Paint splotches on the ceiling? Hide them with a border.

No, no not one of those wallpaper borders. Just paint!

We painted our family room when we moved in about three years ago. I had intentions of painting the ceiling; it had a few dings and spots, so we weren’t too careful about keeping the wall color off the ceiling.

But then I discovered something — I hate painting ceilings! It’s a pretty horrible task, and this is coming from someone who generally loves painting almost anything else.

So three years have gone by and there were still splotches of blue paint on the ceiling. Clearly, it was time that I did something.

I thought maybe I could match the existing ceiling color and just do some touch ups. But that probably would have ended up looking a little trashy. That’s when I got the idea to paint a border around the perimeter of the ceiling.

Nothing fancy, just a simple design that would cover up my mistakes (and those of previous painters who did a bad/thin edging job on the ceiling).

I searched through the paint in my stash and came across this mistinted sample in a nice “greige.” It was too dark as it was, so I mixed it with some white paint to lighten it. It’s pretty much a lighter version of the color of our couch.

I don’t want anyone to immediately notice the ceiling upon entering the room, so I kept the design and the color very simple and inconspicuous.

I taped off a four inch band around the entire perimeter of the room and painted. After that was done, I pulled off the tape and traced a small round dish to make the curves in the corners and painted those out.

The taping took less than an hour and the painting itself took about two, but I didn’t spend anything. And the ceiling definitely looks “finished” now.

All that’s left to do in the room is hang more artwork. Let’s wrap this thing up!