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    Home » Home Reno » Covering Popcorn Ceiling with Wood Planks

    Covering Popcorn Ceiling with Wood Planks

    Published by Gail | Published February 20, 2018 | Updated May 14, 2021
    As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

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    You say popcorn ceiling, I say ugh!

    You may not know that I’ve lived in my home for over 42 years. Many of the renovations that have been done were not my choice. Adding a popcorn ceiling to every room in the house is one of those decisions that I regret. But in most rooms it was a necessity because the ceiling was in rough shape and the textured ceiling helped hide issues. But I’m so over the textured popcorn ceiling. I know a lot of people have been scraping their ceilings, but that really isn’t an option for me. Short of adding new drywall on all the ceilings I thought my options were very limited. Receiving my new Maytag appliances spurred and inspired a lot of home improvement projects, including this “cover up the ugly popcorn, plank ceiling project.

    I have partnered with Maytag® to sponsor this post, but all thoughts and opinions are my own.

    Thin plywood for ceiling planks

    sheets of thin plywood underlayment

    I decided to use thin plywood known as “underlayment” for my ceiling planks. I used six 4x8 sheets for this project.

     

    Rip wood on the table saw

    rip plywood into planks on table saw

    To begin, the 4x8 sheets were ripped in half, and then half again to make them easier to manage. The planks are around 6” wide.

     

     

    rip larger pieces into smaller planks

    The planks were stored in the garage until I could find the time to paint them.

    Paint wood planks before putting on the popcorn ceiling

    paint thin plywood ceiling planks

    Using a small foam roller really worked well.

     

    painting ceiling planks to hide popcorn ceiling

    Finding a way to dry them was a little more challenging. I had the painted planks everywhere in the backyard.

    Mark ceiling joists

    snap chalkline to find center of popcorn ceiling

    Here is the lovely popcorn ceiling. Rodney helped me with this job. I originally thought I could do it by myself, but reconsidered. Boy, am I glad I did! This is NOT a one person job. We snapped a chalk line going north to south and east to west to find the center of the room. NOTE: snapping a chalk line indoors on the ceiling can be a little messy.

     

    Secure wood planks

    use scafold to install planks to cover up popcorn ceiling

    We staggered the boards, taking turns holding and shooting the brad nails. We shot nails on the studs.

    As Rodney was taking the ceiling fan down, he noticed that it was not secured properly and told me I’m really lucky it hadn’t fallen on me. Yikes! You might notice the NEW FLOORS! I am loving the new laminate floating floors so much. In the background you can see the diy barn doors.

     

    new plank ceiling to cover up old popcorn ceiling

    A view from the floor looking up. Ooops! Do you see a nickel? We used nickels to space all the boards. I think we had about 10 of them—we were constantly dropping them on the floor. Winking smile

     

    The nail holes were patched and I did a final coat of paint on the ceiling.

    Patch nail holes

     

    easy plank ceiling to cover popcorn texture ceiling My Repurposed Life

    I am falling in love all over again with my kitchen thanks to my Maytag kitchen suite and recent updates. The fingerprint resistant stainless steel finish has been perfect for my post-kitchen renovation clean-up and I love that I only need water to clean it. Speaking of water, the refrigerator also has a PowerCold® feature, which has helped me stay hydrated by keeping everything nice and cool.

    . There are several more projects I need to finish. I still plan to build a new kitchen table and a small console table to hold my small t.v. You can see how I made the Bless The Food Sign and one of my most recent projects, the loaf pan planter by clicking those links. By the way I painted the bead board wall—you may remember it was gray.

     

    maytag range double oven

    I currently have a board and batten back splash. When I did it, I liked it,  but maybe I need something different? I also desperately need a new counter top and sink. Oh, and I plan do rework the kitchen island/craft station. I wonder if I’ll ever get it all done. Winking smile

    PIN IT!

    I’d love to hear your thoughts about the upcoming projects.

