Our specific variety of textured ceiling has a few names: crows feet, stomp texture, slap brush, and panda paw. Don't those all sound exciting and fun? THEY'RE NOT!!!
We have ceilings like this all over our home. The texture is so dimensional that we jokingly call them stalactites.
Mostly I hate them because they collect dust and create shadows on the ceiling. See how dark the ceiling looks in that first photo?
Everyone we talked to said they're very hard to remove completely (they're applied differently than popcorn), and thus it's quite expensive to have it done. We don't hate them enough to throw thousands of dollars into making them disappear, so we thought we'd try something cheaper first.
How about just sanding them a little?
Armed with lots of protective gear (glasses and mask are a must!), we just wrapped sand paper around a sanding block and went at it. The stalactites broke off easily, and the smaller mountains sanded down without too much more elbow grease.
It took a little over an hour to do this 10' x 9' room in our house. Cleanup was another half an hour, because this process creates a LOT of dust (be sure to open the windows, close the vents, and shut off the AC). This project was super cheap - just the cost of a pack of sandpaper.
Here's a closeup of what it's like after sanding. It's not totally smooth (that costs big bucks), but it's a huge improvement!
Here's the room half finished. The left side has been sanded already.
Doesn't the ceiling look so much better? Cleaner, brighter, more welcoming. Such a difference!
Let's compare to the "before" again:
Now I have the itch to do the rest of the house...
Be careful, because it will make quite a mess!
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