The Umbrella Hack That Makes Painting A Ceiling Mess-Free

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Painting a ceiling can be a real pain, particularly when it comes to dealing with splattering paint. No matter how carefully you try to apply it, avoiding paint dripping and splattering can be very difficult and, despite all of your best efforts, you may still find that tiny droplets of paint are flying every which way. This can shift your focus away from making sure you get a smooth, even coat and onto making sure you, your walls, your floors, and your furniture aren't covered in paint specks, which can be difficult and time-consuming to remove. Sure, you can use a drop cloth to cover your floors and furniture, but that won't help your walls.

An unusual painting method could help you protect yourself, your walls, and everything around you from paint spatter from your ceiling — the viral umbrella hack. This hack is simple to set up and could spare you the headache of finding tiny paint flecks all over your home. All you need for this project is a paint roller, an umbrella, and some duct tape. As you'll be cutting into your umbrella, use a cheap one or an old broken umbrella you haven't gotten around to tossing away yet.

For this hack, you'll be attaching an umbrella to a paint roller extension pole.  To do this, make a circular hole the width of your roller handle within an inch or so of the umbrella's end tip. Remove the roller head from its extension pole and insert the pole into the hole from the outside of the umbrella. Push the pole through until the end of the pole extends slightly past the end of the umbrella's handle. Finally, duct tape the extension pole around the umbrella's shaft and reattach the roller brush. Alternatively, you could use zip ties for this step.

For this ceiling painting trick, you might want to use a clear umbrella so you can better see what you are doing while painting. Otherwise, you risk an uneven paint finish or accidentally touching your roller to the crown molding or walls. It's also a great idea to choose a small or medium-sized umbrella to prevent the roller pole from becoming too heavy or cumbersome.

While this trending painting hack is getting high praise on social media, the method has some clear drawbacks. Because you cannot hold an open umbrella flush against a wall, you'd have to tilt your paint roller in order to paint the ceiling near a wall. This means that the umbrella would not be directly under the roller to catch splashes of paint. This issue could arise when painting other hard-to-reach places on your ceiling, as well. Another issue with this method is that not only would you need to be concerned with getting a nice, even coat of paint on your ceiling, but you would also have to concentrate on making sure the umbrella doesn't knock into anything or scratch any walls or door frames.

An alternative method of painting a ceiling without paint sprinkling in every direction is to use a spatter shield on your roller, like this Wagner Snap Arm Shield. It works similarly to the umbrella hack but without some of the drawbacks. If you enjoy upcycling, you can make your own spatter shield by cutting a panel from a plastic bottle and threading your roller through the cap. Other ways you can prevent excess paint spatter are to use a high-quality paint and roller and avoiding putting too much paint on your roller. Also, moving your roller slowly across your ceiling will help.