Interior Painting Step 2: Painting the Ceiling

Hi, I'm John Burbage, author of the book Watch Paint Dry. Today we are going to review how to paint the

ceiling

. First of all, let's talk about some of the equipment you will need. I recommend a three and a. high quality half inch angled latex brush, okay, the reason I like this is because it has a lot more stability and can withstand a lot more pain than a small two inch brush or something, there's really no need from playing with those little brushes. What you definitely don't want is one of these cheap little ones that will ruin your paint job in a minute.

Of course, you will need a rolling pin and I recommend a 3/8 inch or 1/2 inch roller if you want. If you're trying to roll up a popcorn

ceiling

or something, you could even go up to 3/4 inch or even 1/4 inch, that's fine, get a high quality roll up cover, don't buy the cheap one that comes five for a dollar or whatever it's fine because it makes a big difference in the outcome of your paint job, you'll want to get it out of a five gallon bucket with a roller rack, don't try to get it out of a roller because you'll probably

step

on it and make a big mess but now we have prepared this room for

painting

and if you want to learn more about that check out my video on how to prepare the room okay now we are ready to paint the ceiling right now.

The first thing we need to do is cut the ceiling completely against the walls because the walls will be a different color. The ceiling will be white. The walls will be blue. Here is a very important part. You always need to do your final brush stroke again on the wet edge. Okay, so that's going to prevent you from having start marks like that, especially for you on the color change, those can really show up, so the last thing we do before we move on to the next section. You don't brush right there, just go back to the wet edge like that and then move on.

What I should point out here is that if we were

painting

the wall and ceiling the same color then we would have to cut out for the wall about four inches okay now we have the room cut out and it's time to roll right now the first thing is to remove everything out of the way because you are going to look up, craning your neck so as not to trip. Check your stuff, now the next thing is to decide which way and in which direction you are going to roll the roof. Well, the prevailing wisdom is that you should roll towards the main source of natural light entering the room.

If you turn perpendicular to it. natural light source, you might see a shadow where the roller lines are because, frankly, it will cross them right now on a textured ceiling like this, it probably won't make much of a difference as long as it does a good job. of rolling I'm going to roll in this direction, okay, now this is the most important thing I want you to remember about rolling the roof or rolling anything. It consists of two

step

s, number one, you have to roll the paint with a nice thick roller, okay, don't worry. If you're too clean or too precise, just apply a nice thick coat of paint, okay, number two, you have to go back to the beginning of that section and give it one last gentle stroke with the roller all the way to the end, okay, that's it.

I call quit, okay. first you put it nice and thick, then you go back to the Edit section and then you put it very soft. I'll show you exactly how to do it, now a tricky part of the roof is that you probably won't be able to attach it. all over the ceiling and then go back to the beginning and smooth it out, okay, leave it because it will start to settle on you. The back starts so you break it up into little sections lay it down and then leave it as you go like this you always want to keep a wet edge as you go that means you're never painting against something that's dry because if you're painting against something which is already dry, it's going to be essentially a second coat and you might see an overlap mark there, okay, before I do that, okay, I have a new roller here and I need to get it really wet.

I'll soak it in a five gallon bucket for a long time and towards the beginning. of the paint job when the roller is still dry you need to dip it in a lot deeper for the paint to really work there it's very important okay now I'm ready to start rolling the roof now the techniques I'm going to use What you'll get I show here just in this small section it would apply the same to any roof anywhere and I don't care how big it is. It's okay, you just need to remember a few key concepts, and it's no wonder the roof is too wide for me to roll on. all in one fell swoop, okay, so what I'm going to do is split it into a right side and then a left side.

Well, what I'm going to do is first have someone go to the right side here and I'm going to place it very thick about three four feet away, okay, then I'll go back to the beginning and place it three four feet from the section that I just place and then I'll go here to the left side and place it three and four feet away, then I go back to the beginning and leave it, okay, I move over here and do the next section, then I move to the right here and then I do next section, okay? keep it in manageable chunks like that, so like I said, keep a white border as you go, okay, look, okay, like I said, keep dipping when you first start because you want to make sure you have a lot of paint in there now.

Go back to the BB game, start right here in the middle and this is my shot. I smooth it out too I'm leaving it like this, very soft and nice and easy and then suspend your stroke towards the middle like this now yes I always leave it towards the middle like that and I make sure I don't have any starting marks like that which is especially figured on the color change and they can actually appear now that my curlers start to get a little bit wet, which is okay, okay, now I have this little piece in place, go back to the beginning and make my break nice and soft, real, even now I pass to the next section here and do the same thing, okay, and I'm going to do the same thing. the whole ceiling like that, taking manageable chunks and always keep a wet edge and always use a two step process, get it on the wall a little bit accidentally, no big deal, just take your roller, smooth it out, okay?

I know how to paint a ceiling. Another note I would like to make is that at the time you are painting the ceiling, it might also be a good time to paint the inside of the cabinets, if that is what you are going to do frequently. They are white and I personally like to paint the inside of the cabinets white no matter what color the room is just because it makes it a little easier to see the inside now the next step will be to paint the walls so check out the video on my website about painting. your walls, of course, that's all about painting your house right com, where you'll find a whole series of videos on

interior

and exterior painting, as well as lots of other useful information I've created to help you paint your house right.