How to Apply Textured Ceiling Paint on a 1960s Plaster Swirl Ceiling

Plaster installers used brushes to apply a swirl pattern to the ceiling.

Applying textured ceiling paint to a ceiling with a 1960s plaster swirl pattern gives the room a modern look. Many homes built in the 1960s used a plaster coat with a swirl pattern on the ceilings. Plaster installers used a stiff-bristle brush to give the plaster its swirl texture, leaving deep grooves in the plaster's surface. A 1960s-style swirled ceiling needs its ridges softened prior to applying textured paint. Textured paint will not hide the deep ridges on an unprepared swirl-pattern ceiling.

Difficulty:

Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need

• Drop cloth
• Plastic sheeting
• Masking tape
• Ladder
• Safety glasses
• Dust mask
• Palm sander
• Coarse-grit sanding pad
• Vacuum
• Plaster primer
• 4-inch paintbrush
• 3/8-inch nap roller
• Paint stick

1. Protect the room's floor with a drop cloth. Cover the walls with plastic sheeting, using masking tape to hold the plastic in place. Preparing a 1960s plaster swirl ceiling for texture paint creates a lot of cement dust.

2. Set up a ladder in one corner of the room. Put on safety glasses and a dust mask.

3. Remove the ridges from the plaster swirl ceiling using a palm sander equipped with a coarse-grit sanding pad, working from each wall toward the center of the ceiling using circular motions. Change the sanding pad when it looses its grit.

4. Clean the dust from the ceiling using a vacuum.

5. Apply a 3- to 6-inch-wide strip of plaster primer to the ceiling next to the walls and around the light fixtures using a 4-inch paintbrush. Cover the remaining part of the ceiling with the plaster primer using a 3/8-inch nap roller. Let the plaster primer dry completely according to the manufacturer's recommended drying time.

6. Clean the plaster primer from the 4-inch paintbrush and 3/8-inch nap roller according to the plaster primer manufacturer's clean-up instructions.

7. Stir the textured paint with a paint stick until it has an even consistency. The textured paint's consistency depends on its finished look -- textured paints have several grades, ranging from a fine sandy texture to a coarse stucco-look texture.

8. Apply a 3- to 6-inch-wide strip of textured paint to the plaster ceiling around the light fixtures and where the ceiling meets the walls, using the 4-inch paintbrush to smear the textured paint.

9. Paint the plaster ceiling with the textured paint and the 3/8-inch nap roller, starting in one corner and working across the room in 3- or 4-foot-wide squares. Blend the edges of each square together, leaving a seamless surface. Let the textured paint dry completely according to the texture paint's dry-time instructions.

References

• Behr: Premium Plus Texture Paint Product Details
• Conco Paints: 9730 Protex Coarse Texture Interior Latex Wall & Ceiling Paint
• Ace Hardware: Paint

Resources

• House-Painting-Info: Types of Drywall Textures