If you are looking to update your ceiling, then removing the old style ugly popcorn textured ceiling is a must. This article will arm you with all the information you need to make this process as painless as possible. After you have removed the popcorn, be creative! Paint your ceiling with clouds or at least some color other than white!

1. Make sure you cover your floor and all furniture with plastic as this process is messy. Move furniture out of the room if possible.

2. Using a garden sprayer, wet the ceiling with water lightly and allow time to moisten the popcorn. Try not to overwet the ceiling as you will stain it. The ceiling should be moist but not saturated.

3. Use a scraper to remove the popcorn. You may wish to purchase a special ceiling texture scraper that comes with an attachable bag as seen in the photo above, that will catch most of the popcorn. I found one on All-Wall.com. They boast that you can remove texture on a 10' X 10' celing in only 30 minutes. The scraper is designed in such a way as to not leave gouges in your ceiling, which is a big problem with regular scrapers.

4. Be aware that the moistening of the ceiling may stain the ceiling or cause waterspots which is just as ugly as your old popcorn ceiling. If this happens make sure you use a stain sealer over it.

5. After scraping the ceiling you may find that the level of quality of taping is not very good. Drywallers don't tend to do the best taping job on ceilings when they are just going to cover it up with popcorn which will hide a lot of sins. If this is the case you will need to apply a couple of thinsets of joint compound to hide any irregularities in the ceiling. Sand any areas that are not smooth.

6. Prime the ceiling and then paint! Be aware that flat paint will hide most of the irregularites in the ceiling and won't be as noticable. Try to think outside the box. After doing all the work to get rid of your ugly popcorn ceiling don't just paint it white. Be imaginitive, paint clouds on the ceiling or if you don't feel that artistic a nice shade of blue gives the feeling of sky also.

WARNING: Popcorn ceilings installed from the 50's through the 80's may contain asbestos  as it was mixed in with the texture. Be sure you test your ceiling if you suspect this may be the case. Scrape one inch sections from at least four different areas and check the yellow pages for labs that do that type of testing. If you do have asbestos ceilings, either hire a company that handles aspestos removal or leave the ceiling undisturbed and cover over it with new drywall or other ceiling alternatives.