A fresh coat of paint on your ceiling can create a remarkable difference in a room. If you’re thinking of DIYing the task, we’re here to support you. Here’s your quick guide to the basics of painting your ceiling.

Before You Paint

Protect Furniture and Floors
As with any other paint project, cleanup is made a lot quicker if you’re prepared for splatters. It’s best to remove furniture from the room to prevent getting paint on them and to make it easier for you to move around while you paint. Cover the floor as well to protect them from drips.

Painting Your Ceiling: A Quick How-to Guide | MyBoysen

Apply Painter’s Tape
If you’re painting just the ceiling, place painter’s tape in the corners of where the ceiling meets the wall. This is to prevent getting paint on your walls. If you’re painting your walls next in the same paint color as your ceiling, you don’t need to do this.

Stretch
Here’s something you may not have thought of doing: stretch before you start. Painting your ceiling will require you to crane your neck upwards and hold your arms above your head for extended periods of time. If you’re not prepared to do this for what could well be a few hours, you may have difficulty completing your project.

Tools You’ll Need

Ladder
You might not need a ladder for painting walls but you will need it for painting ceilings. If you are yet to own a ladder, invest in a good quality one that will be both safe and durable. A ladder will prove useful not just for painting either, but for other home projects as well. As to height, choose one that lets you work comfortably on your ceiling even when you’re two or three steps from the top step.

Paint roller and extension pole
A paint roller gives you good reach and coverage. Try not to be stingy with this. Low-quality rollers are prone to quicker wear-and-tear, shedding, and leaving fibers on the painted surface. If you’re looking for a recommendation, try Fuyama rollers. They’re durable, lint-free, resistant to shedding, and have a high loading capacity. Use them for water-based, oil-based, and solvent-based coatings. Don’t forget to grab a paint roller extension pole too.

Fuyama paint rollers

Paint product
Painters will typically recommend a flat finish paint for ceilings. Compared to glossy finishes, a flat finish will not reflect light as much so you don’t have unwanted glare. It can also hide surface imperfections well. Ceilings are, of course, low-touch surfaces so you won’t have to worry about the high dirt pick-up of flat finishes either.

In the Philippines, ceilings are usually made from drywall or cement. Boysen’s recommended paint for interiors, namely Boysen Permacoat, Boysen Healthy Home, and Virtuoso Silk Touch, can be applied on these surfaces and are more than up to the task.

Boysen interior paints

Want ideas for colored ceilings? Check this out: Fun Ceiling Color Ideas for Your Next Repainting Project.

Painting Your Ceiling

Prep the surface and apply primer
Clean your ceiling to make sure it’s free from dust and dirt. Assuming you’re repainting, scrape off loose paint and lightly sand the surface. Then, wipe with a damp rag and let it dry. If there’s mold and mildew, you’ll need to treat it first (here’s how).

Next, apply primer. If you have a cement or drywall ceiling, you can use Boysen Permacoat Flat B-701. Wait for that to dry and you can move on to your topcoat.

A paint roller painting the ceiling in sections

Cut in and work in sections
Finally, time to paint the topcoat. First, apply paint with a medium-sized brush along the edge of the ceiling. This step is called “cutting in.” The painter’s tape you placed will help ensure your lines are crisp and you avoid painting on your walls.

After, you can switch to your roller and start painting the rest. The best way to go about this is to be strategic. Divide your ceiling into smaller sections and work your way through painting each before moving on to the next. Don’t paint willy-nilly. As you would do on your walls, apply paint using your roller in a zigzag or “M” pattern in order to maintain a wet edge for an even finish.

Blue painted ceiling

And those are the basics! Remember that though we encourage and support DIY endeavors, there’s no shame in asking for help. Leave the job to professionals if you feel you need to. Good luck!

For questions and inquiries about Boysen Products, feel free to reach out to the Boysen Technical Department at ask@myboysen.com. You can also call (02) 8363-9738 local 413 to 418 during office hours for a one-on-one consultation.

Author

Jill is a writer on a continuous journey to learn about paint and share them with you, the reader. She has an interest in the technical side of things but also thoroughly enjoys playing with colors. She likes calm greens, quiet blues, and mellow yellows best.

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