Hi when I was about ten years old I put some pop corn kernals in a baggie and grew them! Dont know if it still would work but its worth a try! whisst

Popcorn is really good with butter and a little chili powder. Popcorn is a real PITA on a ceiling. I would take it down. I removed all of the popcorn ceilings in my 1981 vintage ranch as soon as i moved in (but before taking delivery of furnishings - we camped on the floor until it was done). We sprayed on an "orange peel" texture to replace it. It was messy but not hard. One room at a time, we draped the room from ceiling to floor with plastic sheeting. Cover the flooring with plastic sheeting if needed. We used a pressure sprayer from the lawn and garden center like you would use to apply bug spray to mist the ceiling with water. Let it sit a few minutes and then scrape off the popcorn. There is a tool that Home Despot sells (or sold back then) that holds a plastic bag to catch the popcorn as it scrapes it off the ceiling. That bag gets heavy VERY quickly. It s easier to let the popcorn drop on the floor and dispose of it with the pastic (cover up your hair!). Use a step ladder and a paint scraper or five in one tool to clean up the edges of the ceiling and corners. Let the ceiling dry and then spray on the new texture. My brother in law had the machine to spray the texture on, but you can rent it at a big-box store. We used a big flat edged flexible spatula-like tool to knock down the sprayed on texture to the "orange peel" consistency we wanted. You will need to experiment with the drywall spraying to get the texture that you want. My brother-in-law suggested that we tint the texture pink so that you can see clearly where your texture has gone and where it is missing. This was a good idea when doing it but a PITA to paint over. If I was doing it again, I might buy that tinted ceiling white that goes on pink and dries white. After the texture dries, you can paint the ceiling and then pull down all of that plastic sheeting, roll it up and throw it away. The bigger the room is, the heavier that debris will be. You'll then be happily popcorn free forever. Everytime you have to paint your ceilings for the rest of your life, you'l be so happy that you made the decision to get rid of the popcorn. Good luck! Beatrice

I just wanted to thank everyone on this forum for the WONDERFUL information. It took 2 web searches and the pics on this blog to find out what someone did to the ceiling in the house I'm buying. First things first, that ceiling has got to go. I have a week before I have to be out of my apartment and that will be plenty of time to de-stomp and prime (at the very least). Last month a friend of mine bought a house with nearly the same square footage as mine and every ceiling was popcorned (even the closets) and after sending her a DIY link we tested it in her front entry way and half bath. When it took 30 minutes to do that she was convinced. 4 of us finished her whole house in a bit under 5 hours. She hired professionals to re-putty and sand it. It actually took longer to prime it than anything (we had to wipe off the dust first) - it gets everywhere! After that project and then readying this blog, I know I can do this. Well, as long as it's not plaster that they "decorator" used. :) I'll test it first. I just wanted to thank you all for your input since you have eased my mind so far. If anyone is still watching this blog, I plan to update my progress. Before and After pics and a brief timeline. I do have one question...it's been a few years since some of these original posts have been submitted and I'm a new homeowner and semi-new prime painter. Does anyone know if that Zinsser Primer comes in a pink that changes to white when dry? We learned that priming and painting with white at night using artificial lighting is not good. Similar to what Sandy learned. :( Hope everyone's other home-projects are going well.

You go girl! My experience is that the first time I do a project I don't really save any money because I use it to buy the tools I need & it takes longer while I learn on the job. But on the next similar project I save a bunch. If you find a contractor that acts mad that you tried to do some work yourself -- then you shouldn't hire that contractor. He'll just try to steamroll you through the whole project. Many contractors will help you learn from their work. You can almost always negotiate to do the demo and clean up work to save some money. Watching home improvement shows on tv can help too - but now you can find many videos on YouTube that show you how to do activities. Paneling: You might be able to cut the paneling off at the edge of the cabinets and then use some wood trim to hide the paneling behind the cabinets. This would save the work of removing the cabinets. Good luck. You'll get better with each project. p.s. I second the idea of doing some tile projects. Very rewarding & you'll save a bunch of money.