Young House Love

Home Decorating & DIY Tutorials

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How To Paint Extra High Vaulted Ceilings

“Oh what a feeeeeeling, painting on the ceeeeeiling.” Why yes that was a Lionel Richie reference. You’re welcome.

It was time to get some paint up in this heezy. And by heezy, I mean sunroom… hence the furniture being all piled in the center.

Sunpaint 1 Before Furniture Up

But before we get to painting, let’s talk about the half-brick wall in this room – since you guys offered up lots of thoughts and suggestions in the last sunroom post. Some had suggested covering the drywalled portion in brick veneer or reclaimed wood.

Unfortunately the dry wall sits in front of the brick, so there’d be this weird lip between the real brick and the veneer/wood (so we’d prefer not to add anything up top to make it stick out further like an awkward above-the-window overbite). We’re actually leaning towards either trying to distress/fade the brick or straight up painting it (like the same brick that was already painted by the previous owners in our living room, especially since it already has some splatters on it from the previous paint job).

Sunpaint 2 Brick Problems

See how the last owners of this house had already painted the wall of brick in the living room (on the other side of the sunroom doors)? Since they’re both in the same sight line, we think painting that small u-shaped expanse of it in the sunroom may be the most cohesive solution – so the sunroom feels more connected to the rest of the house.

Sunpain 3 Brick Painted In Living

But before doing anything rash, we wanted to give the brick the benefit of the doubt – so we decided not to take any action on it yet. First we wanted to paint the rest of the old yellowy-cream colored walls in the room to see if that influenced our decision about the brick at all.

So we readied the rest of the room by moving out almost everything, which turned our living room into a temporary disaster zone. This shot below is for all of you who love the chaos of DIY. Oh yeah, it spreads to at least a few other rooms when you’re painting one…

Sunpaint 4 Messy Living Room

Burger didn’t seem the mind the temporary influx of extra pillows to curl up on. This is his “excuse me dude with the camera, someone’s trying to nap here” face.

Sunpaint 5 Burger

And thankfully Clara was on a play-date with my parents, so we could dive in and do as much as we could without worrying about her getting into paint or tripping over the massive pile o’ chaos on the living room while we painted.

But back to the sunroom. Painting is one of those projects we can practically do in our sleep by now… except for when it involves 12 foot ceilings. That was a new challenge for us. But we couldn’t live with those white ceilings and those yellowed old cream walls anymore (yes, they were two different colors) so we dove right in.

Sunpaint 6 Tall Ceiling

How?  We just busted out our ladder and go to work.

Sunpaint 8 John On Ladder

Oh yeah, forgot to tell you the paint color. We went with our current favorite: Rockport Gray by Benjamin Moore (which is also in our bedroom, and is actually more of a warm brownish-gray than a cold cement gray). I’ll explain why we made that choice when we get to the after pictures, so just hang on for the time being. I realize it’s not much to look at when all you see so far is the edged corners…

Sunpaint 9 Corners Painted

Edging actually took a long time – even with us both doing it – since this room is basically all corners and windows. And if I do say so myself, I’m not half bad at it. Yep, there may be a new edging sheriff in town. Take that Deputy $herdog. Ok, I take that back. Sherry can pretty much lap me when it comes to edging. So she did all of the edging around all of the doors and windows except for the few windows up near the ceiling, which I tackled on the ladder.

Sunpaint 10 More Edging Done

Once all of the edging was done, Sherry did a second coat around all the doors and windows while I took to the pole. Wait, that sounded bad. I’ve actually never painted with a roller that’s attached to a pole before. Even when doing other ceilings (8ft ones, that is) I usually just stand on a stool. And I gotta say I was impressed with how relatively easy it was. Granted it did get tiring to hold your arms and neck up like that for so long, but it wasn’t terrible.

Sunpaint 11 Pole Ceiling

But the rod extending pole couldn’t help us get the area where the fan attached to the ceiling (where we needed to be more exact than a roller ever could be). And my ladder couldn’t get me high enough to edge that area by hand either. So that’s when Sherry and I whipped up this contraption. Yup, it’s a brush taped to a pole. We’re true professionals around here.