    Gail

    related content: Kitchen Updates

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    1. Cindy

      July 11, 2022 at 4:09 am

      Excellent job my ceiling is two years in holding strong. I did the exact same thing. Way to go thinking outside the box, sometimes I find people look at what others do just so they can rip it apart, take positive leave the rest in the rear view. Cheers it looks Great

      Reply
      • Gail Wilson

        July 12, 2022 at 2:53 pm

        I still love my plank ceiling! But, have popcorn in all the other rooms still. ugh!

        gail

    2. Gaylene Mullins

      March 28, 2021 at 12:12 pm

      Did you use the plywood as your planks or did you buy lumber as your planks? Are the lumber planks installed and nailed to the plywood? Why would cut the plywood into 6” strips if you are going to nail lumber planks? Why not just use the lumber? Anyway I would like to do this but as you can read I am very confused.

      Thanks,
      Gaylene

      Reply
      • Gail Wilson

        March 31, 2021 at 9:01 pm

        I used the thin plywood as my planks. Wood (lumber) would have been too heavy. We nailed directly to the popcorn ceiling. I hope that clears things up for you Gaylene.

        gail

    3. Lynne

      January 31, 2021 at 1:05 pm

      Did you have to adjust for the thickness of the board when you replaced the lighting?

      Reply
      • Gail Wilson

        January 31, 2021 at 4:47 pm

        Lynne,

        I really didn't have to adjust for the thickness of the board for the ceiling fan or the light.

        gail

    4. Andrew

      October 03, 2018 at 9:56 am

      I feel a bit nit picky, but if you rip a sheet of plywood in half (long ways), and then do it again, you have 12 inch wide planks (minus the kerf), not 6 inch. There is absolutely no way you "nailed them to the studs", first off studs are something in the walls, on ceilings you'd be talking about the bottoms of rafters or floor joists of the floor above. Second, the joists or rafters would be 16-24 inch spacing so very, very few of your nails would line up with the joists and even if they did, 1 inch finishing nails or whatever you used would barely make it through the drywall to even connect to a floor joist. Long story short, my concern is that your planks are not very well attached to the ceiling at all. Six thin finishing nails (per board) punched into crumbly soft old drywall is not much to keep those things in the air. I'm sure it looks great now but I'm guessing its going to warp and the nails will pull out on you bit by bit over time, watch out for that. Perhaps if the boards had some construction adhesive smeared on the top side first and then got tacked up there with the nails... but there again, drywall is not a very solid material to adhere anything to. Assuming you scraped the ceiling first you'd be gluing boards to painted paper backing of the drywall... Just doesn't seem good. I like how it looks I just don't think those planks will stay up there flat without eventually having to put screws in them. Just my two cents maybe give us an update in another year or two to let us know how its holding up.

      Reply
      • Gail Wilson

        October 08, 2018 at 9:29 am

        Thanks for stopping by and taking the time to leave a well thought out comment.
        We found the joists and popped a chalk line. We didn't with the joists, we went across them. They fell 16" on center. So far so good, but I will keep you updated on the outcome.
        We did use adhesive.

        gail

    5. Hannah

      March 18, 2018 at 1:00 am

      I love this!!! I have scraped popcorn ceilings in all but 2 places in our new-to-us-home. The foyer and the living room. Both are super high, and I do not want to risk it. I recently thought about planking the ceiling, and LOVE how simple you made it work! Gonna share this with my hubby to see what he thinks! Could you stain the wood to get a different finish? I am not familiar with the underlayment (or whatever it was called), but saw someone else plank a wall with it in their house. I am not sure if I still want a white ceiling or possibly stained wood. What is the texture like? Stain worthy??? Or needs to be covered with paint??? Thanks for sharing! 🙂

