How to paint cornice and patch ceiling?

We recently had a new kitchen installed which meant a new bulkhead and cornice. The kitchen contacter ‘didn’t do painting’.

I now need to finish and paint the cornice installed and patch the ceiling paint so I have a few questions.

- I plan to lightly sand the plaster patching on the cornice by hand. Maybe with one of those foam sanding squares.

- do I need to prime the new coving

- can I use ceiling paint on coving or something but different?
- Do I need to prepare the ceiling patches with anything or just sand and paint?

- what is the best tip to match the paint and feather it into the ready of the kitchen so it’s less noticeable!!

we have an open plan kitchen and lounge plus hallway so I really don’t want to have to paint the entire apartment ceiling.

any advice on products and tips much appreciated! Will be starting on Saturday 11 feb!

Find more posts tagged with

Tools and Materials

Renovation

Painting

Accepted answers

All comments

MitchellMc

Hi @rkbake,

After sanding, I'd highly recommend undercoating the new cornice and any areas with patching plaster applied. Those sanding sponges will do a wonderful job on the coved surface. If you don't undercoat and seal these areas, they'll draw in too much of your top coat paint, making the repair very noticeable.

You can use ceiling paint on the cornice, or if you'd like something a bit more washable, use wall paint like Dulux Wash&Wear.

Ceiling patches need to be sanded until smooth, undercoated and then painted. Remember your dust mask and safety glasses when sanding the plaster.

To match the paint, you'd either need to know the name of the existing paint, or you can take a 20-cent-sized piece of it into your local Bunnings, and they'll do a colour match on it for you. Alternatively, you can pick up several of the white/off-white shade colour cards and hold them against your existing paint to choose the closest match. It's always best to do a little blending/feathering on hard transitions to draw the eye away from slight inaccuracies in paint colours. I like to apply paint to a brush and then dab it on some cloth to remove the majority of the paint. Then with light flicking strokes using only the tips of the bristles, drag your new paint across 5cm into the old. You're not looking to paint this area; merely drag some pigment into it.

Please let me know if you have further questions.

Mitchell

rkbake

Thanks!

EricL

Hi @rkbake

It's fantastic that you've received excellent advice from @MitchellMc. Just to add to the suggestions made, I recommend covering the whole kitchen starting from the top of the wall cabinets with drop sheets and masking tape. This will prevent all the sanding dust from entering the little nooks and corners of your kitchen. It will also make cleaning the area a lot simpler once you've finished painting.

Please keep us updated with your progress, we look forward to seeing your ceiling freshly painted.

Eric

rkbake

Thanks for the advice. All done / pretty happy with it! The paint in the cornice could have done with one more coat I think, but overall success!

EricL

Hello @rkbake

Thank you very much for posting those photo updates. The painting job looks fantastic, and the overall finish is excellent. I honestly can't tell if the cornice needs one more coat as it blends in so well with the ceiling paint. I'm sure our members who are currently doing ceiling upgrades will find this project very useful.

Again, thank you for sharing such a wonderful painting project.

Eric

Child Item