Sunpaint 12 Paintbrush Pole

If you weren’t convinced of my edging prowess before, just check out this magic going on. That’s what we call painting with surgical precision. Although I realized I should’ve taken a detailed after shot of how awesome this actually turned out. Seriously, it worked like a charm, guys.

Sunptain 13 John Pole

It took us two coats and a total of about seven hours across two days, so it certainly wasn’t our fastest paint job in the world – but we’re really happy with the results.

Sunpaint 14 Doors

Trust us: despite the warm gray color, this room is far from gloomy. Light floods in (which is one of the reasons we knew we wouldn’t regret going with a darker tone in there) and even the tiled floors feel less yellow now that the walls aren’t the same creamy-bisque tone. Although we’re the first to admit that the room still has a looong way to go until it’s a functional, finished room (remember how the middle makes no sense?).

Sunpaint 15 Windows

And if you’re wondering about the two blue stools having a hushed conversation in the corner together (stool meeting is now in session!), we’re just experimenting with some layout ideas. The stools are helping us picture maybe tucking a small cafe table in that corner, but we’re not married to anything yet. We’ll keep you posted!

Sunpaint 16 Corner Chairs

Oh, and I promised I’d explain the rationale behind Rockport Gray a bit more so here we go:

  • It really makes all the white trim in the room stand out, so it feels crisp in a way that the old yellowed cream walls didn’t (this paint choice did the same trim-crisping thing in our bedroom, which we loved about the color)
  • The room has a pretty crazy ceiling (it slopes away from the house and up, like a rocket ship) so we thought a moodier and darker color might downplay the strange angles and make it all blend together more than it did with the previous white ceiling and creamy-yellow walls
  • As we mentioned a few photos up, the tile floor feels a lot less monochromatic and yellowed since the walls are no longer the same exact tone (it felt like a beige box with an oddly shaped white top before)
  • We also thought it’d tie in well with the living room’s Moonshine walls as well as the grellow walls of the kitchen (both of which you see from the sunroom – so whatever we chose had to go with both)
  • In the spring, summer, and fall (aka, any other season than the bleak and bare one that we’re currently in) we want the greenery outside to be the star, so we thought picking a moody not-crazy-or-compete-y color would keep from overshadowing it
  • The brownish-gray helps us camouflage that similarly colored heating/cooling unit a bit

Sunpaint 17 Heater Hidden

We also thought the new wall color picked up the tone of the mortar too, just in case we decided to keep the brick as is.

Sunpaint 18 Brick Color

And now that the room is painted, here’s where we stand on the brick: we’re not sold on leaving it as-is. It still feels really awkward to us since the top end of the drywall above it rests oddly on the window (like it’s squishing it or something). And since there’s already a whole wall of painted brick to the right of the slider (in the living room) it still feels awkwardly disjointed from the rest of the house in a way that a painted brick wall would not.

Sunpaint 14 After Brick

We did think about trying to gray-wash it a little first (with watered down paint, stain, or even by rubbing some cement on it) just to see if that helps to tone down the red – as demonstrated by my poor Photoshop attempt below…

Sunpaint 19 Brick Washed

…but that still feels like not-as-seamless-of-a-solution-as-painting-it like the brick in the adjoined living room. So that might be where we end up.

Sunpaint Brick After Painting2

As always, we promise to keep you posted! Oh and speaking of future planning in here, we’re putting more thought into the window-seat-under-the-window-wall idea, so that should be exciting if we decide to go for it. You know we’ll share all the details as we creep along.

Oh and as much work as we still have to do in this room, I must say that this has definitely reconfirmed for me (once again) that painting a room is an awesome way to make it feel like it’s yours. Our sunroom suddenly doesn’t feel like a forgotten project-room stuck on the side of our house, it’s actually starting to feel like a place we can hang out on a lazy Sunday – which is exactly how we used the sunroom in our first house, so it has us all sorts of excited about the possibilities. What did you guys do this weekend? Was there any painting or planning? Any other pole-related projects going on?

Comments

  3. Michelle says

    I really like your paint choice–nice work!

