Advice for Painting Flat Satin on a Master Bedroom Ceiling

Unscrew and remove the ceiling light fixture. If your master bedroom has wall-mounted bed lamps, cover those with plastic.

Remove large furniture from the room so you have room to work. The beds in master bedrooms are typically large and should be removed, while smaller items can either be removed or moved to the middle of the room and covered with dropcloths.

Cover the floor with dropcloths.

Fill any holes or cracks in the ceiling with spackle using a putty knife. Remove any peeling or loose paint with a putty knife and sandpaper. The softer finish of flat and satin paint hides imperfections well, but they should still not be ignored.

Tape along the top edges of the walls with painter's tape. If the flat or satin ceiling is being juxtaposed with semi-gloss- or gloss-painted walls, any ceiling paint that accidentally extends onto the walls will show, even if the colors are the same.

Put on a bandana, scarf or cap to keep paint out of your hair.

Apply primer along the ceiling edges around the perimeter of the room with a paintbrush. If there is an existing finish on the ceiling that is flat, priming is not necessary. Paint primer three inches in from the ceiling. Apply primer to the rest of the ceiling with a thick-nap roller if it is textured, or with a short-nap roller if it is smooth. Roll the primer onto the roller so it is evenly dispersed throughout the nap. If it is thick or goopy, it will drip as you raise the roller to the ceiling. Lay out the primer on the ceiling in a Z-formation, then go back over it with long, straight, back-and-forth motions to coat the ceiling. Apply paint in the same manner after the primer dries. Keep in mind that flat and satin paints will appear glossy until dry. It is OK if some sections dry before painting the whole ceiling, as overlapping seams do not show up with matte paint like they sometimes do with gloss paint.

Touch up any areas as needed after the paint dries. Patches of paint applied as a touch-up will not show up when using flat and satin paints. Keep in mind that matte paints absorb stains easily and the ceiling should not be touched with dirty hands. If you use candles in your master bedroom, don't put them on a high shelf, as the smoke will stain matte paint finishes.