Patch repair to artexed ceiling

[Gumball]

I'm repairing a hole about 6" square in a stipple pattern artexed ceiling.

I've made good the plaster but what's the best material and technique to make good the original artex finish. It's right in the middle of the ceiling so will be quite noticeable if I don't get it right. Ideally I was looking for a small 'polyfilla' sized pot of artex but can't find anything like it. Any ideas?

Thanks

[Andy Hall]

You can get these. I had a similar repair to do a while ago and found a tub in B&Q. More recently I bought some filler for another job and there was only 10kg bags for (IIRC) about £30 which is a bit much. perhaps a call to the manufacturer?

The main thing is to figure out how the original pattern was done. Practice that on a scrap of board. Normally it's a stipple pad or stipple pad in a plastic bag.

[Gumball]

Yes you're right, I must have missed it in the store but it's on the B+Q website at £6.50 for 1.5 litres ready mixed. Having said that, 5KG of dry mix is also £6.50, so I'll go for that and have plenty to practice my patterns with.

Thanks

[Andy Hall]

It takes quite a long time for it to go off so you have plenty of time to play about with the pattern after laying on the material.

A few other things.

The Artex web site has a downloadable brochure on how to do various patterns.

It's a good idea to try to combine the pattern into the surrounding area by a few cm. rather than forming a distinct edge with the patched area

There's a fair chance that you will need to repaint the ceiling unless you can match the existing colour - usually unlikely. However, when looking at the patched area, try to differentiate between differences in pattern/texture vs. differences in colour.