When you’re painting the interior walls of your home, you tend to think of the walls that are most readily seen as you enter the wall and seldom the wall that always is above you — the ceiling.
The ceiling is a wall that needs to be painted just like any other of the walls, and on top of that, it’s a bit more difficult for many reasons, including the fact that it’s often more challenging to reach it than the walls of your home.
With that being the case, here are five ways to better paint your ceiling in Baton Rouge, LA.
1. Remove Furniture From The Room
The furniture in your room may be good for a lot of things, but when you are looking to paint the ceiling, they do just one thing — get in your way.
The best way to take care of it is to remove them from the room for the duration of the painting process entirely.
If, however that is not possible, you can opt to move the furniture to the center of the room — as close to the center as possible — and cover it so that drips do not land on them with something like a tarp or a drop cloth.
2. Use Heavy Drop Cloth For The Floor
There is one thing that is pretty much inevitable when you are painting the ceiling, and that is that you will have some dripping paint, no matter how carefully you paint it.
The best way that you can protect the floor from such drips is to use a heavy drop cloth, such as the kind that uses heavy canvas and has a plastic liner such that paint does not get through.
The heavy cloth is good because it precludes the possibility that it will shift while you are walking about and expose it to drips.
3. Use A Ladder To Reach The Ceiling
It may seem fairly evident that if you’re going to be painting the ceiling and don’t have a telescoping handle on your paint roller, you will want to use a ladder.
Some would advise you to use a series of makeshift scaffolding to reach the ceiling instead, made with planks and just about anything to lift them – this is not advisable for two reasons.
One is that it is much less portable — and the other is that it is much more dangerous than a ladder — just make sure that you don’t get on the top of the ladder and keep to the next to last rung.
4. Allow Ample Time For The Painting Project
A painting project such as a ceiling painting is a lot more time involved than people realize, and this is for a couple of reasons.
The issue is that people don’t realize that you have to allow for the ceiling to dry in a number of steps — after you have cleaned the ceiling after you have painted a coat of primer and after both the first and second coats of paint.
As this is the case, it generally can take an entire weekend to paint your interior room ceiling.
5. Sand Before Painting
Sanding is not just one of the steps that you take before painting the interior walls of your home. It is also something you need to remember to do prior to painting the ceiling as well.
When you sand the ceiling, it helps to prepare the surface for the primer coat that will be following it and making for a surface that is as smooth as possible.
By sanding the ceiling, you also correct some of the bumps and imperfections that may be present on the ceiling.
Nathan Rust is the Managing Partner at Prestigious Painting. He is passionate about service and gives back through his business with “Paint it Forward” and the “Young Entrepreneur Scholarship”. Nathan is married to his wife, Amanda and they have two children, Elijah and Grace.
Nathan founded the Rotary Club of Southeast Baton Rouge with 24 other local leaders in February 2020, and served as Club President from 2020-2022. He also serves as the Charter Organization Representative to Pack 15, where his son is a member as a Cub Scout.
Nathan was elected as the East Baton Rouge Parish School Board Representative for District 6 on November 8th, 2022. In this new opportunity, Nathan aims to strengthen our school system by ensuring every child in EBR has access to high-quality schools, regardless of where they live or their economic status.
