hi - i am in the middle of a bathroom remodel (see my blog page below if you're interested) and we are ready to prime/paint. we have new drywall on about half of the walls & ceiling, and i assume builder's white on the other walls & ceiling. our new "ceiling" is really a big soffit of sorts, over our tub and a skinny "beam" where the 2 rooms used to be divided. we did it this way so that we wouldn't have to match the texture on the original ceiling... plus it adds some character. this new ceiling is flat new drywall. the original ceiling is textured - not popcorn/cottage cheese, but more like they put wet drywall mud up there & smooshed it with something round, then pulled the round thing off & left some peaks & valleys. not sure what that's called... but we figure it should be repainted to look cohesive, but i don't know if that needs to be sprayed, if i can do it cleanly diy or if a pro should do it. i am having a pro do my living room/hall/kitchen walls because of all the different cutting in & heights it requires, so i'll have him in the house anyway. ceilings & "beam" will be some kind of white; walls will be dark blue. so that was another question... i bought the zinsser bulls eye primer, at least for the first coat. should i get a tinted primer & do a second coat of primer since it's new drywall? or just the zinsser? i found my blue at lowes, so i thought i'd go ahead & use valspar... do i just ask for mildew-cide in it? thanks! lisa here's a glimpse of the new & old ceilings Here is a link that might be useful: my bathrooms forum blog

My thoughts on the order of attack are: 1. Use putty knife to get in behind it to the plaster in a small inconspicuous area just to get a better grip on what I'm working with. 2. Water/Fabric Softener out of a pump sprayer. If it soaks in, let it sit for a while and see if it comes off with a putty knife or scraper. 3. Try this product from Amazon (link at bottom) - EcoSolve Home Strip X-Tex Textured Coatings Remover 4. I'm going to be renting a steamer for all of the wallpaper in the home and will maybe give that a go as well. 5. If none of the above works, I will try to sand. If this works, I will likely rent a power sander/vacuum combo. 6. If all else fails, I will skim coat with joint compound. Does this sound reasonable? Here is a link that might be useful: EcoSolve Home Strip X-Tex Textured Coatings Remover

I just did this. It looks horrible (so I googled it to see if anyone else had trouble and ended up here). My walls have thick orange peel. The reason I decided to do this was to camouflage the texture changes on a wall that has many patches from where there was previously a built-in entertainment center. Well, there are two problems: 1) The applicator leaves lines. It's almost as if I ran a comb over the glaze instead of the smooth-edged applicator. I'm guessing it is jumping over the orange peel bumps and leaving uneven textures of glaze, creating "lines". 2) When it dries, you see all the orange peel bumps. I used the same tool to glaze a sheet of paper, as a test, and it looked beautiful. No comb-like lines. Ralph Lauren should have explained that this only looks good on flat walls. The can says "no refunds", but I'm going back to the store to get my money back. The glaze alone was $50. :(

Thank you, decoenthusiast! I was thinking about using the chairs in the master when we move. What type of chair would you say? As far as furniture, I love my coffee table and I will keep piano- it won't be in living room at new house. I also really like the campaign chair, but things can be moved around house for sure! Also, DR chandelier will move with us and we will keep DR table, Finallyhome, I LOVE that room! Thanks for posting. Patricia, thank you for your insight. In new house the curio will go and we will have built in China storage. I will try to be a better picture hanger! But as noted above the art is centered between 5'1-2" from floor, maybe angle not good?? Also will add a couple more photos of dining room later today, still dark out:) Trying to see what you are seeing. Thank you for saying LR has nice feeling- I do think it's a comfy room-we enjoy taking happy hour in there! i was working towards a gallery wall behind piano. My grandmother was an artist and I have a lot of paintings! I wonder if the angle of photo is making art look higher in general (not talking about piano wall). The pics in dining room are centered at 5'1-2"... I won't add more holes here, but when we move I will hang better:) I guess I need to do some gallery wall research! What do you think of Farrow and Ball and the light bouncing/reflecting theory? miacometlady, thank you! What I'm discovering about myself is that I actually like a fuller room. Maybe there's a happy medium? I may switch chairs out and could do something similar. Thanks for encouragement on texture front! The new house has an L shape with kitchen in corner visible to DR on one side and LR on the other. Currently getting bids on kitchen cabinets similar to photos here- do you think it works with furnishings? China cab would be in DR. Thanks all!