[this is a cross-post to Paint forum]

We have a lot of rough sand-finish plaster in our 1950 tract house. We have knocked down some sand so we could wallpaper above a wainscot in a small bedroom. I don't relish the thought of doing the same elsewhere. Am mired in a kitchen project already and would prefer not to raise more dust. I know I need to update all the rough plaster rooms in time, but we're starting with large dining room and adjacent hall. I am looking at paint effects because I think that would be most affordable and DIY-able. We've got a new hole in a wall between kitchen and dining room that is driving the repainting--we either have to replicate sand finish very well in the surrounding area by the new door and trim OR repaint the room using a technique that is better at camouflaging all the patches and old dings at the same time. For example I looked at the tissue paper crinkle technique on a display board at Sherwin Williams and wondered if I could do that over the sand pimples.

Anyone have a super technique for morphing the sand finish into something gorgeous without spending hours knocking off the sand? A great paint treatment? Perhaps with a sheen or twinkle?

We've got a sand-finish ceiling in dining room also, made sorta special with a cove about 6 inches down onto the walls. Would love to give this ceiling some pizzaz, esp to compliment a chandelier. I've got an old badly done plaster patch to deal with where the ceiling meets the fixture and am threatening to do a medallion there to cover it up. What else would you do?

Goal is a classy room. High-end on the cheap.

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fyi: Should any one else who has such plaster be looking for one solution, I have been successful with using stenciling on the walls. Gotta really wham that paint down on the irregular surface, though, so don't choose a subtle fine-line design.