Saturday, June 25, 2011

Kitchen Make Over! [part 1]

Todd and I decided to spend the summer giving our kitchen a make over. The first part involved tearing down the fluorescent light box that took up the majority of the ceiling.

The official before pic:

After removing the plastic covers/diffusers  


After we removed the wooden structure

Assessing the damage

The next step was to remove the popcorn from the bottom part of the soffit. I read a lot of tips on removing popcorn ceiling. I found that ours was more difficult than most of the ones I saw on "how to" videos because ours had been painted [with seemingly impenetrable paint!]. 

What worked for me:


  • A garden sprayer and household spray bottle - I used both depending on the space I was working in. It was hard to get the garden sprayer in some areas. I filled both of these with WARM water and a little dish soap. I found that the warm water really made a difference. I also liked that this garden sprayer had a continuous spray option. 
  • Metal paint scraper
  • Utility Knift
  • Razor blade scraper
I had read that if you moistened the popcorn with a sprayer it would just scrape right off. This didn't work for me because the mist couldn't penetrate the layers of paint on the ceiling. So I ended up using a utility knife to score the ceiling (being careful not to go too deep). After I scored the popcorn texture, I then moistened it using the sprayer. After letting the warm water/soap mixture soak in, the majority of the texture scraped off easily. It did create quite the mess though! There were a few parts that were especially hard to scrape completely off. I found that if removed all of the loose parts and then sprayed again, it was easily removed with the razor blade scraper.

Thanks Todd for taking this bad picture of me picture of me looking hot in my safety gear. Not flattering. But what you do see is safety glasses and a mask. I left these out of my picture above but they are definitely a must. Dampening the texture keeps the dust at a  minimum but there is still A LOT of dust and you don't want to breathe it in!


Popcorn ceiling removed!

Stay tuned for the rest of the ceiling transformation and new lighting


 UndertheTableandDreaming 
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3 comments:

BrieAnn said...

I can't wait to see the rest. Our kitchen will be getting a transformation sometime in the near future (I hope), so these kinds of posts keep me excited for it.

Unknown said...

Looks like a big job but it does look better already. We have 1900 sq. feet (minus kitchen, 3 bathrooms and laundry room) of popcorn ceiling. Whatever was the builder thinking?! Luckily we are original owners and know that it has not been painted over. Thanks for the tips, I may start a small area over our basement stairs this summer to see how it goes.

Kathy@ Gone North said...

Wow!!! Looks like a very big job.
I have the same & have been thinking about removing mine... husband thinks I am crazy to even consider it.. : )
Thanks for sharing your tips...
(& PS... we built our house & at that time I didn't even question that decision... what was I thinking??? wasn't thinking, I guess... : )