      Reply
      • Gail Wilson

        March 19, 2018 at 10:29 am

        Hannah,

        Underlayment is thin plywood that people use under their flooring choice. It will stain. You would have to be selective of your boards, inspecting both sides. Sometimes the boards have some sort of patch material on them (it's sort of pinkish) I like it because it is lightweight. The boards come fairly smooth, but you may want to sand them before you rip them.

        kudos to YOU for scraping that stuff! Were the ceilings in good shape? My popcorn is there because the ceilings are rough.

        gail

      • Hannah

        March 19, 2018 at 5:28 pm

        Hey! Thank you for the super fast response. Not only was it fast ... it was soooo helpful too! Our ceilings are not in too bad of shape (the only rooms I was not able to scrape were a half-vaulted ceiling in our living room (which is the room I was looking at planking), and our foyer (it is open to the second level). Everywhere else, they were in pretty good shape, but I just wanted the popcorn gone. It is a pretty simple task IF the ceilings have not been painted. If it is just the popcorn, then the removal consists of spraying the ceiling with water (I used a 1-gallon garden sprayer with water from our sink) and scraping. You do not want it soaked, but somewhere between a light spray and dripping. 🙂 The wetter it is, the easier it is to come off. Then you scrape. I did scratch the sheetrock quite a bit before I got the hang of it (oooops!). Truthfully, it was a lot of fun (for me at least ... hahaha!).

      • Gail Wilson

        March 20, 2018 at 8:11 am

        ohhh, I KNOW what my ceilings look like under that popcorn. Some cracks are even starting to show through the popcorn. I have a bad shoulder, and I can't imagine scraping that stuff off, let alone enjoying it! hahahah

        kudos to you Hanna!!!!
        gail

    6. Tracey Bradshaw

      February 24, 2018 at 12:37 pm

      It looks great Gail. We are working slowly through a very, very long list of updates on our home that we bought just over a year ago. I also wonder if we will ever get them all done (probably the week before we decide to sell it 😂).
      We don’t have popcorn ceilings but every inch of our house is painted cream - walls, ceilings, doors and trims - which we are slowly repainting to white (ceilings, doors and trim) and a more modern neutral greige color on the walls with a few accents in spaces like the kid’s bedrooms, the study and my craft room. As soon as we had the white ceiling and trim completed in one room the difference was amazing and spurred us on to all of our other updates. It’s amazing how changing one thing can lead to a snowball effect of updates!

      Reply
      • Gail Wilson

        February 25, 2018 at 5:23 pm

        Tracey,

        You are right. Just when I think I'm at the end of my rope, I complete a project and it makes me keep going.

        wishing you lots of luck on all that painting!

        gail

    7. Brette

      February 21, 2018 at 7:38 pm

      This may be in our future. We have acoustic ceiling tiles in a study that are drooping. We had them tested for asbestos and luckily, they contain none. We're going to start tearing them out as soon as we get some other projects out of the way. There are no Rodneys here to help us. One guy we called over was all talk and no action.

      Reply
      • Gail Wilson

        February 25, 2018 at 5:28 pm

        Brette,

        It's hard to get people to work these days. I guess that's why we have become a society of DIY.

        gail

    8. Patrick Weber

      February 21, 2018 at 5:39 pm

      Great job looks like it was fun need to get Rodney and yourself to put on safety glass's when working with a gun ,it's important to show safety practices on projects keep up the great work cheers

      Reply
      • Gail Wilson

        February 21, 2018 at 6:01 pm

        You are so right Patrick. Safety glasses should always be worn while using a nail gun. Rodney's son stopped by and we sort of staged a few pictures while we had someone to take a few shots. I guess that's why it looks like we're having so much fun. 🙂
        gail

    9. Helen Birch

      February 21, 2018 at 11:31 am

      How big is the area you covered? I have a livingroom that is 12x25 and would love to do something like this. We also put popcorn ceilings to cover problem areas. But the popcorn became another problem. Did you caulk the joints where they came together or not? Thank you for your video....