    I was wondering what you used to hang that adorable carboard rhino? It looks like he’s attached on a brick wall, so I was just wondering if you drilled through it or if you used a hook that just sticks to the wall? I’m curious!

    Thanks,
    Michelle

    Reply

  4. Jenny from Made2Love says

    Just wandering…Do y’all paint all of your ceilings? I hate the white ceilings in our house, but painting a ceiling seems like a chore! Blah! LOL It looks sooo great in your sunroom though, what a difference!

    Also…had a question…I have the same IKEA couch as you…do you have problems with the chaise cushion sliding down? The velcro underneath does NOTHING to hold it in place. Are you having the same problem?

    ~ Jenny

    P.S. I’m probably the LAST person to buy your book, but it’s my Christmas present! Tee Hee Can’t wait!

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Yes, the cushion totally slides! I have been meaning to add a new strip of velcro that actually lines up and will hold it! Someday! Haha.

      As for our ceilings, we paint all of them in small rooms (bathrooms, Clara’s first nursery, etc) since that makes a space feel bigger and less closed in. We also paint them in any angled rooms (like the sunroom) since white ceilings seem to chop up rooms and make them feel more interrupted, if that makes sense!

      xo
      s

  5. Kate says

    I like the color; I didn’t think I’d like the ceiling painted as well, but I do! I’m not sure how I feel about the brick – I kind of like it but also see what you’re saying about making it blend with the living room better.

    My painting this weekend – nursery furniture! So happy to have that taken care of so that I can start organizing clothes into drawers (after a couple more days curing time, of course, and I am still thinking I’d like to line the drawers…).

    Reply

  6. Crystal @ 29 Rue House says

    I think it looks fantastic! I’m really learning the signifcance of using more neutral shades (except I did just paint our dining room Pale Avocado by BM)!

    Question for you: How much time did you guys spend thinking/debating your color choice? I always take forever and try a ton of samples (Pale Avocado was my 4th or 5th sample I tried – the ones before were just too bright). I’d like to speed up the process and not buy all those samples but I guess you’ve just got to do what works to get the best color. Perhaps it also gets quicker as more of your house color scheme has taken shape.

    I didn’t work the poles this weekend but I did get my DIY Wall Christmas Tree Stick up! It’s got sticks that are shaped like poles. And Ruby’s party went off without a hitch. Couldn’t have done it without hubby (just a shout out to the man I love :).

    http://29ruehouse.blogspot.com/2012/12/deck-tree.html

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Sometimes it takes us a long time and we even use test pots of paint if we can’t decide! And other times we just know. This time I said “I’m going to count to three and we’ll both say the color we’re thinking about for the sunroom” and we both screamed “Rockport Gray” – we’re just in love with it so we knew it would make all the trim in there pop.

      xo
      s

  8. Guylaine says

    Big job but it’s such a beautiful room!!! The result is great!!! I love the natural brick! Have a beautiful day!!!
    Guylaine :)

    Reply

  9. Heather says

    I am so into gray right now (actually cool colors all together are calling my name). We just re-did our bathroom and I’m waiting for a few more details to come in and then I plan on sending you guys pictures. Here’s before’s, and progress shots if you feel like checking it out:

    http://barefootcrafts.wordpress.com/2012/11/28/shield-your-eyes-the-befores/

    http://barefootcrafts.wordpress.com/2012/12/07/bathroom-progress/

    Happy Monday :-) -Heather

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      We think it could still look odd since the lip stops right over the window, so it would be an oddly u-shaped accent wall that doesn’t go up to the ceiling – ya know?

      xo
      s

  11. Kim W Rily says

    I liked the brick wall when it was just white/creamy in there, but now with it being so grey, I think it stands out more. I would go for the greywashing first, though.

    Not to be a Rockport hater, but why have you gone with grey so much in your house? Seems you have grey in your room, your living room, your office is grey with grellow? The bath is greyish purple. Guessing you like the mutedness. (This is coming from a woman who has a red living room, yellow kitchen, purple and blue kids rooms, blue bathroom, green bathroom and and off-white bedroom. Different paint-strokes for different folks, I guess.)

