Artex-ex: the last Artex leaving the house - HOORAY!

The other half talked me into trying to remove the horrible Artex textured coating from the ceiling in the front room before Christmas. 

I wasn't too keen. In my head, this had been a project for another time. 

But then, hey, while we're at it. 

So we've soaked the Artex with water (and a little bit of sugar soap, not sure this makes a difference). And then, scrub, scrub, scrub it off with a scraper. Remember folks, don't do this if you know the coating has asbestos fibres in it, so get it tested first!

After 5 hours of work, scraping and then washing the ceiling, and getting rid of the mess on the floor, 'twas done. Cheers to that!

A beautiful ceiling has been revealed. 

Most of it in perfect condition. Very strong. 

Here I'm trying out two shades of distemper paint from Kreidezeit: white on the right-hand side, Green Umber on the left. We'll go with the left version. It's a very thin coat, as we'd like to keep it translucent so you can see the plaster shine through a little.

But we'll do that some time AFTER Christmas!