead. For whole rooms, see our interior painting page.

Why is ceiling paint usually flat?

Flat paint reflects the least light, so it hides the patches, seams and gentle waves that almost every ceiling has, and it doesn’t throw glare back from lamps and windows. Shine overhead does the opposite, highlighting every flaw.

Ceilings also don’t need the washability of a higher sheen, because nobody touches them. Paints sold as ceiling paint are usually flat and formulated to spatter less when rolled overhead; some go on tinted and dry white, so you can see where you’ve been. Check the label for what a given product offers.

Kitchens and bathrooms are the exception. Steam and grease call for a paint that sheds moisture, which our guide to the best paint for kitchens and bathrooms covers, and our paint sheen guide explains the trade-offs between finishes.

Should a ceiling be white or a color?

A plain ceiling white is the safe default: it keeps the ceiling bright and lets the walls do the talking. But a stark white overhead can look cold or gray next to warm walls, so it pays to choose a white that suits the room. Pure White SW 7005, a soft, clean white with a touch of warmth, is a versatile choice; Extra White SW 7006, crisper and leaning slightly cool, can suit a room of cool grays and blues.

Another option is a tinted ceiling: a lighter version of the wall color, which a paint store can mix at a fraction of full strength. The ceiling then reads as a soft continuation of the walls rather than a hard white lid, which suits rooms where the walls carry a definite color.

Then there’s the “fifth wall”: a ceiling painted a real color. A deep shade such as Naval SW 6244, a deep navy, can make a dining room or library feel enclosed and intimate, while a soft one such as Upward SW 6239, an airy blue-gray, can lift a bedroom. Some people go further and paint the walls and ceiling the same color, which blurs the room’s edges.

Screens and paint chips mislead, especially overhead, so test real samples in the room. Our color studio can help you narrow the choices.

How do you avoid roller marks and lap marks on a ceiling?

Lap marks are the stripes and blotches that appear where fresh paint was rolled over paint that had already started to dry. The cure is keeping a wet edge: always rolling from wet paint into fresh territory, never back over a section that has begun to set.

• Work in manageable sections, sized so you can finish each one before its edge dries, moving across the ceiling in a steady pattern.
• Cut in as you go. Brush the edges along the walls just ahead of rolling, a section at a time, so the brushed band and the rolled area dry together. Cutting in the whole room first can leave a visible frame around the ceiling.
• Keep the roller loaded. A roller worked nearly dry leaves thin, streaky patches. Reload often and use light, even pressure; an extension pole helps.
• Choose the right roller cover, with a shorter nap for smooth ceilings and a longer one for texture or rough plaster.
• Finish the ceiling in one session. Stopping halfway leaves a line where the paint dried.
• Watch the air. Heat, dry air and fans blowing across the room make paint dry faster and lap marks more likely.

Plan on two coats in most rooms; the second evens out the first.

How do you cover a water stain on a ceiling?

Fix the leak first. A stain means water got in, whether from the roof, a bathroom above or plumbing in the ceiling, and in Michigan winters, ice dams at the eaves are a common cause of stains near outside walls. Paint over an active leak and the stain comes back.

Once the area is completely dry, make sure the drywall or plaster is still sound; soft, sagging or crumbling material needs repair, not paint. Then seal the stain with a stain-blocking primer. Ordinary ceiling paint lets water stains bleed through, sometimes reappearing as the paint dries. Oil-based and shellac-based primers are common choices for water stains; check the label.

Finally, repaint the whole ceiling, not just the spot. New paint rarely matches a ceiling that has aged for years, so a patched spot tends to show; our guide to touching up paint explains why.

What about cracked or peeling plaster ceilings?

Many older homes in Grosse Pointe and across Metro Detroit still have plaster ceilings. Hairline cracks are common as a house settles and moves with the seasons, and they’re usually cosmetic. A lasting repair bridges the crack with mesh tape and setting compound; a quick smear of spackle often cracks again.

Sagging is different. If a section bulges or gives when pressed, the plaster may have pulled away from the lath above it, and it needs to be reattached or replaced before any painting. Plaster is heavy; don’t paint over a sag and hope.

Ceilings that peel in sheets or curls, often down to a chalky white layer, may have calcimine underneath: an old paint of chalky whiting and glue, once common on ceilings, that new paint can’t grip. If a damp sponge softens a small area and rubs it down to chalky residue, calcimine is a likely culprit. It has to be washed off or sealed with a primer made for the purpose. Our guide to painting plaster walls covers both repairs in more detail.

Scraping old ceiling paint in a home built before 1978 can disturb lead-based paint. The EPA’s Renovation, Repair and Painting (RRP) rule requires certified firms and lead-safe work practices for paid work that disturbs more than 6 square feet of painted surface per room inside; see the EPA’s RRP page and our guide to lead paint in older homes.

Can you paint a popcorn or textured ceiling?

Often, but test it first. Popcorn and other spray-on textured ceilings installed before the mid-1980s may contain asbestos, and scraping, sanding or even aggressive rolling can disturb it. The only way to know is a lab test of a sample. If it’s positive, don’t scrape, sand or roll it yourself; any work on it is a job for asbestos professionals following state and local rules.

A sound, asbestos-free textured ceiling can be painted with a thick-nap roller or a sprayer. Loose texture can pull off under a roller, so try a small area first and don’t overwork it. Keep in mind that paint seals the texture, which makes it much harder to scrape off later if you ever decide to remove it.

How does lighting change the way a ceiling looks?

Light that strikes a surface at a low angle, called raking light, exaggerates every bump, seam and roller line. Ceilings get a lot of it: daylight from windows skims across them, and wall sconces and close-mounted fixtures throw light across them at a shallow angle. A ceiling that looks flawless at noon can show every patch at sunset.

That’s another argument for flat paint, and for careful repairs: sand patches smooth and feather their edges wide. Bulbs matter too. Cool light can make a ceiling white look bluer and warm light can make it look creamier, so judge samples under the lights you actually use at night.

For ceiling cracks, water stains and patches that need more than a touch-up, see wall and plaster repair.

Questions

Cracks, holes or loose plaster?See how Guiffre’s repairs walls and ceilings so the paint over them looks right.→