Painting a Textured Finish
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After your repairs are made and the textured finish has been recreated to your satisfaction, you may want to paint the repair to match your existing wall or ceiling color. If you're patching water damaged and cracked drywall texture, let the patch cure for about a week before trying to paint. If you're using setting compound to make repairs it can be painted after curing for about 24 hours.
Touch Up Paint on Texture Drywall
If you have the original paint you're all set, if not, see Touching Up Wall Paint for help matching existing paint colors. If you're touching up over a joint compound patch, prime first with a flat latex paint or primer. Most other texturing materials will not need priming.
Touch up paint on small patches using at soft brush to gently apply the paint. Watch for missed spots in creases and at the edges of the patch. Let the paint dry and touch up any missed spots. Do a second coat over the whole repair if you can still see the patch.
Painting Textured Walls and Ceilings
If you want to paint a whole, textured wall or ceiling, you can, with a little care and preparation. First get a quality roller with a long nap. At least an inch for thick textures and ¾ inch for finer finishes. Thin your paint slightly to make it easier to push into all the nooks and crannies of the textured finish. If the texturing is subtle, you may not have to thin the paint at all. If it is very thick however, you will want to thin the paint a bit and maybe do two coats to get good coverage.
Cut in and roll the paint, pressing lightly with the roller to avoid breaking peaks in the mud or pulling the material off into the wet paint as much as possible. Go over the same space repeatedly with the roller or use the brush to try and fill all the little crevices in the finish. You will most likely miss some spots. Watch for this and touch up the missed spots with a brush or use the roller at an angle to press paint into the gaps.
Painting Popcorn Ceiling
If you're dealing with a popcorn ceiling, expect a good amount of it to come off in the wet roller. Allow the roller to fill with the popcorn bits as you roll and it will redistribute over the ceiling as you work. This works well to create a shell of paint that will contain the popcorn texture when it has dried. This is an advantage when your popcorn ceiling material contains asbestos.
The loose bits will also get in the paint tray. Just allow this to happen and fill the roller as usual. Keeping the roller well filled as you roll will minimize the popcorn particles that come off in the paint. When you're done painting the ceiling and you need the remaining paint free of popcorn, strain it with a paint strainer or old nylon pantyhose.
