What to do with this ceiling?

[Ollie123]

hi all,
ive been wanting to change my ceiling lights for a while now but im not sure what the easiest method is, or how to go about it.

as you can see I have horrible little spot lights ramdomly placed everywhere. ideally i would like to remove these, patch the holes and just use a regular light.

comments and links / examples appreciated.

[texan]

You're going to have a horrible retexturing job if you move them. It would be much easier if you had a flat finish on your ceiling.

What about adding the new light/s that you want, and leave the existing ones, or replace the existing ones with more subtle fixtures?

[Ollie123]

I did think of replacing them with a more modern design, but its the way they are spread out which really annoys me.

I don’t really want to lose the textured effect so I suppose I could; remove the lights, plaster the hole, build up the texture and paint the whole thing.

[B17NNS]

You'll never patch the artex successfully (not that I'd want to if I were you).

Pick the fitting/fittings you want, have them installed where you want.

Pop them off, have the ceiling skimmed, paint and refit.

What room is it by the way?

[B17NNS]

Ollie123 said:

I don’t really want to lose the textured effect

Really?

[Ollie123]

You are probably right.

Will this do the job? (its for the small bedroom, by the way)

http://www.polycell.co.uk/products/polycell_smooth...

[B17NNS]

Ollie123 said:

You are probably right.

Will this do the job? (its for the small bedroom, by the way)

http://www.polycell.co.uk/products/polycell_smooth...

No, no and no.

Ludicrously expensive and impossible to get a reasonable finish.

Get a spread in for half a day.

£100 including the materials.

[RichB]

Poly-smooth is difficult to get a decent finish, just get it re-plastered.

[Ollie123]

Ok thanks.

Curious, are artex ceilings still in fashion these days? I don't mind them personally but most people I come across don't like them.

[B17NNS]

Ollie123 said:

Curious, are artex ceilings still in fashion these days?

Artex is so deeply uncool it's almost cool again.

Artexers retrained as spreads and now happily spend their days getting paid to cover up their old work.

[northandy]

B17NNS said:

Artex is so deeply uncool it's almost cool again.

Artexers retrained as spreads and now happily spend their days getting paid to cover up their old work.

Wait till those shell patterns come back in again!!

[TorqueVR]

Some artex is OK but stipple is naff, naff, naff. Please just get rid of it

[LukeSi]

The (horrid) ceiling in my house is like this

Also had bd knobbly bits that fell off when you painted. The hoover soon sorted them. And this was a 1996 build.

[RichB]

I had St.Gobin (formerly British Gypsum) as a customer and they used to say they made a fortune selling Artex and then another fortune from smoothtex to cover it all up

[texan]

You'll never get it to match, trust me! Any patch up will annoy you more than the current lights.

If it's the layout of the lights that's annoying you, have you considered moving your furniture around to suit the lighting better? ;-)

[Fatboy]

RichB said:

Poly-smooth is difficult to get a decent finish, just get it re-plastered.

Echo that - Polysmooth is bloody awful, don't even think about using it!

[craigjm]

I would fill the ceiling and get it skimmed

Artex is horrible. I am lucky in the one place I have it, its very subtle. Friend of mine moved into a house where it was on the walls as well as the ceiling and had been sculptured into spikes that were about 2 inches deep, it looked like you could impale someone on the wall!

[Panda76]

If you take your time to match the pattern it can be done.
Google the pattern and method of applying it.
Wickes sell an already mixed artex in a big tub and I used it with good results when I took a flight of fancy through the bedroom ceiling when I stepped off a loft board.
Mine was apparently a broken leather pattern.
Google informed me to replicate this pattern I should use a wire brush wrapped up in a polythene bag do a wavey type motion,pulling it slightly away in places to get the slight stipple effect in it.

Some patterns here.

http://callaghanplastering.co.uk/wp-content/upload...

[podwin]

Who the hell fitted the lights in the first place, I have never seen such a random installation.

It would really bug me!

[kooky guy]

LukeSi said:

The (horrid) ceiling in my house is like this

Also had bd knobbly bits that fell off when you painted. The hoover soon sorted them. And this was a 1996 build.

My ceilings were all like this. Had most of them skimmed now.

Make sure you get a decent plasterer though. Mine was a good brickie.