      Reply
      • Gail Wilson

        February 21, 2018 at 12:17 pm

        Helen,

        The "square" part of my kitchen is 12x15. Then I have a small entry that is about 3x3. 🙂

        I didn't caulk anything. 😉 I like the gaps, that's why we used a nickel for spacing.
        I hope this helps!
        gail

    10. Melanie

      February 21, 2018 at 10:49 am

      Love this ceiling idea. I don't really have popcorn ceilings to deal with, but I do have a falling down kitchen ceiling in my vacation house. This would be perfect. Thank you for inspiration.

      Reply
      • Gail Wilson

        February 21, 2018 at 12:18 pm

        Awesome Melanie! I'm so happy you found this project useful.

        gail

    11. girlfromwva

      February 21, 2018 at 10:47 am

      that is awesome Gail! i really like how it looks. so refreshing!

      Reply
      • Gail Wilson

        February 21, 2018 at 12:18 pm

        Thank you Nova. It makes me smile. Little by little the kitchen is coming together.

        gail

    12. Bonnie

      February 21, 2018 at 2:53 am

      This looks so great but, you made my neck hurt just looking at the photos lol. The kitchen is coming together so awesome that I wonder where you get all your energy. Can you feed me part of it through the post...

      Reply
      • Gail Wilson

        February 21, 2018 at 12:20 pm

        Bonnie,

        It's been a lot of work, but it's nice having Rodney around. He's so helpful and takes on the heavy lifting in most cases. 🙂

        gail

    13. Jennie

      February 20, 2018 at 11:21 am

      I have to agree with Sharon, about how kind you are. We have popcorn ceilings in the bedrooms. They’re such dirt collectors and makes my house look old. Well in the master it might be the 1983 furniture that I have no idea how to update because my husband doesn’t really want them painted. So I said well then let’s take off the wide half round trim and use trim that would go with the bed. Which I also don’t like, but I pick my battles. He said he really likes them the way they are. 🙄

      Reply
    14. Cornelia L

      February 20, 2018 at 11:00 am

      They look incredible and can you tell me about how much this project cost you to do?
      Thanks for all the great inspiration and information.

      Reply
      • Gail Wilson

        February 20, 2018 at 11:21 am

        Cornelia,

        Thank you for your comment! The only real cost I had on this project was the plywood. Since I had been doing updates in my kitchen I had the paint on hand. I do a lot of DIY so I already had the nails on hand for my nail gun.
        The thin plywood costs 12-13 a sheet in my area. I hope that helps!
        gail

    15. Diana

      February 20, 2018 at 9:33 am

      This looks wonderful! Have wanted/needed to do something to my popcorn ceiling as it showed where we had a leak from upstairs now I need to convince husband to do this

      Reply
      • Gail Wilson

        February 20, 2018 at 7:46 pm

        Ohhh I hope you can convince him! I hate popcorn ceiling! 🙂

        gail

    16. Brenda Stallings

      February 20, 2018 at 9:25 am

      Love this idea of using boards! Thank you!

      Reply
      • Gail Wilson

        February 20, 2018 at 7:47 pm

        Thanks Brenda! I'm happy you love it!

        gail

    17. Sharon Whitworth

      February 20, 2018 at 6:53 am

      She is a clever lady. One of the nicest people I have ever met. Tell her what you want and ask her how to do it, she will come up with a way. She is a self taught genus.

      Reply
      • Gail Wilson

        February 20, 2018 at 8:17 am

        Thank you so much Sherry! I appreciate you visiting the site to check out this planked ceiling tutorial. Your kind words made me smile.
        gail

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    Hi, there! I’m Gail Wilson, the author and mastermind behind My Repurposed Life. I’m obsessed with finding potential in unexpected places and believe that with a little hard work and imagination, any old thing can be made useful again—myself included! I hope you’ll enjoy the journey and pick up a few tools along the way… literally!

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