Our house has a late 70's popcorn ceiling throughout, even in the kitchen.  Over the years the kitchen ceiling has built up an impressive layer of grime.

It could probably be scraped, re-textured, and painted which sounds like a horrible mess.  I was thinking of overlaying the ceiling (roughly 14' x 14') with 1/2 birch ply with an acrylic or enamal paint.   Then grid the ceiling with trim on maybe 2' centers to make a paneled look and hide the joints.

I wonder if I'd have to scrape enough popcorn to install firring strips, or just laminate the ply directly to the ceiling.  I could even put a layer of foam board between the ply and the old rock.

can you just lay new sheetrock over the popcorn?  


BTW- I would just peel the popcorn and refinish.  

Just got through scraping one of my rent houses. I used a pump up sprayer and sprayed the whole ceiling with water. Then I resprayed a small section and scraped it. Just kept rewetting and scrapping small workable sections until it was all done. Then sprayed with kilz and painted. It had a light textured look. If you go this route be sure and keep your scrapper parallel with ceiling. Take your time, and pay attention not to gouge sheetrock.

If you're going to scrape the popcorn, just mud over it.

Seriously.  Don't put another layer over your ceiling.

Scrape the stupid popcorn off of the ceiling and smear on a layer of mud and either make it a sunburst or commit to making it smooth.  What you're talking about with the firring strips is called remuddling.

Do it right.

Get rid of the popcorn. You will not regret that.

We had the same deal, plus the sheetrock underneath was pretty messed up due to water damage.  We scraped off the popcorn (just bite the bullet and do it, whatever final solution you end up going with), and installed car siding for a new ceiling.  This stuff:



Since it goes up 6" at a time, it's easy to handle and was easier to conform to some of the not-so-square corners in this old house's kitchen.

Turned out pretty nice:

Just got through scraping a bathroom. Rock torn up real bad. Here is what I plan on installing. Going to use the paintable cheap stuff. MUST use proper glue.............
http://www.homedepot.com/b/Building-Materials-Ceilings-Ceiling-Tiles/Fasade/N-5yc1vZc58lZ4jv

I was thinking of a look something like this, but not wood grain.  Too many different woods in the kitchen now.






Bamboo floor, there is one wall with a stained pine wainscot, maple butcherblock island, dark stained cabinetry.  

Kitchen is ready for major facelift.  Don't really have the $20k to gut it and start over.

I would like it better without the criss cross strips.  Just the layer of wood strips or laminate.  My $.02

I've done the same in my home and several rental houses I own. I absolutely hate popcorn ceilings, knowing that the concept was created to hide poor/fast construction. That being said: scraping down popcorn will always leave you with some patch work to do as the drywall nails or screws were not patched by the original builder and I have come across non-taped joints too. But in the end a painted ceiling looks so much cleaner and in a kitchen if you paint it in a washable eggshell or semigloss paint you can clean it easily.

The problems with paneling a ceiling is that if you darken the color of the ceiling you make the ceiling look lower and the room looks smaller.

Use warm water in that spray bottle. Spray the cieling, wait 5-10 minutes, scrape it down with a 8"-12" flat scraper, not a razor bladed scraper just a general use metal scraper. I've done 20-foot by 20-foot rooms in an hour and a half by myself. Messy as heck so get thick plastic sheeting.

I definately do not want a dark ceiling.  If I panel, it will be painted white with a washable enamel or acrylic.

I've stripped the ceiling in a couple of the bathrooms.  They seem to have used a couple different types of ceiling texture in the house. The bathrooms were a very hard material, and IIRC, a blue color.  Then painted with a white glitter paint.   That stuff was awful to scrape.   The kitchen ceiling sems to be a much softer material - not quite like styrofoam, but close.

I'm already married (to uxb) but I  would marry you for that fridge.

Just sayin.

Depending upon how old it is, the popcorn ceiling could have asbestos in it. It would be good to know if you go the scrape route.

It's possible, I'm told.  Which is one reason I'd like to just laminate over top of the stuff.  I am not overly concerned about it, but I'm darn sure not hiring an abatment contractor to de-popcorn the kitchen.