1994 called and it wants its popcorn ceilings back.
Every house we looked at had rounded corners on the walls and popcorn ceilings. Ok, not every house. We bought the only one we looked at that didn’t have rounded corners but it does have popcorn ceilings.
ICK.
First step – to the internet, of course.
Where I found these 2 videos: Video 1 and Video 2. The basic idea is prep the room with a ton of plastic sheeting, wet the ceiling down with a garden sprayer and scrape the popcorn texture off. I didn’t follow the directions of either video to the letter, more or less combining the two for a method that worked for me but more on that in a bit.
Second step – buy crap.
I needed plastic sheeting, tape, the ceiling scraper suggested by the first video, face mask, safety glasses, and the garden sprayer.
Third step – prep.
OMG, prep took forever! I started with our upstairs empty bedroom because I figured that it’s not in use, nor will it be for a while, so I might as well use it as my experimentation ground. First off, we had to figure out which breaker killed the power to the room since, well, you know, water and electricity don’t play nice together. It would have been nice if the breaker box a) wasn’t outside (who does that?!) and b) had more labels than a bracket covering almost half the switches labeled “lighting.”
Then I just started with the plastic sheeting using the method suggested in the second video.
I’m not sure why I didn’t take any pictures after I mostly finished covering the floor (I didn’t actually finish all my prep until I was in progress oops)
So in essence I had made myself a giant plastic box. YAY. And also had my first lesson learned – open the blinds before covering the windows. I did manage to get them open but it would have been a heck of a lot easier to do beforehand.
Fourth step – get to it.
First attempt: I started out using the fancy ceiling scraper tool that is supposed to catch the mess but it wasn’t doing crap or catching anything and I was gouging the ceiling so I quit that.
Second attempt: I moved on to the other corner using a regular 6” putty knife. Better but not great. At this point, I was still spraying the ceiling and letting it sit but it just wasn’t coming off in the nice clean manner that the guys in the second video show. So…
Third attempt: At this point I just put the sprayer on the top step of the step ladder and just started to go to town with the water on whatever was within reach and then immediately started to scrape it off. If it didn’t come easy, spray more water. This was my second lesson learned: Don’t be afraid of the water.
Spray on water.
Scrape off ceiling texture.
About this time, I sent Will to Lowes to get a bigger bladed something. He came back with this 12” drywall something or other. I was really cooking with gas with that thing.
And for some reason I could control that tool a lot better with my left hand which was a welcome relief for my poor overused right hand.
With breaks for lunch and feeding the baby (for which I had to strip and wipe down to do because the plaster stuff got into everything), I got it all off in about 7 hours (not including prep which I did a few days ago).
so pretty.
And of course was left with a gargantuan mess. 
I’m not sure that our step ladder will ever fully recover.
Fifth step – clean up.
All we did was roll all the plastic in on itself and toss it in the trash – should have taken a picture but the baby was upset at the time.
There is a final step of sanding it all down with a sanding sponge but eh, I was tired and we probably won’t get back around to priming and painting the ceiling anytime super soon so I just called it a day.
I will say that this is an “easy” DIY project. Once you get over spraying water all over your ceiling, it’s mindlessly easy. It is somewhat physically painful (I think my right thumb is trying to be one giant blister and my back/neck/legs hurt) and horrifically messy but, really, it’s easy. I will say though that the mask and safety glasses are an absolute necessity.
Now that I’ve perfected my methods, my next victim is the front room (aka our dining/living room).
Do we think I can do it before we head back East for the weekend?
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