Patching artex ceiling mess?

[Gareth Davies]

I'm a bit stuck as to what to do about this awful mess:

(no login required to see photo).

The previous people who lived here obviously artexed around the old cricular light fitting and so the fitting I've now got has left an unsightly circular mess showing the old artex.

Nothing I do is going to be perfect - in terms of texture, pattern or other match - so I'm looking for some sort of easy to use ready mixed filler - or perhaps that's a bad idea and just filling the small holes and using white paint is the way to go.

Would this be the right thing to use at least to smooth out the rough edges:

Or would this cause more problems?

[Gareth Davies]

Thanks. This is kind of what I thought. For now, paint it is!

[spuorgelgoog]

It looks as though there may have been a plaster rose that's been removed.

You could fit a replacement rose that's the same size or larger than the damaged area and then fit a light that's got a circular mounting base which will fit to the plaster rose fairly neatly eg

If it's a fairly small damaged area then you might be able to cut it out and replace with a large downlight eg

Owain

[harry]

Probably impossible to perfectly match. Skim with polyfilla or similar and dab with a wet sponge to get a "ripple" effect. Wet paint brush can also be useful.

Most of these Artex effects were created with a wet sponge dabbing, wiping or various twisting or wiggling motions. Or some with a spatula with a serrated edge.

You'll probably be able to get somewhere near.

[Chris French]

I guess as a general principle I'd agree, although it does rather depend on the area to be patched, and the artex pattern.

I successfully (as in asked a few random people to spot the patches, they mostly can't, and certainly not with out some effort - there is one bit that was less good but even then you have to make the effort to look, you don't notice it normally~) patched so smallish areas of ceiling in my daughters bedroom.

There were four R80 downlighters mounted in the ceiling, and an area about 2 sq ft where is had peeled off due to water damage. Artex was a random swirly pattern and fairly easy to match/blend in.

Backed hole with plasterboard, filled with one coat, scraped down any ridges/bumpy bits at the edge. Used some more artex and a stippling brush to get the right texture.

Though our dining room ceiling needs repairing after some water damage, and that has a a fan design, I think that will need skimming as I'd think it would be possible to patch that design

To the OP, you can get a kit for repairing patches (though a relatively expensive way to buy artex)

(random first link)

[stuart noble]

Skim with Gyproc joint filler. Not that difficult for the amateur (like me)

[ss]

I have done I think 3 times over the years on a similar size of repair and always got a decent match, I did the first time get an old piece of plasterboard (or ply) to practice on. utube should bring up some clips showing how the various designs are done which should help you.

[stuart noble]

Or, actually, skim with Artex itself, which works perfectly well as a flat finish, and is a whole lot easier than plaster.