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      I think we’re crazy about pops of color – we have brightly patterned curtains in many rooms with gray walls along with bright punchy pillows, colorful drum stools, bright art, etc. We also like the neutral backdrop for bringing in other more bold paint colors (the kitchen – which is the heart of the house – is avocado green, we have dark teal on the back of our living room built-ins and in our guest room, we have a stenciled wall in the office with hits of grellow, and Clara’s bedroom is soft pink). We just like to keep a balance so not all the walls are bright and not all of them are neutral I think!

      xo
      s

    • Kim W Rily says

      D’oh, forgot about the guest room. (I love the teal) and I like the backs of the bookshelves too. :)

  14. Jane @ the borrowed abode says

    I love the gray, it already makes such a difference even though the room isn’t “finished.” I love natural brick, but only in the right environment – I feel like the space would work best if you paint the brick so it flows well from the living room.

    Your wall-mounted heater scenario in the sunroom gave me flashbacks to my old condo which was solely heated by those things. Talk about ruining wall space, and also being an eyesore.

    Right before I moved out I came up with a solution and wanted to share, just in case it helps you:
    http://theborrowedabode.com/2010/03/living-room-reveal/

    Reply

  15. Olivia says

    Love the color! Also I’ve been debating about painting some of my ceilings, to add some personality to the room. I’ve just got standard flat ceilings though, and I’m worried its going to weigh down the ceiling. Thoughts? Would you ever paint the standard ceiling of a room?

    Anyway, Looks great!

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Oh yes, we do that in all of our bathrooms (sometimes painting the ceiling the same tone as we the wall feels less like it’s closing in on you since stark white ceilings can interrupt a room so much and feel sort of broken up and cramped).

      xo
      s

  17. Emily | Sparkle Meets Pop says

    So. Much. Better. Love the gray! This may sound crazy, but I wonder if there’s a way to add trim or something to the drywall area to make the sudden break at the window look more intentional? But I agree, paint the brick. Thankfully us readers love “the middle” because it’s so exciting to think of how the room can go together.

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Yeah we talked about adding a shelf there or something but we thought any sort of shelf or trim resting right on top of the window would feel kinda cramped and awkward we think! We’ll have to see where we end up though!

      xo
      s

  18. NOTyourrunofthemill says

    Wise choice on the paint color.
    Did you switch out to ceiling paint when tackling the ceiling?
    Also I am surprised to see you don’t take your switch plates off when prepping. I am bit of a stickler for perfection.

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      We knew we’d be replacing the cream covers with white ones so we left them on (I treat it like a sport to cut in as closely as I can around them without getting paint on them- hah!). We just used the same paint on the ceilings as the walls (we typically do that in small rooms like bathrooms and any rooms with peaked ceilings to make them feel less chopped up by a stark white ceiling).

      xo
      s

  20. Julia says

    Love the color! And so impressed with your edging skillz. :) Do you have any plans for covering your heat/aircon unit? I have a similar wall unit in my apartment, and have been trying to brainstorm creative ways to cover it without losing functionality. Wondering if you have any plans for yours? I was thinking about fashioning a slender box to fit over it.. something like http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/diy-radiator-co-148104 but not sure if it will still put out enough air.

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      We thought if we made window seats across that wall we could hide it within them with some sort of vent or screen so air could safely pass through! Will keep you posted!

      xo
      s

  23. Mallory says

    I’m LOVING the gray color. The only other possible solution I could see for the brick issue is adding white trim across the top? But even that would seem tricky with the slanted ceiling line on the left side. I think it would also look great painted with gray. Love the progress, it’s amazing how paint can transform a room! PS– loving your book :)

    Reply

  25. Emilie says

    Why wouldn’t you just put thin drywall OVER the brick to match it up with the lip of the drywall above the window? I agree it needs to go….it looks funky as is.

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      We thought the painted brick texture would tie into the painted brick in the living room, so instead of mudding and taping and drywalling we’d just paint it!

      xo
      s

  27. Evie says

    Okay, can I just say that I NEED me some Sherry and John to come on over to the Middle Peninsula of VA to do some patchin’, spacklin’ amd paintin’ around here. Seriously though, I love your inspiring redo’s and paint choices. Keep it coming!

