What Is Used for Stippling a Ceiling?

Stipple

• The stipple texture for ceilings, walls and other surfaces creates a rough, uneven surface filled with small ridges or bumps. The size of the ridges in a stipple pattern depends upon the tools used to create the stippling, while the texture of the ridges depends upon the material used. As a verb, stipple means to apply with repeated small touches or engrave with dots and flecks. It may also refer to a pattern created by the interplay of light and shadow, such as sunlight filtered through the leaves of a tree, or lighting effects used to create three dimensionality in 2D art like painting and drawing.

Materials

• Three types of material commonly create stippling, plaster -- drywall, mud and paint. Drywall mud constitutes a layer of mortar-like material applied to the surface of drywall to create textures. When stippling drywall mud or plaster, the pattern goes directly into the material. Stippling with paint requires two layers, a base coat and stippling. The base coat forms the surface on which you apply stippling. Using two different colors of paint creates a more pronounced pattern by helping the stipple stand out against the background.

Tools

• Two types of tools exist for stippling, those designed specially for the practice and generic tools designed for other purposes that also work for stippling. Manufacturers create special paintbrushes and paint rollers for stippling. The bristles on stipple brushes alternate in length, thus creating a stipple pattern in paint when applied. Stipple rollers contain numerous bumps, like an exaggerated version of a basketball’s surface. These bumps create stippled texture. Generic tools you can use for stippling include sponges, brushes and rags. Using either of these to stipple paint or drywall mud by lightly daubing small bits of material onto a ceiling surface.

Alternate Textures

• Numerous textures other than stippling exist, many of them similar in appearance. You can create nearly all of these textures with nothing more than a brush, sponge, roller or trowel. Alternate patterns include swirl, a series of interlocking semicircles; knockdown, a flattened version of stippling; slap brush, a pattern similar to stippling with longer ridges, and comb texture, a elongated version of swirl. Alternate names for stipple include cottage cheese, acoustic and popcorn.