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On Painting (and paying attention to) Ceilings

February 19, 2014

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Two days ago, I had the realization that now would be the ideal time to paint the ceilings on the main floor of our home. It was one of those circumstances where I almost chose to ignore the aha moment because painting 1700 square ft of ceiling sounds about as fun as...what is the least fun thing? Chewing on tin foil. Or, fill in the blank. That. However not-fun painting ceilings is, our situation is prime for the task: we’re laying new floors and all of our furniture is downstairs.

IMG_1746

And so, I got myself excited about fresh bright-white ceilings and picked up a couple gallons of paint to slowly get the job done over the next week.  I thought about getting ceiling paint–that’s a thing, you know. Almost every brand of paint has an ultra-flat, off-white, non-drippy paint for ceilings.  It’s great for hiding imperfections and especially nice when you don’t want to have paint dripping all over yourself. But, the off-white part I couldn’t get behind. Our ceilings are currently an off-white and the wall color doesn’t pop nearly as well. Dingy is the word I would use–it just looks dingy. So instead of ceiling paint, we are using Benjamin Moore’s Super White in a flat finish. So fresh and bright and clean. Painting the ceiling is exciting again. (Almost.)

Armstrong just came out with a new residential ceilings line that we were recently introduced to. They have a lot of cool disguises for popcorn ceilings, or easy ways to make drop ceilings in a basement, per se, look not like a drop ceiling. But for anyone, like us, with just plain old ceilings, they have really cool ways to add  unique architectural elements, too. Once we get things settled around here, we’d love to experiment there. Until that point, the people at Armstrong sent us a photo of a home in need of some ceiling advice and asked what we would recommend.

CC_RS_1268_Woodhaven_Den_bef

Well first, uh, I think there may be a leak somewhere. That needs some attention first and foremost. But as for adding some spice to the ceiling, I think this room is a perfect candidate for a coffered ceiling. It has beautiful molding on the walls already, but the floor isn’t as busy (from what I can tell). Once the ceiling is repaired properly, the Easy Elegance Coffer option would be so pretty:

coffered ceiling

These panels are 24″x24″, have great depth and they are DIY friendly! No brainer. I’m not sure our home is fit for something as fancy as a coffered ceiling, but I think the design world is definitely paying attention and adding emphasis to ceilings a lot more these days–whether it be paneling, molding, or a fun color up above–or you know, just a fresh coat of bright white? Sure.

 

This post was sponsored, in part, by Armstrong’s new residential ceilings line. All words and opinions  expressed (especially the part about getting that leak fixed) are my own. 

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What do you think?

  1. A says:

    Ceiling paint is white, you tint it to “ceiling white” if you want to. The main advantage of it is the thickness, it drips less. Those ones which go on purple and dry white are also really great for making sure you don’t miss any spots.

  2. Jacqueline says:

    Something about that photo Armstrong provided to you looks photo-shopped :) Kind of hard to believe that a room styled that beautifully with such nice architectural details would have a stain like that lol.

  3. I am a big fan of the Benjamin Moore Ceiling Paint. I think you can get it in any color. I have used it in Halo & White Dove

  4. Melanie says:

    This is something I really need to get done, because I’m so anxious to finally paint our walls.

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