    Reply

  28. Kate says

    We painted our office and master bathroom gray, and best of all we covered an old white fridge in homemade black chalkboard paint! It is so amazing how much different just a coat of paint makes…yay :)

    Reply

  29. Alicia @ The Creative Vault says

    If it was my room I’d white wash the brick and add a piece or trim or a shelf with some large photos or vases sitting on it above the brick to fix the drywall overhang problem.

    PS I’m impressed with your ceiling painting endurance. I did a 5×5 bathroom ceeling and I thought I was going to die.

    Reply

  31. Frida says

    Team PAINT-THE-BRICK! Also, yes – this weekend we had some “pole-wrestling” at our apartment (sorry, if that’s a dirty term, I’m not a native speaker)- that damn Christmas tree we dragged through the Berlin subway at sub-zero temperatures did NOT want to stand up straight. Finally, when all else failed, we resorted to lots of mulled wine, so at least it seemed straight ;)

    Reply

  32. katalina says

    wow– you are painting wizards! Did clara notice. My mother painted whole brick wall fireplace white years ago–still looks great.

    paint the brick! it will look like a room and not brick peeking from side of house look!

    Reply

  33. Deb says

    The sunroom looks awesome – I love the colour!

    I spent the weekend painting and cutting two IKEA Billy bookcases to fit under the stairs going down to the basement, so we can have a triangle-shaped set of shelves instead of wasted space. I’m painting them so they look more custom and less IKEA-ish, and to match the colours on the walls in our basement, which is also our tv/lounge room. BM Revere Pewter for the shelves and Metropolis for the backing, inspired by you guys painting the backing of your dining room shelves a dark colour. It is taking much longer than I had anticipated…as usual…but I think it will look great when finished.

    Reply

  34. Koliti says

    What a BIG difference 7 hours (whew!) of painting makes! Awesome! Question – When you do the “edging” between two closely spaced windows/trim – what’s your secret to actually get paint on that small sliver of wall and not all over your trim?

    You know how you’ll see pics where people have taken different styles of wooden chairs and painted them all the same color then put them around their dining table? They all play well together! I think that’s what you have with your partial brick wall – when you paint it the same color as the rest of the room, the brick wall will play well with the other walls, plus you’ll have the added bonus of texture. Go PAINT! (Boo! Eye-sore!)

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      I’m a crazy person and that is my idea of fun! I load up the brush with paint so it’s not fluffy (all the bristles are thin and clumped together) and then I drag it against the paint can to get off excess on both sides and then I just carefully paint down that center line, watching the line on the left and then repeating the drag down again and watching the right. Somehow I can do it without getting paint on the trim, but it’s from lots of years of practice!

      xo
      s

  36. Justin says

    Love the paint.

    That is a rather odd wall with the brick, drywall and window. It wouldn’t be so bad if the brick went all the way up.

    If it were me, I’d say to heck with the brick and cover the whole thing with a planked accent wall. It could be rustic reclaimed wood or just tongue and groove – painted white.

    Painting the brick is a good temporary fix, but it still doesn’t eliminate the weird seam.

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Yeah we thought about going over the whole thing with something like old wood, but John and I don’t really like how it would be a triangle of an accent wall that slants to the right. Hard to explain, but if you look at the whole room shots of that wall you’ll see that it’s not a symmetrical wall, so we like the idea of painting it to blend instead of accenting that weird leaning triangle with wood or bricks, ya know?

      xo
      s

  38. Heather says

    Loved John’s comment about paint making a room feel like it’s yours — I finally got around to painting my living room after 5 years in this house and at last if feels like a real space instead of a sort of white-hole full of mish-mashed furniture. Wish I’d done it sooner — it brought logic and personality to the whole room.

    Reply

  39. Barbara says

    I love the color in the sunroom, but I really think that brick just sticks out. I’d paint it the color of the wall myself. To me, it just breaks up the line looking through the door. Soothing, soothing, BRICK, soothing…

    But then again, there is so much wrong with MY house, I shouldn’t really offer an opinion…

    Reply

  40. Jennifer says

    I love the new color. What about painting just the bricks (not the mortar) in white and letting the mortar create a contrast. It might be neat to have white bricks with gray mortar. I tried to find a picture to visualize it, but couldn’t find one. And with your mad edging skills, it wouldn’t take you *that* long :)

    Reply

  41. Sarah says

    I’m sure you already thought of this – but since the drywall already sticks out beyond the ledge, what about getting thinner drywall so it matches up and just covering the brick?

