Teen Bedroom Day 5: Ceiling Finish Work and Paint Prep

(Teen Bedroom: Day 1, Teen Bedroom: Day 2, Teen Bedroom: Day 3, Teen Bedroom: Day 4)

The rough ceiling work was a very social project with our friends Don and Courtney, but doing the finish work and paint prep was a solo endeavor. Considering how little experience all of us had hanging a ceiling, it looked pretty decent in its rough state. The gaps in the unfinished ceiling looked like this:

Initially, I thought I might use patch and a putty knife to cover the seams, but when I tried that, it became too difficult to work around the v-grooves in the panel. I would have been forced to do more finish work after my finish work. Nobody has time for that. I switched to paintable caulk. First, I lightly sanded each seam. Next, I spread the caulk down the entire length of the seam, and I used my dampened finger to smooth it and work it into the seam. The caulk actually filled the v-grooves, so I dampened a q-tip to smooth and remove the excess caulk:

One I finished filling all of the seams and the caulk had dried, I painted the ceiling in Behr flat finish ceiling paint tinted Decorator White. Before painting, the primed panels had a low gloss sheen. Every single mistake was noticeable. Flat finish paint is non-reflective, so it is excellent for hiding imperfections. The finished ceiling looks like this:


Right now, it is the nicest thing in the room, so we see every imperfection. Once the entire room is painted, I do not think those issues will even be noticed. Overall, I am very happy with the way this ceiling looks. It is a huge improvement over the damaged tile and the rough panel work.

With the ceiling done, it was time to do a thorough clean of everything in the room in preparation for priming and painting. After using a shop vacuum on the entire room, I used two products to clean:

The tsp substitute worked wonders on the walls and woodwork. The baseboards had a lot of mildew spots on them from the previous dampness and water damage. The tsp substitute took them right off.

I used the D-lead paint surface cleaner on all of the window woodwork since that is where I removed paint that tested positive for lead. The D-lead cleaner had a very strong odor. I was glad that the windows were open. As I cleaned with both products, I wore rubber gloves.

Now the room is finally ready for primer and paint. We better get cracking on that too, because our son will be home from California next week! I cannot wait to give him a big hug.