How to Do Knock Down Texture on Ceilings

Cover your walls with large sheets of plastic, held in place by masking tape where the walls meet the ceiling. Lay a heavy canvas over the floor. Texture application is often messy and these coverings will help a lot when you clean up the space later.

Mix ceiling texture powder and water in a bucket, following the proportion recommended by the manufacturer. Use a paint stirring stick or a blade mixer attached to a power drill to mix them until you get a consistency that resembles that of pancake batter. Let the mixture stand for about 15 minutes to allow the powder to completely absorb the moisture.

Pour the texture mix into the hopper of a spray gun. Attach the coarse or medium spraying tip, the hopper and the compressor to the spray gun.

Turn on the sprayer, then apply the texture to the ceiling, holding the nozzle 18 inches away from the ceiling. The texture splatters should range between 1/2 to 1 1/2 inches in diameter and they should cover only about 40 percent of the ceiling. Try spraying the texture on a scrap piece of cardboard to understand the appropriate distance from the ceiling and speed to get a good coverage. Continue spraying for 10 to 15 minutes, then stop.

Drag a knockdown knife across the sprayed area of the ceiling to flatten the splatters. You have to do this before the texture dries. This is why you need to stop spraying every 10 to 15 minutes and start flattening the texture.

Spray the texture on another area of the ceiling, continuing from where you stopped spraying, then start flattening the splatters again after 10 to 15 minutes. Continue until you cover the entire ceiling.