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Oh yes, if we wanted to mess with drywall we could buy some and tape it and sand and mud and all that stuff! We don’t mind painted brick (especially since it’s already in the adjoined living room and we also had it in our first house’s den) though, so that’s the cheaper & easier way to go for us ;)

      xo
      s

  42. S says

    It’s crazy, but I never noticed the angled ceiling in there, it looks like it slopes towards the house, and I am cringing thinking about snow/ice/rain accumulating in a v shaped roof. *shudder* I really like that grey, though, it looks nice!

    As far as painting the brick, I live much further north than you, and winter is long. If there was any chance of that brick absorbing sunlight, I wouldn’t paint it and I’d use it to absorb some passive solar heat!

    And finally, I saw your book in my library the other day, they hadn’t even put it into rotation yet and I was the first to get it! I really like your organization ideas so much, it was my favorite part of the book. The project I think I’m going to do, though is the framed state outline, thanks so much for that idea. (Have you ever/will you ever do a piece on organizing Christmas/Holiday decorations? I sure could use some inspiration.)

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Aw thanks so much S! You’re so sweet! As for organizing holiday decor, we just use green tupperware bins in the attic. Since they’re all green we know which ones to grab when the holidays roll around.

      xo
      s

  43. Craig says

    Love the new color and kudos for painting the ceiling, too. It does tone down the angles. As for the brick, personally I like the texture and color it adds. Would you consider a wood beam over the drywall lip to use as a display shelf of a space to add some funky lighting? You could even use the beam to hide wiring to add some over head lighting for the seating area there.

    Love the new look!

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      We thought about a shelf at the lip where those things meet but we thought a shelf right on top of the window would look oddly placed and heavy. Who knows where we’ll end up though!

      xo
      s

  44. Karyl says

    Awesome choice of color! I love it! Normally I like “raw brick” but not here…I think you have no choice but to paint it. I was wondering though what do you think about ORBing the whole fan? I think with the sexy grey walls it would look great and tie in with your kitchen lighting colors better than the white.

    Reply

  45. SydneyB says

    I am in love with your beautiful brick! If it was mine I would lounge around all day and admire it:) This coming from a girl who’s house is white brick with brown mortar:(

    Reply

  47. Cassie says

    I LOVE your sunroom in grey!!

    Also, just looking at you on that ladder painting makes me sick to my stomach. I’m not too afraid of heights, but I definitely get nauseous doing something like that.. much like the part of a ferris wheel where you’re going down and forward at the same time…

    Reply

  48. Laurie says

    Love the paint color. What about a wall of shelving framing the window? No painted brick and it might make the window ‘disappear’ a little bit.

    Reply

  49. Alyss says

    “Sherry did a second coat around all the doors and windows while I took to the pole. Wait, that sounded bad.”

    I love John.

    What, no, of course I read the blog for the decorating. To prove it, I’ll leave a relevant comment about being Team “Paint the Brick” and if there’s a team about swooning over that paint color (and pillows!), I’m on that one too.

    I’ve been mentally agonizing over grey or yellow for my living room. Leaning towards grey because it seems easier to decorate around (more versatile?), but I wonder if it’d be too dark for a room with a not so great lighting situation.

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Our bedroom is pretty dark but we embraced the moodiness with the same color in there. So for some weird reason I think this color would be great in a small dark room (moody and inviting and cozy) or a big open/light-filled room like the sunroom. Hope it helps!

      xo
      s

  50. Amanda says

    Love the color!! I think you could do a floating shelf above the brick. Make the lip look purposeful? May make the brick look more like a feature too. Just an idea- I know you guys will come up with something that works for function and design!

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Yeah, we thought about that but don’t you think a shelf right on top of a window is weird? Sort of cramped and heavy looking? Wish the brick didn’t end right at the top of the window like that!

      xo
      s

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