What Is The Best Paint For Ceilings?

The Best Paint For Ceilings

When it comes to painting ceilings, it is not always something that we put much time or thought into. After all, you don't notice it very often do you? But it doesn't have to be that way. Whether you are re-decorating a full room or are just looking to give your ceiling a quick makeover, finding the right paint to do the job is crucial.

But what is the best paint for ceilings? We are going to breakdown some of our choices and why, so you don't have to spend hours researching what to use!

1. Zinsser Ceiling Pro 5-In-1

While standard emulsion paints can perform well on ceilings, there are specialist ceiling paints on the market that are specifically designed to deal with the problems that can arise with ceilings.

When it comes to a problem solving paint, the go-to brand for many is Zinsser. Their paints & primers are the gold-standard for making decorating as easy as possible and for achieving long-term results.

Their Zinsser Ceiling Pro 5-IN-1 emulsion paint seals stains, primes, finishes & bridges hairline cracks all in one product. It also crucially contains a biocide that provides protection from fungal degradation, helping to keep ceilings clean and stain free.

The only downside of the product is that it is only available in white, although the vast majority of people decide to paint their ceilings white anyway. The feedback on the product has been superb, with both professional decorators and homeowners praising its covering abilities and the ability for the paint to cover minor imperfections on plaster. Overall, if you want a clean, crisp white finish that will remain that way long-term without staining, we highly recommend paying a little bit more upfront for a highly advanced product that will give you the best possible results. After all, doing the job right first time round is much cheaper and quicker than having to repaint the ceiling when stains start to reappear.

• Specially designed ceiling paint
• Touch dry in 30 minutes - 1 hour recoat
• High hiding - stain sealer
• Low odour
• Contains a biocide that protects the dried coating against fungal degradation

2. Tikkurila Anti Reflex White 2

Tikkurila Anti Reflex White 2 is a very popular product amongst professional decorators for its ability to achieve a high quality, anti-reflexive finish on ceilings that eliminates flashing and imperfections. This allows you to get an ultra smooth finish on your ceilings without brush & roller marks that can stand out like a sore thumb.

It is also excellent value for money, meaning you do not have to spend a fortune to get professional results. It is almost half the price of other products that are designed to achieve a perfect finish, and for the quality you get can't really be matched in terms of the finish you get. All in all if your ceiling doesn't suffer from staining and you want to achieve a perfectly uniform, white finish, Tikkurila Anti Reflex White 2 is the product to go for.

• Perfect matt finish
• Excellent opacity
• Non-dripping/non-splashing
• Superb value for money
• Eliminates flashing and imperfections

Alternative Options

Trade Vinyl Matt

If you are looking for a standard paint to use in any room other than the kitchen or bathroom, then you have a few options. If you are looking for a paint for a high humidity room like a kitchen or bathroom, we will discuss this next!

For any standard room that doesn't suffer from staining, you are looking for a few things. You want it to stay keep its colour long-term and to achieve a nice, even coverage with as few coats as possible. After all, it isn't the easiest surface to paint!

The leading trade brands all have high quality standard matt emulsions that offer all of the benefits of trade paint.

Luckily, the benefits of trade paint are higher quality, durability and better coverage, which is exactly what we are looking for.

These paints are ideal as you do not need an expensive paint for an excellent finish on your ceilings. They will cover in two coats which is crucially important when painting ceilings as it reduces the amount of worktime when working at heights. All of these vinyl matt emulsions are available in any colour, as well as white, while Dulux Trade Vinyl Matt is available in pure brilliant white, for an extra crisp finish.

If you are looking for an inexpensive but good quality paint for a standard room, a vinyl matt emulsion from the top trade brands is ideal for you.

Trade Durable Matt

In the case of bathrooms or kitchens, these rooms have high levels of condensation and humidity. Due to this, you need a paint that will hold up to these conditions and thus have a consistently excellent finish long-term. If you would like a matt finish, we would recommend using a durable matt emulsion such as Crown Trade Clean Extreme Scrubbable Matt or Dulux Trade Diamond Matt.

These paints offer a durable matt finish that can be wiped down easily and are resistant to high levels of humidity. While they do not possess the staining blocking properties of Zinsser Ceiling Pro 5-In-1, they can still resist moisture to perform in these conditions.

They can be both mixed in any colour you want thanks to the paint mixing service we offer here at Painters World. Simply type the shade you want in to the text box or search through the colour palette.

These paints also come in standard shades such as white, which are slightly cheaper than their tinted colour counterparts.

Tips For Painting Ceilings

Here are some simple tips to make painting your ceiling as easy as possible:

1. Dilute Your Paint

Ceilings can often show up a bad finish, especially in today's home decor where fitted LED lights and other lighting highlights marks called 'flashing'. This occurs when paint is applied at different times or in different thicknesses, often where you have used a brush in the corners of the room. The different films that are created when cutting in paint round the edges of the ceiling results a poor finish which will show!

To avoid this, one thing you can do is dilute your paint by 10% for your first coat. This will leave the paint wetter for longer and will avoid loading up your brush with too much paint. When you come to put on your second coat, make sure you paint using your brush first, and then using your roller, roll as close to the edge as you can to give a nice even finish.

2. Use Stain-Blocking Primer

Water leaks can be a real pain when it comes to leaving big dirty marks on ceilings. If you are suffering from these stains, consider using a stain-blocking primer such as Zinsser Coverstain if you do not use a dedicated ceiling paint. The primer provides outstanding stain killing performance, leaving your ceilings mark free.

We have done a full guide to the best stain blocking paints & primers which may be useful if you do suffer from this.

3. Should You Paint The Ceiling Or Walls First?

A very common question we receive is 'should I be painting the ceiling or walls first? If you are painting both at the same time, the ceiling should be painted first. This means you can get the best possible finish on the ceiling, which is the most difficult part of the room to paint. You can then move on to the walls second. Furthermore, if you are painting your walls a different shade, if you paint your ceiling second, you will get paint speckles on the walls as they fall down, meaning you will have to re-paint them!

4. Use A Roller Extension

Painting at heights can be dangerous, so making the application as easy as possible is something we would always recommend. The Purdy Powerlock Extension Pole, when used in combination with the Purdy Adjustable Roller Frame allows you to roll at a much safer height. It has a double arm frame that makes rolling extremely easy, allowing you to reach every part of the ceiling with limited effort. It also fits all standard roller covers from 12" to 18" with end caps!

5. Add A Bit of Colour!

As we have mentioned, any good quality trade emulsion will make a good ceiling paint, so why not get creative with colour! A large proportion of homes have white emulsion ceilings, especially when they have coving. However, there are so many examples of people getting creative with their choice of colour and how they integrate this across the room.

Why not try what @our_crosspool_terrace did and integrate the ceiling with the coving to create this fantastic effect (shown below). For this, we would recommend keeping a light tone rather than going too dark, as this may enclose the room and make it appear much smaller than it is.

We hope this has answered any questions you may have had regarding how to paint ceilings, and the best paint to use! At Painters World we have a wide range of paints available, so no matter the job, we've got the right tools for you! Shop our huge range of products today and get FREE next working day delivery on all orders over £50.