Painting - Paint or Stipple Ceiling?

My husband and I are finishing our basement (drywall) and are now working on the ceiling. We are trying to decide between using just flat paint or using standard stipple.

If we use paint, we need to do a good smooth job whereas I believe the stipple hides a few sins (is that why so many homebuilders use it?). I'd prefer the look of paint as I think it is a little more modern. Also, the lights we are using are the eyeball type pot-lights so not as much reflection as hanging sconce-type lights.

Any opinions? Any other pros/cons that we should know about?

Thanks!!

Around here the builders have the dry wall man aply what is refured to as popcorn to the ceiling it is blown on with a machine it is basically a mixture of stierafome balls and dry wall mud it can also have paint mixed in with it which is best.But harder to work with. Blown on as in sprayed.
Yes they use this method because flat finish is harder and will show any humps or inperfections.
I think they do make paint with the texture in it.But it would be very hard to get a unaform finish.I have done a texture to my liveing room ceiling that looks very good but it is a real pain to do i used a notched trial to spread dry wall mud in a twisting motion acroos the ceiling.It sort of looks like shells.It gives you a chace to add more mud to or around jounts as
you go the straight edge of the trial can be used to check the jounts.You can use a chain saw file to custom notch a notched trial to give a rounder softer edge.
It is a lot of work.You might try calling a dry wall man to see what he would charge to spray it with popcorn.
Also you can thin your mud with water if you need to but a mixer will usally make it real soft.

I just looked back at your post and seen your lighting.
If you mean the typ that look like a half moon that mounts with the flat side that mounts flat to the ceiling i have to say dont do it!The closer the light source to the ceiling the more the light will travel straight across the ceiling casting shadows across the ceiling from any jount that sticks down a little.Try laying something long and straight like a yard stick across the jounts to see if they need more mud to float them out more. You can use a 14 inch dry wall trail to float them wider.Ive seen jounts spead 30inches wide.
If you flat finish and paint you can always go back and patch any places that need to be.Dry wall mud will stick to flat paint just fine.


Just my .02 cents hope it helps.

Thanks for the advice! I think we are going to go with a 'faux finish' of blue and white sponging (sky effect) as the popcorn/stipple is too much hassle for DIY's without equipment and the surface does not look too bad after we've primed it. A little color variation will hopefully disguise the small imperfections.

I think you made a wise choice on your ceilings. I've never heard of anyone who HAS the popcorn ceilings who are happy with them over the long haul. If you were to punch in a search on the subject of removing popcorn ceilings, you'll find many, many, many posts for people trying to get this stuff OFF. It's hard to paint, and even harder to clean and a whale of a job to remove.

Good luck with your project. I'll bet it's going to look lovely with the faux finish :)

Elizabeth