Hit the ceiling

Danielle Brown of Bloubergrant writes

We are currently repainting our new home to give it a fresh look. Our indoor entertainment area, as well as the lounge and dining room, have knotty pine ceilings and I’d love to paint them white. I prefer a whitewash look rather than a solid effect; how do I go about this?

Jani Augustyn-Goussard of Paint & Decor replies

Painting your knotty pine ceilings white will introduce much more light into your home!

If you choose to paint the ceiling solid white, use Annie Sloan paint in the colour Pure or Old White; it can be applied directly onto varnished wood without much prep. Just make sure the ceilings are dust-, oil- and water-free before you paint them! Two coats should be sufficient, after which you can either leave them as is or seal the paint with Annie Sloan Wax or Lacquer. Since no-one is going to be walking (or dancing) on the ceiling, you can elect to leave this step out.

If you want to whitewash the ceiling, leaving the grain of the wood visible, you’ll have to strip/sand the wood first to remove the varnish. You can only do a whitewash over raw wood because the wash effect uses a diluted paint application in order to show off the grain of the wood. The wash will only penetrate the wood if there is no varnish layer.

Strip your wood or sand it down (make sure the ceilings are free of dust, oil and water) then dilute an acrylic white paint with water (start with a 1:5 ratio) and paint it over your raw wood. Do one board at a time; otherwise you might end up with odd streaks across the width of your ceiling. Once again, there’s no need for a sealant but you can always paint a matte waterbased varnish over for extra protection. >>

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