Last weekend we finished priming the ceilings in the living room and the sunroom and were finally ready for some PAINT. Several people mentioned to us that using textured paint would help hide any imperfections that might still be visible in the repaired ceilings. Not wanting to jump into anything without having at least SOME knowledge, I spent a good couple of minutes googling about this type of paint. I found out where to get it, how much it cost, what it should look like on the ceiling.... easy enough, right? NOT!
We got a gallon of the sand looking stuff made by Valspar at the local Edwardsville Lowes and decided to jump right in. We get it home and the can says to use a trowel to apply it.. umm what? So while I am googling again how to apply it to a ceiling, Jason opens it up and tried to pour it into the paint tray. Picture opening a can of solid dog food and dumping it into a bowl. It comes out in one solid lump... kind of like cranberry sauce on Thanksgiving. Ah, we have to stir it continuously to get the sand to be even in every part of paint. Fine. Then I find that as long as you do a 2 foot by 2 foot section and go vertical, horizontal, and vertical again, the paint should go on nicely.CLICK TO READ MORE
Well.... this stuff has sand in it, so if you look up at the ceiling where you are painting, sand is falling in your eyes, falling on the floor... if you try to go over a spot that doesn't look even, the paint and sand peel off in chunks onto your face.. basically, after an entire morning, I am afraid to tell Jason that I think it looks a little chunky.. but since I am so honest, I come out with the truth and we are once again headed to Lowe's to buy regular ceiling paint to go over it in an attempt (which was successful) to make everything look consistent and finished. We also solemnly vow to each other that there will be no textured paint in the rest of the house.
CONCLUSION - Textured paint. Don't do it. If you really like it that much, it is worth it to pay someone who has done it before many times to deal with the headaches instead. Thumbs down, sand paint, thumbs down.