Not sure if it's too late but I've been speaking to an Uppercase Living Demonstrator about signing up to sell their vinyl wording and expressions and we have knockdown texture here in Colorado in just about every home. She says it works fine and if you ever have a problem, you just use a damp cloth to rub over the back of the backing paper while it's on the wall when you are applying it. She also said that once the lettering/design is up , you can take a blowdryer and lightly go over the vinyl and it will mold onto the wall, making it look like it is painted on, NOT like a sticker. Good luck!

I just textured my ceiling last night and it was a first time project for me. Turned out pretty good but I can offer a few pieces of advice, some from mistakes I made. Buy the spray texture instead of using normal drywall mud. It has a better ability to expand and contract. Also even the non powder version will still have to be thinned with water. Don't try to mix it with anything but a mixer attachment for your drill. You will never get it smooth! After a long time mising with a big stick I ended up with a big glob in the bucker when I poured it into the hopper. The knockdown look, the part I thought was going to be easy, turned out to be the tricky part. You HAVE to wait until the texture is partially dry or like jrice said, your either going to have to start over, or your going to smooth it all down. Wet texture has a dark color and as it dries it will start to turn a lighter color. The point where you do the knockdown is when most of it is dry except for the thick "globs". The problem is if you don't apply the texture very evenly it will all dry at different rates. Since you are a beginner like me, that will probably happen so you will be on knockdown patrol for a while doing small areas as they dry. This is a very messy project! Cover any surface in the general vacinity you don't want this stuff on, floor to ceiling. It can be wiped off while still wet, but will still leave a white powder look (especially if the surface is not white) and will need to be re-painted. If you are doing a ceiling you won't be able to tilt the hopper at more than about a 45 degree angle so you won't be able to get as close to the surface as you would on a wall. To compensate you will need to add a little more pressure to get the texture up there. In my case I used 30 psi on a finish that called for 17-20 psi. At 20 the texture wasn't making it to the ceiling. Also, since higher psi usually gives a finer texture you might need to compensate by using a little larger orifice. Something I wish I would have known because i ended up sith a small to medium texture knockdown when I wanted a large texture. Still looks fine, but not what I was going for when I started. Don't fill up the hopper, especially if you are doing a ceiling. This stuff is heavy and you will get tired quick! Your holding thing thing at an angle with one hand over your head. Put as little in as you can get away with. When your done clean out your hopper gun as quick as you can. The more the stuff dries, the harder it is to get out. Lastly most air compressors come with regulators that will work fine. Just use a compressor with a decent amount of air volume, not one of those little portable ones. What you use for automotive paint are filters and dryers because any dirt or water in the paint will ruin the paint job. We are dealing with water based material here so that stuff isn't necessary. Dryers are also used in applications with heavy use of air tools (like impact wrenches) to lengthen their life but for average use a few drops of oil after your done disperses any moisture that got in there.

Well, I LOVE my recently added knockdown ceilings. Ya wanna know why? because I had POPCORN ceilings before! DH and I did all the popcorn removal ourselves. It was torture, but well worth it. We had a company come out and do the knockdown..DH really wanted smooth ceilings but yes, our ceiling was all wavy and would have to be "floated"and would cost a lot more...so we went with knockdown. We had it sprayed and troweled so it is very big "blobs" (for lack of a better word...you know what I mean, I am sure). This is a 1970's ranch we just purchased a few months ago and are totally renovating. In my last house I had popcorn...and in the house I grew up in? POPCORN. Geez, I hate that stuff! I just did the 1st coat (primer) on the knockdown and yes, it is hard...I have to apply pressure on the roller to make it in all the little grooves and whatnot. My shoulders were bunched up in knots at the end of the day. I guess I don't have it so bad cuz my house is small (2000 sq ft) and the celings are low (8 ft) but I am not looking forward to doing the paint. I keep putting it off. I actually like the look of KD on walls, but my DH hates it so we didn't add it to the house. My DH was a builder and said just what you did...knockdown (and popcorn) is used to disguise shoddy workmanship. We needed it on the ceiling, but not on the walls. Good luck, I am sure your rooms will be GORGEOUS when you are done!

Whoa, that’s pretty noticeable! The only time I dealt with figuring out what to do after popcorn ceiling removal was in our previous home, the painters got the ceiling as consistently smoothed as they could before priming and painting bright white. There were a few spots they had to fix during the touch up - I was relieved to see that the popcorn hadn’t been hiding terrible builder drywall work. The walls were still lightly ‘orange peel’ but not so much that it created an obvious line of demarcation. Maybe you could try lightly sanding where the wall and ceiling meet?