Hide Ceiling Imperfections, Flaws, Defects

Walls and floors get all the attention, don’t they?  We spend hours debating the color and finish of wall paint, whether we should lay ceramic tile or settle for carpet, and how to make sure our walls and floors complement our furniture to achieve the perfect look.   The result?  Ceilings pretty much get ignored.  Slap a coat of ceiling white on them and they’ll pretty much go with anything… unless the ceiling has flaws.  Then we’ve got to think abou it.  A ceiling with a few imperfections can really detract from a room.  No matter how perfect the design, a bad ceiling will draw the eye up and ruin the effect.

Fortunately, there are a few things you can do to take care of that ceiling and finish off your design.  Of course, as with any home improvement, the options range from very simple to are-you-sure-you-shouldn’t-hire-someone-for-this difficult.  Here’s a few ideas to get you started on fixing that flawed ceiling to make the overall look fantastic.

Paint the Ceiling with a Flat White Ceiling Paint

Flat paint will go a long way to hide minor imperfections on a ceiling.  Flat paints don’t reflect as much light as their glossier counterparts.  Since the eye sees imperfections in the ceiling because of the light reflected off of them, and flat paint reduces overall reflection, this dramatically reduces the visibility of small flaws. 

Many paint manufacturers sell a ceiling paint as part of their line.  “Ceiling” on the front of a paint can is a paint company code word for “cheap.”  Ceiling paints tend to be thin and cover poorly.   They are manufactured with less pigment, and are usually sold at a discount.  Most of the time, ceiling paint is ok for a typical application.  If a ceiling is already mostly white, a thin coat of flat ceiling paint will cover fine.  If your ceiling is a non-white color, we suggest going with a regular flat wall paint to achieve the best coverage at a good price.

Install Recessed Lighting (Can Fixtures)

Recessed light fixtures sit above the plain of the ceiling.  As a result, no direct light shines on the ceiling itself.  Light reflected from the floor, walls, and furnishings in a room will still hit the ceiling, but the light will be diffused and widely distributed, eliminating shadows (and thus hiding imperfections).

Recessed lighting also has the visual effect of raising the ceiling because no physical fixture sits in the upper space of the room, drawing eyes to the walls and furniture instead of the ceiling.  As an added bonus, recessed lighting is highly desirable in newer homes, and will likely pay for itself at the sale of your home.

Add Beams, a Medalion, Crown Molding and other Accents

Adding decorative beams to a room can hide flaws if the ceiling is sufficiently tall to accomodate these.  Solid wood beams can be fastened to the ceiling at even intervals, or in another creative pattern.  This breaks up the plain of the ceiling and reduces the visibility of flaws. 

If the imperfection is isolated to an area around a lamp (for instance, an electrical box was installed in an unprofessional manner), a medalion could be a viable solution.  In general, medalions should be sized just slightly larger than the diameter of the lamp that hangs below them, and painted with either the same flat paint as the ceiling, or a slightly off white accent color.

Crown molding and other accents offer another solution for some ceiling problems.  If the imperfections are close to the corner of the wall and ceiling, crown molding is a perfect solution.  Be careful choosing crown molding if the ceiling has imperfections that wouldn’t be covered by the crown itself.  Crown molding will draw the eyes up to the ceiling, where any unhidden flaws will be quickly spotted.

Texture the Ceiling

While ceiling textures have fallen out of favor in modern design, one solution to a very bad drywall job is to stipple the ceiling with a drywall compound.  Texture should be applied as subtely as possible, and should be coupled with other solutions in this article, particularly recessed lighting.  Texture the ceiling only if you aren’t willing to do a complete ceiling replacement.

Replace the Ceiling Altogether

Obviously the most difficult option, replacing the ceiling is necessary when the flaws are so bad that they cannot be addressed by any other method.  If you decide to replace the ceiling, be sure none of the products used to install the original ceiling contained asbestos.  Many ceiling textures and some drywall compounds used between 1950-1980 contained asbestos.  Especially if you have a textured ceiling, it’s best to have the material tested before you tear it out and replace it.

What do you think?  Have you used any of these methods to hide flaws in your ceiling?  What other methods have you used to address ceiling imperfections?

Photo originally by juhansonin and cropped for use here.